Most conference programmes are assembled from whoever is available and whoever paid. We think readers are entitled to know how ours is put together, including the parts that are inconvenient to admit.
The selection rule
One rule governs everything: every voice on stage must be someone we would want in the room whether or not there was an audience. In practice that filters out three common categories — the professional circuit speaker with a fixed talk, the vendor whose insight ends where their product begins, and the commentator whose track record consists of confident predictions nobody has audited.
It also means we would rather run a shorter programme than fill a slot. Ten sessions that earn their hour beat twenty that do not.
Why stage time is not for sale
No keynote slot is sold. Partner segments exist, they are clearly labelled as sponsored wherever they appear, and they never occupy an editorial slot. This costs revenue and is the single most common thing we are asked to make an exception on.
The reason is straightforward. Once a keynote can be bought, every keynote is suspected of having been bought, including the ones that were not. The credibility of the whole programme is worth more than the price of one slot.
Speakers may hold positions in assets they discuss — most serious practitioners do — and are asked to disclose material conflicts on stage. Disclosure is the standard, not abstinence.
The five tracks
Macro and monetary order. The opening block: reserves, real rates, and what has actually changed in the monetary system as against what has merely been announced.
Allocation in practice. The late-morning workshop, and the most practical hour of the day: physical against paper, storage, jurisdiction, costs, and rebalancing rules in real portfolios rather than model ones.
Wealth preservation and succession. Deliberately unglamorous. How capital is stored and transferred through a change of regime, and the administrative failures that undo otherwise sound structures.
Reserves and geopolitics. Built on primary reserve data rather than commentary. Historically the session that generates the most follow-up questions.
Supply. Where the next ounce comes from: capex cycles, declining ore grades, permitting timelines, and what producers see that the spot price does not show.
The day closes with a synthesis session and a first look at the following year's programme.
Why the line-up is published late
We announce confirmed speakers individually as contracts and compliance clearances complete, and we do not pre-announce names we cannot yet stand behind. This is worse marketing and better practice: the alternative is the familiar pattern of a headline name appearing in launch material and quietly disappearing from the final agenda.
If a session on the schedule shows a topic without a name attached, that is exactly what it means — the slot is curated and the speaker is not yet contracted.
Practical details
The Congress runs entirely online on 10 October 2026, in a single day, with sessions timed to be reachable from Europe, the Americas and Asia-Pacific; the schedule page shows the running order in six time zones. General Admission is free and includes every live session plus ninety days of replay access. Pro and VIP places are arranged manually — submit the registration form and the team invoices you directly.
Questions about the programme, including speaking proposals, go through the contact page. We read all of them and reply to most.