The investment industry is a dynamic, innovative place to work. As CFA charterholders we are constantly challenged to stay current with new products, structures and even asset classes and a commitment to professional development is both ongoing and necessary.

Toronto CFA Society, with its full calendar of programming is the central hub for professional development for most of us. In this issue we feature summaries from a number of recent conferences. Nancy Bertrand, CFA, David Rogers and Peter Jarvis, CFA collaborated on an article explaining the pros and cons of the newly popular infrastructure asset class. Victoria Barclay, CFA was at Toronto CFA Society’s Pension Conference and writes about challenges and opportunities facing the pension industry due to an aging Canadian workforce.

Pauline Lai, CFA attended CFA Institute’s Global Fixed Income conference and had the opportunity to learn more about sovereign wealth funds, including China Investment Corp. As a note, this is the first year this high profile conference has been held in Toronto and not Boston and in keeping with the fixed income theme, Brenda Bickram of Books for Business has provided a list of noteworthy “bond books” for everyone, as well as some newer titles she expects to be released in the next few months.

Our professional development isn’t limited to technical skills, so-called “soft skills” are also important in today’s marketplace. Toronto CFA Society places a high value on its volunteers and Christina da Rocha has been working on some excellent training sessions for us. I’ve included some of my notes from a terrific day session on leadership she organized with Queen’s Business School in April.

Our next issue will cover the Forecast Dinner, perhaps the biggest professional development (and networking) event the society hosts. This year there are some exceptional speakers, including Abby Joseph Cohen, CFA, so if you have not purchased your tickets, get them ASAP as the dinner sells out every year.