About 4,000 FAs are descending on Boston this week, and it's all thanks to LPL.

Tomorrow morning Mark Casady and his team will kick off their Focus 2015 conference at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. A spokeswoman for LPL says that the folks at the giant independent broker-dealer expect about 7,000 people to attend, including about 4,000 advisors, about 1,000 sponsors (from mutual fund shops and others trying to reach FAs), and about 400 LPL employees, as well as advisor staff, families, guests and others. The exhibit hall will feature about 100 booths.

Due to the size of the conference, the LPL folks have shuttles that will bring conferees to and from 14 nearby hotels; conferees at three other hotels are within walking distance of the convention center.

The first pre-conference sessions started Saturday morning, and the conference festivities will begin tonight with a welcome reception featuring a concert by Daryl Hall and John Oates.

Featured speakers who are scheduled to make appearances include:

Monday

-Richard Branson of Virgin Group fame;
-Soledad O'Brien, chairman of Starfish Media Group and television anchor with CNN, HBO, and Al Jazeera America;
-Casady himself, chairman and CEO of LPL; and
-Dan Arnold, president of LPL;

Tuesday

-Ben Bernanke, former Fed Chairman and current senior advisor to Pimco;
-Heather Abbott and Jeff Bauman, survivors of the Boston Marathon bombing;
-Lisa Hughes, local Boston TV news anchor; and
-Victor Fetter, chief information officer at LPL;

Wednesday

-Ronan Tynan, Irish Tenor; and
-Burt White, managing director of research and chief investment officer at LPL. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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