Drum roll please! This is the month we've all been waiting for. The highly anticipated TIDE Virtual Conference is finally here! It won't be perfect. There might be glitches and there might be technical difficulties. But no matter what, we'll still deliver. :) We have powerhouse speakers, over 70+ most relevant and coveted asset owners/consultants/FoF/MoM already confirmed, 200+ attendees, 30+ rockstar sponsors and partners. Last but not least, we have the TIDE Tribe vibe that can never be replicated. Can't wait to see you there!

It's not too late. If you haven't registered, it's not too late. Register now. If you have registered and want to help with the cause, please invite your superstar industry colleagues to join us. If you know of a firm that believes in our mission of diversity, please encourage them to sponsor our virtual conference.

Stay tuned... Our first year in business was one heck of a year. Yet TIDE has beaten all odds. We've built a solid foundation from ground up. We've made waves in our first year. Imagine the impact we can make going forward. Stay tuned for our offerings for next year. In the meantime, become an individual member today! (Membership includes a free pass to the virtual conference!)

Care to share just a little more info on your initiatives for next year? Well, of course. We often get asked - We want to have a diversity & inclusion initiative but where do we even start? What firms are in the forefront? What can we do in addition to supporting TIDE to help move the needle? Therefore, in 2021 we will use our resources to create a playbook that firms can follow to accomplish just that.

Defy Industry Norms... Grace's article Defy Industry Norms - The Case for Board Diversity was recently featured in Stock News Now: MicroCap Review, Summer 2020 edition. She touches upon qualitative benefits that board diversity brings to companies. Check out the article on page 88 of the magazine. Thank you to Sheldon Kraft and Robert Kraft for the feature!

Forbes Op-Ed on Diversity... Robert Raben, Executive Director of Diverse Asset Managers Initiative, wrote an op-ed on Forbes which was published in July titled The Investment Industry Claims to Support Diversity, But the Numbers Don’t Add Up. This piece examines the relationship between those who say they want diversity and the data around the actual inclusion of diverse managers. Check out the article here.

Every Minute Matters. Backstop's mission is to help the institutional investment industry use time to its fullest potential. They recently published a white paper titled How Your RSM Can Unleash (or Stifle) Your Investment Team's Effectiveness. Check out the article here.

Anything is Possible... Tsang's Group Chairman Patrick Tsang recently launched a new series called Anything is Possible where he interviews leaders and influencers worldwide to share positivity, overcoming challenges, and creating one world together. Check it out here.

Reaching Investors through Financial Media. Achieving cut through with financial media is a powerful way to communicate with investors. Max Hilton and Peregrine Communications will be hosting this webinar where you will meet leading business journalists from The Financial Times, Bloomberg, Citywire, Institutional Investor, Wealth Briefing/Family Wealth Report and Alternatives Watch. This promises to be an outstanding opportunity to learn how to be effective in communicating with leading financial media outlets. Register here.

Karaoke... In the TIDE Ten episode where Quyen Tran interviews Mark Steed, CIO of AZ PSPRS, we find out that Mark, a classically trained singer, was featured on America's Got Talent. They discuss Mark's go-to karaoke song. This begs the question...

One last poll... We thought we make TIDE's virtual conference even more engaging. So, we decided to have themes for each day. Vote on the theme you like best: Theme Voting.

Q&A for the Virtual Conference... Do you have a question that you would like to ask the speakers like Dan D'Aniello, Marcie Frost, Scott Chan, Anthony Scaramucci? E-mail shelby@tidexchange.com so we can pass on the questions to the speakers.

Monthly Non-Profit Highlight... This month, the non-profit that we'd like to highlight is Orphan's Future Alliance (OrFA). OrFA is a 501(c)3 registered non-profit organization that serves the underprivileged orphan population in Southeast Asia through two avenues: (1) Mentoring Program, where mentees are partnered with mentors who provide academic, social, and emotional guidance, and (2) Scholarship Program, which provides financial means to students to pay for school-related expenses. Established in 2012, OrFA has supported over 575 orphans in Vietnam and Thailand and is managed by a team of 90% volunteers worldwide. For the upcoming school year, OrFA is looking forward to increasing its capacity in Vietnam to over 100 orphans as funding permits and expanding its programs in Thailand through its new partnership with an orphanage located in Chiangmai, Thailand. To help OrFA achieve its mission of providing "orphans in impoverished Southeast Asian communities with access to education and mentoring in order to break the cycle of poverty," please consider donating or joining as a volunteer today. OrFA is supported by grassroots efforts and individual donors. Each donation leaves a lasting impact on each child’s development.

To learn more, please visit www.orphansfa.org. To donate directly, click here.

The industry's best kept secret! Want to be in the know? Watch the insightful TIDE Ten interviews of industry professionals. Get the inside scoop before reaching out to these movers and shakers. You're welcome. :)

Sponsorship opportunities: e-mail shelby@tidexchange.com

Speaking opportunities: e-mail grace@tidexchange.com

For TIDE members who wish to take advantage of the AIMA member discount for AGIF, please email Maryam Idroos.