South Coast to host inaugural R3 Southern Insolvency Conference at Bournemouth’s Hilton Hotel

In a little over a week’s time, I look forward to welcoming well over 100 insolvency and restructuring experts to Bournemouth for the R3 Southern Area Conference, the first R3 conference to be hosted in the region for more than a decade and the first ever conference to involve industry delegates from across R3’s three southern regions (Southern, South-West and Wales, and London and South-East). I shall be delighted to extend this welcome in my capacity as Chair of the Southern Committee of R3.

For the uninitiated, R3 (the Association of Business Recovery Professionals, to give it its full name) is the trade body for the insolvency industry, and it promotes best practice for regulated professionals working with financially troubled individuals and businesses, drawing its members from many of the best-known names in the regional and national professional services community.

The nautical themed event entitled “Plotting the Course”, held at the new Hilton Hotel in Bournemouth, will see industry leaders from across R3’s three Southern regions coming together to debate key challenges facing the evolving UK insolvency framework.  It will also look at the way proposed solutions to these challenges will impact on the way insolvency professionals (qualified insolvency practitioner accountants, turnaround specialists and lawyers specialising in this field) work to help businesses and individuals navigate choppy waters and to save core profitable businesses and jobs.

Alongside technical updates, the conference will hear from invited speakers including some of the country’s leading experts on the implementation of the new Insolvency Rules (which came into force less than 6 months ago), from the Insolvency Service, and from HM Revenue & Customs, who will give delegates the benefit of their perspective on the use of Director’s Loan Accounts, a key concern for many companies faced with the prospect of insolvency and a key area for claims-based recoveries for the benefit of creditors.

Delegates will also hear from R3 President Adrian Hyde who will address the impact of fraud on the UK economy, and from leading lawyers, judges, funders and other service providers offering practical tips for IPs and lawyers on a range of issues including the investigation and pursuit of claims intended to maximise returns and to minimise the impact of cash flow insolvencies on the economy.

The conference marks the culmination of over 10 months of effort by members of the Southern Committee, working closely with some very efficient staff at R3’s London headquarters, to pull together a first rate programme and I am very grateful to our various sponsors, without whom we would not have been able to proceed. However, the biggest thanks must be reserved for the many firms from across the industry who are sending delegates, thus ensuring that we are truly able to restore this valuable think tank back to this established conference centre after such a long break.

We are fortunate, as a region, to have a superb insolvency and restructuring community in the south which makes a massive contribution to the health of the regional economy, but this opportunity to share nationally respected expertise and to help set the bar for best practice will benefit everyone attending as well as the businesses and individuals we all serve. It will also be an opportunity – weather permitting – to show a few of our delegates (who include many from allied trades around the periphery of the insolvency industry) from further afield who have perhaps never been to Bournemouth just what they have been missing!

If you are reading this and wishing you had booked, there are still a few spaces left on the conference. At the time of writing there were 4 rooms left for overnight delegates, but more room for any potential day delegates. I can certainly recommend it and look forward to seeing as many there as possible. Full details are available on R3’s website or via the Southern Business Recovery group on Linked In, or you can contact me direct.

If you are unable to make it this time, be aware that depending on the feedback from the conference the Southern Area Conference will hopefully take flight again next year and the year after that, on a rotating basis between the southern regions.