Yesterday in the Windy City, Bernie Clark and his team kicked off Schwab Impact 2017, their giant annual conference for RIAs and their allies. This year the four-day event is at Chicago's McCormick Place convention center, and the theme is "You're Why."

Things began yesterday afternoon with pre-conference sessions, culminating in a keynote session on "politics, the markets, and your clients," featuring: Jeffrey Kleintop, chief global investment strategist and senior vice president at Schwab; Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist and senior vice president at Schwab; and Greg Valliere, chief political strategist at Horizon Investments.

The main conference began at the end of the afternoon when the exhibit hall opened up for the opening reception which had a decidedly Italian theme (at least for food), before RIAs spread out across the city for the official, sponsored, regional dinners. And for those attendees who wanted to keep the party going into the wee hours of the night, MarketCounsel teamed up with JConnelly, Orion Advisor Services, and PKS Investments to host a late night "after hours" Impact party at the game room at the Chicago Athletic Association Hotel.

Clark, executive vice president of Schwab Advisor Services, will kick off the main Impact sessions this morning by talking to Walt (Bettinger, that is — Charles Schwab's president and CEO). Also on the main stage today will be Mick Ebeling, founder and CEO of Not Impossible Labs, and Michael Lewis, journalist and bestselling author.

On a side note, fundsters who have frequented Morningstar and other Chicago conferences at McCormick may notice a big change in the neighborhood: a brand new Marriott Marquis, which is home away from home for many Impact attendees this week. The giant hotel, which is both across the street from McCormick's west building (where the Impact action is taking place) and across the street from the Wintrust Arena, opened up a few weeks ago. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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