The T3 conference heads to the Everglades -- and so does RIABiz

After a year in which it seemed every custodian was reaching for the perfectly integrated platform — and every vendor wanted to be integrated — the topic of how well the complex word of advisor technology works together may dominate the conversation at T3, an annual technology conference that brings together all of the major RIA technology vendors to present their latest to advisors.

About 450 people are expected at the event, being held 2/16-2/19 in Weston, Fla. Attendance is being helped, no doubt, by the weather.

“Expected weather for #T32011: Mostly sunny all days with highs of 78-81 degrees, lows in the low 60’s,” tweets Joel Bruckenstein, conference co-organizer of Technology Tools for Today conference. Dave Drucker is the other co-organizer.

(See last year’s coverage: The T3 conference hit its stride Friday with key speeches and a hum of activity.)

Top tech minds

RIABiz will be live-blogging from the event starting Friday, so check in to find out what’s happening on an hourly basis. We’ll also be meeting with some of the industry’s top tech minds to find out what they have planned next. If you will be there and are interested in scheduling an in-person demo of your software, email Nevin at nevin@riabiz.com.

Bruckenstein says this year will bring a record number of exhibitors — 69 in all — including some interesting newcomers.

“Commonwealth Financial is coming for the first time. We also have our first Dutch firm (Figlo). They are expert in touch screen technology for financial professional in Europe and I’m looking forward to hearing from them. McGraw-Hill Financial Communications is another newcomer, as is MacroRisk Analytics. OfficeTools Professional is another newbie, as is TradePMR, a smaller RIA custodian out of Gainesville, FL.”

Because advisor software is complex by nature and caters to a very small user base, it’s often difficult to see the significant differentiators between options at a glance. Often the vendors themselves aren’t sure what exactly their competitors have to offer when we ask them to compare during demos. T3 is the place to go to hang out with the people behind the technology you’re considering and get a feel for which packages do what.

Grass roots feel

The T3 conference has historically had a grass roots feel to it — both by necessity and by design. Bruckenstein and many technology vendors felt they had been playing second-fiddle at the major industry events. At T3, vendors and advisors can engage in deeper connections.

This year the size will be roughly the same but executives from the asset custodians, larger tech vendors and some larger broker-dealers are starting to take notice. Advent Software President Peter Hess, Ed O’Brien, overseer of Fidelity’s WealthCentral platform, and Commonwealth Financial are among many noteworthy names testing the waters this year.

Also new this year is the availability of CFP Continuing Education credits for three of the sessions. CFPs can earn 2 credits for the Ethics session, 1 for Planning After the Great Recession, and 1 for the Security Panel.

The main expected topic of discussion for custodian technologists and portfolio management vendors this year is integration. RIABiz has reported periodically on tech vendors’ efforts to make their products talk to each other, which has become an important selling point for RIA technology.

Storing data

Central to the movement to integrate has been the issue of storing data in the cloud versus on the desktop. Bruckenstein himself will be giving a talk on Saturday on the topic of Cloud Computing.

Other T3-flavored topics this year are security, the iPad, advisor websites, and advisors moving to Macs. You can see the whole agenda for the conference here.