We are pleased to announce that this year’s high-profile speaker is Dr. Edward Yardeni, President of Yardeni Research. Dr. Yardeni has had a distinguished career on Wall Street, with the Fed and in US Academia. Some of you will know him from interviews on financial TV channels and publications such as the Wall Street Journal and Barron’s. Thus, we are very pleased that he agreed to come to Switzerland to speak at our Event.

This year we have made some changes to the Forecasting Dinner concept, which we hope will enhance the experience. In Zurich we opted for a different type of venue that would add a little bit extra in terms of food, drink and atmosphere. The Swiss Re Centre for Global Dialogue is a well-known conference and event centre close to Zurich. It has hosted many high profile events, and is famous for its exceptional cuisine and service. We hope that their excellent food and wine will have a benign impact on our forecasting results. Furthermore, we have decided to add two new categories to the forecasting list to reflect the growing importance of the credit risk and commodities asset classes. We will be introducing the iTraxx Europe Crossover Index and Gold Price, and will drop the Nikkei going forward. At the Event we will provide some background information on both new forecast variables, which may help you with your expectation for the 2010 closing level.

2009 turned out to be a very interesting financial year and we look forward to celebrating your forecasting successes from last year - both hits and misses as there will be a prize for the worst forecast as well!