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The Finance & Insurance (F & I) Conference and Awards dinner took place at the very impressive Royal Armouries in Leeds on the 15th October. The conference, run by Frontline Solutions, was hugely successful with some great presentations topped off by a motivationally impressive Simon Weston, survivor of the Argentina conflict badly burned on the bombed HMS Sir Galahad.

Spencer Halil of Alphera kicked the day off following introductions by Frontline creator Andy Shuter and MD Martin Hill (no relation). He started with a very interesting presentation on the industry and started the ‘education’ ball rolling. At several points during the presentation education of those providing finance was brought into focus as was the education of consumers and SMEs.

This was followed by Adrian Dally of the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) who provided us with some very interesting statistics. In terms of new cars by far the most popular way of financing them in the consumer sector was now PCP (73%) followed by HP (21%) then leasing (4.5%) with personal loans lagging well behind on just 1.6%.

However, it was pointed out that whilst PCP is by far the most popular way to finance a car it had taken a while to catch on, as is happening with lease or personal contract hire (PCH). PCH more than doubled over the last year from 2% so the penny is starting to drop, especially when consumers and more to the point, dealers, start to grasp the product.

But again the education void was mentioned, something that the industry and various associations need to address. In the afternoon we had a very entertaining and informative presentation by Georg Bauer, the German vice president of Tesla Financial Services, Europe and APAC. Whoever said that German’s don’t have a sense of humour? He was very funny as well as providing an insight into the latest electric vehicle technology. Fascinating. Why are all other manufacturers lagging so far behind?

Finally, Simon Weston recalled what happened to him along with some harrowing pictures. At the time Wales were still in the Rugby World Cup whilst England had been knocked out so as a Welsh ex rugby player he had a dig at us at every opportunity – not laughing now are you Simon. He went on to explain what he was doing now to help other war victims and the massive amount of charity work he does now. What an amazing guy and more than worthy of the standing ovation he received at the end of his presentation.

The evening awards dinner was hosted by newsreader Louise Minchin, and a brilliant job she did too. The motor racing legend who is Nigel Mansell recalled many of his scary and happy moments after performing a magic trick. I hadn’t realised he is rumoured to have joined the magic circle! Finally came the awards which was the evening’s biggest shock. By the time the awards were being announced I have to say I was a little tipsy. So when people on my table pointed out that my company, GHA Finance was a finalist, according to the screen, in the category, Innovation Of The Year I was very surprised.

Then when it was announced by the lovely Louise that I had won, surprise turned to shock. I’d like to report on the rest of the evening but I have to say it was somewhat of a blur! But I would very much like to thank Andy, Martin and all the organisers for creating what is for me one of the best conferences, if not the best, of the year.

Also sincere thanks to the judging panel who awarded the prize and especially Luke Curtis and MotoNovo who sponsored the award! Thank you all so very much. Oh and I haven’t stopped, I have another app in development and I am in the middle of a re-write of my book Car Finance – A Simple Guide, available on Amazon. By Graham Hill