Private markets, real assets and AI: inside the Alternatives Symposium

Advisers spent two days deep in the mechanics of alternative investing this week, as The Inside Network’s Alternatives Symposium wrapped up at the InterContinental Sanctuary Cove Resort in Queensland.

Held on 20 and 21 July, the event brought portfolio leaders, asset consultants and alternative specialists together to work through one question: how should advisers structure portfolios when traditional asset classes offer less certainty than they used to.

The program covered ground advisers are increasingly expected to know well. A keynote opened on portfolio construction for private wealth, followed by a fireside chat on private infrastructure and a session on where mid-market private equity managers create value.

Agricultural infrastructure had its own slot, framed as a core real asset rather than a thematic bet, alongside a look at how secondaries soften some of private equity’s usual entry problems.

Panels pushed past theory into practice. One paired an adviser’s perspective with an asset consultants on delegating research firms cannot build in-house. Another put education partners in front of the room for a rapid-fire press conference format, unique to The Inside Network, where delegates set the questions.

Day two turned to implementation: a session on how due diligence teams test manager claims, another on how artificial intelligence is starting to sharpen credit and real asset analysis, and a closing panel on running alternatives allocations across multiple platforms without burying advice teams in paperwork.

Twelve strategies and a room of advisers and consultants working through the same problem: how to bring private markets into client portfolios without losing rigour along the way.

See it all in our gallery from the Alternatives Symposium:

Thank you to the delegates, speakers and partners who made the two days at Sanctuary Cove worthwhile.

We’ll see you at the next one as the Alternatives Symposium heads to the Blue Mountains on 9 and 10 November.