Gnomedex, Blogging Hedge Funds … the Future??

August 12, 2007 |

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My mind is still reeling! On the surface it might seem kind of strange that a hedge fund guy attended one of the largest, most well known blogger conferences in the world this weekend: Gnomedex which is run by Chris Pirillo and his lovely wife Ponzi.  The reason a hedge fund guy would attend a convention of bloggers and technology geeks?  Simple, there is a seismic shift happening in our culture and I wanted to attend this gathering of minds to interact, ask questions and to learn — and believe me, there is a LOT to learn.  At times, I felt like I was drinking from a fire hose.

I didn’t completely know what to expect of Gnomedex.  Of course I am familiar with blogging and the Internet, but I wanted to learn first hand what exactly was happening in regard to social media and what the impact of those changes meant to society, markets, companies – from the very people making it all happen.  Now, just to be clear, the attendees at Gnomedex are not just technology geeks or bloggers, but they are evangelists, pundits, thinkers, writers, commentators and the list goes on.  I guess the technology is the underlying factor that binds many of these folks together, but there is more to it than that.  It is about change itself and being on the bleeding edge of that change. 

This idea of change should be one very familiar to the hedge fund community.  Ours has been and continues to be an industry shaken by change: regulatory, changes in markets, technology, information channels, industry players and what investors demand from hedge fund managers.  

The change is coming and could prove to very valuable to managers and investors alike.  For managers, I think the social media opens possibilities for raising capital for hedge funds never dreamed of before.  It also opens doors of communication to investors enabling managers to connect and interact with them in a more meaningful, powerful way.  Managers will be able to better communicate with investors — verbally, visually and meaningfully.

 As I said before, my head is still spinning from Gnomedex.  In the coming days, I will try to put more thought into formulating some ideas about how hedge fund managers might be able to embrace the social media in order to market their funds, raise capital, communicate with investors, etc.

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