Marie Swift, Impact Communications - Welcome

Welcome to Twitter Live! with the Industry Thought Leaders. My name is Marie Swift. I am president and CEO of Impact Communications, a full-service marketing and PR firm for independent advisors and the institutions that serve them.

We are celebrating the 40th anniversary of the financial planning profession. My how things have changed in just the past 20 years that I have been a part of the industry. I remember doing business before their was anything called “email” or “the internet.”

Today Twitter is all the rage. And since FPA has always been progressive, we decided to try something new this year – we’ll be combining the best of “high tech” with “high touch” here at Twitter Live.

20 Industry Thought Leaders are here in the audience. They will each come to the microphone and in 2 minutes max share the #1 thing that, from their perspective, advisors should be thinking about – or doing – as we round the corner into 2010 and beyond. I will ring this small chime 3 times to indicate that there are only 30 seconds left in the allotted time slot. I will ring the chime once when time is up. And I will be forced to use this gong if the Thought Leader just won’t stop – that’s doubtful, but you just never know when passionate people start speaking.

We have set up a Twitter page so you can sign up to follow all the great ideas that today’s Thought Leaders will share – and the other great information that FPA wants to share with you. Just go to http://www.twitter.com and sign up for a free account. Then follow “fpassociation.” So, the Twitter feeds will be found at http://www.twitter.com/fpAssociation.

We will also be video taping today’s contributions. You can find the video blog entries at http://www.fpatwitterlive.blogspot.com.

I hope you will take notes, follow the blog and twitter feeds, retweet the things that interest you and leave comments on the blog. Let’s start a dialog online – and include the other people who could not for some reason be here with us live.

In addition, if you want to speak further with the Thought Leaders here today, come by Booth #651. There you will find many of the 20 people who will be speaking here today.

To follow me on Twitter: @marieswift (http://www.twitter.com/marieswift) To follow my blog: www.marie-swift.blogspot.com.

Thanks for being here. Let’s get started!