September marks the arrival of cool fall weather, a new academic year, and the start of a new programming year at CFA Society Toronto.

We started off our fiscal year by welcoming the 880 new members to the Society at our 2016 Annual New Member Reception. It’s a great pleasure to see the many new faces that make up our diverse membership, which is reflective of our city and a model for every investment community abroad. We look forward to seeing you get involved with the Society.

This programming year, we’re pleased to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the founding of CFA Society Toronto. Since the Society’s formation, we’ve seen significant changes in the size of our membership and in our influence in the investment community, both locally and abroad; we’ve even seen several name changes along the way.

One common denominator throughout the decades is our commitment to promote and represent the core values of the CFA designation and maintain our place as thought leaders in the investment community. Originally named The Security Analysts’ Association of Toronto in 1936, the Society started its humble beginnings as a group of investment professionals meeting at local diners during their lunch hours to discuss the current events of their profession and share ideas and experiences to further develop the investment practice.

Since then, CFA Society Toronto has evolved into Canada’s largest society, and the world’s largest society of CFA charterholders. Today, our membership includes some of the world’s most influential figures in the investment community, and our reputation as one of the top thought leaders is second to none. Those small lunch-hour diner meetings have evolved into some of the industry’s most highly anticipated events, including our Annual Pension Conference, our Annual Wealth Management Conference, and—our feature event—the Annual Investment Dinner (formerly known as the Annual Forecast Dinner).

On October 5, we’ll be celebrating our 80th anniversary at the Annual Investment Dinner. To meet the demand of today’s investment community, we’ve taken a new approach to our flagship event and combined traditional forecasting elements with substantive panel discussions. We hope to see many of you at this year’s dinner. It’s guaranteed to be a highly interactive and thought-provoking evening.