The Personal Finance Society has moved from a single 2015 conference to four national financial planning symposiums, in order to meet the demand for increased capacity and member accessibility.

The first of the four will take place in London on 2 November and will feature the annual chartered awards gala dinner, followed by Newport, Edinburgh and Birmingham.

The full schedule is as follows:

• Monday 2 November – Royal Lancaster Hotel, London
• Wednesday 18 November – Celtic Manor, Newport
• Thursday 26 November – EICC, Edinburgh
• Monday 30 November – National Motor Cycle Museum, Birmingham

Entitled ‘A vision for financial planning’, the upgraded 2015 programme is practitioner and future-focused. Each event will offer a wide range of business relevant sessions and keynote deliveries, including from minister of state for pensions, Baroness Ros Altmann, futurologist Dr James Bellini, Cap Gemini’s Rod Bryson, motivational speaker Geoff Burch and others.

“Expanding to four locations gives better access for our membership and allows us to accommodate more members at these flagship events,” said chief executive, Keith Richards.

“Based on member feedback and the need evolve our professional development programme, we expect overall attendance to be up by 33% compared to last year, with a combined 2,000 delegates set to attend. That’s three times as many members as we could accommodate just two years ago.

“All four events will be consistent with our core objectives of supporting and guiding the evolution of the profession to secure and justify confidence and trust of the general public.

“Among the business-relevant content will be sessions from the regulator on breaking down myths and changing misconceptions, a practitioner focus on the retirement market and financial planning in later life, panel sessions on good practice and soft skills for building better businesses, thought leadership on the direction of financial planning in the UK and an examination of what the future will hold for consumers.”

Seven awards will be announced at the opening event’s gala awards in London, hosted by impressionist, Alistair McGowan, who will reveal the winners of the chartered financial planners of the year (individual and firm), the paraplanner of the year, the John Ellis award, the pro-bono award and the highest achievers at diploma and advanced diploma levels.