Denver-based mutual fund supermarket Datalynx held its seventh annual conference this week -- Discover '99: Moving Forward -- with advisors, potential advisors and fund companies attending the three-day event, golf clubs and wet shoes in hand. The conference began with a golf tournament at the spectacular Arrowhead golf course, high in the foothills of the Rockies overlooking Denver and the last full day ending with a tour of a new interactive aquarium.

The conference aimed at growing the advisors' knowledge of Datalynx products and services (no surprise) featured both well-known and somewhat less well-known names. But the key point for many was the concentration on making the event casual and entertaining which made it more enjoyable than some like events, according to many participants. The attendees mix was roughly half registered investment advisors (RIAs) who currently use the platform, and half RIAs, planners, and CPAs who Datalynx is wooing.

Skip Schweiss, vice-president of First Trust and head of Datalynx, used his opening remarks to acknowledge that the platform had travelled a bit of a rocky road in 1998, but he also stressed that the company was past the bumps and that it is starting to see the positive feedback. Datalynx is returning to the smoother road that it had seen prior to its new system integration in late 1997. That change had created problems for advisors and held up the growth of the platform.

Datalynx employees continually stressed the commitment to advisors' needs, and most advisor at the conference seemed to agree. The advisors polled at the conference responded enthusiastically when comparing Datalynx to the Goliaths of the industry, stressing the attention that the smaller platform can pay to their individual needs.

Meanwhile, at the booths, fund company reps revealed mixed feelings about the advisors' interest in their products, with most funds expressing the wish that more advisors would "stop by and interact more, instead of just picking up give-aways and registering for prizes." 

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