The annual Forecast Dinner is a highlight of the Toronto CFA Society’s calendar. Society staff put in hours of work to pull off a highly memorable evening for members and their guests. As you can see from the photos published in this issue, this year – the society’s 75th anniversary – was an all-out gala evening, with some high-profile speakers from the U.S. Nancy Bertrand, CFA, kicked off the event with a fascinating look back over the past decades, reminding us of how far the society has come since its early beginnings. Fred Pinto, CFA, then took the podium and reviewed some colourful forecasts from previous years.

Other articles this month include an update on IFRS from Rossa O’Reilly, CFA. Rossa has also written an interesting article on “Market” McLuhan – how our addiction to technology has had an overall impact on the investing process.

The situation in Europe continues to twist and turn, challenging practitioners. To help us better understand how the S&P determines sovereign credit ratings, Pauline Lai, CFA, has provided an informative interview with Marie Cavanaugh, who is a managing director in the Sovereign Ratings Group at Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services.

Pauline has also interviewed Daren M. Smith, CFA of University of Toronto Asset Management Corporation (UTAM) for our member profile. It’s an interesting read as Daren talks us through UTAM’s process for selecting hedge fund managers.

Finally Victoria Barclay, CFA, has reviewed Adam Bryant’s The Corner Office. It’s a compilation of the best of Bryant’s regular column for The New York Times, in which he interviews top CEOs to explore what it takes to reach the top in business and to inspire others.

Wishing everyone the very best for the holidays and a very happy 2012.