Funds Hub

The hedge fund circuit can be exhausting.

Last Thursday saw the plush fundraising dinner of ARK, the charity headed by Arpad Busson, fiance of Uma Thurman, at London’s Waterloo International.

The next date in the European hedge fund industry’s diary is next week’s annual GAIM conference, held in Monaco (where else?).

From June 16th-18th top executives and managers will be gathered in the principality to discuss the outlook for the industry, which delivered record poor performance last year and which has seen waves of investor outflows.

The packed programme shows the industry is coming to terms with the new conditions in which it is operating.

Man Group CEO Peter Clarke and NewSmith Asset Management chairman Stephen Zimmerman will be among those debating “the criteria for the safe, smart alternative business of the future”, while a separate panel will examine the opportunities in ”emerging, transforming and deconstructing businesses”.

Maverick hedge fund manager Hugh Hendry of Eclectica will discuss “the crisis in capitalism”.

However, the headline speaker reflects just what an uncertain world hedge fund managers find themselves in.

After last year’s talk by John Paulson — the man who earned $3.7 billion in 2007, according to Alpha Magazine, betting on the subprime fallout — executives will hear the thoughts of Nassim Nicholas Taleb, of “The Black Swan” fame.

Keep an eye on Hedge Hub next week, where I’ll be reporting back on the latest news from, and the quirkier side of, the hedge fund industry.

(See also Nickels and black swans, Every cloud and Written in the stars)