The final countdown to the Citywire Wealth Manager Conference & Awards

There are only a handful of days to go now before the inaugural Citywire Wealth Manager Conference & Awards.

The awards, taking place in the Westminster Park Plaza hotel on 4 March, will see the UK's top wealth managers from across the country crowned in our Regional Stars Awards. All the votes are now in and we've drawn up a shortlist of nominees.

Around 200 leading wealth managers will be joining us for the conference, which runs over two days from Monday 4 March.

And there's plenty to discuss with the recent UK downgrade, the great rotation and Italian elections, likely to be major talking points. We will be getting insights into these issues, along with a range of others, from top fund managers at 20 leading asset management houses during a series of workshops.

The recent suggestion by Paul Tucker that negative interest rates could be used as mechanism to kick-start the UK economy certainly caused a stir.

Find out what former deputy governor for financial stability at the Bank of England, Sir John Gieve, thinks of this idea and the appointment of Mark Carney when he takes to the stage on the Monday morning to map the future of British monetary policy.

This will be followed by a number of fund manager workshops and lunch before an afternoon session discussing the future of private client wealth management in the UK. The panel comprises Smith & Williamson's David Cobb, Brooks Macdonald's Chris Macdonald and Andrew Ross of Cazenove.

We then head for a Gala Dinner in which comedian Marcus Brigstocke will hand out the awards.

On the Tuesday, the delegates will reconvene for more structured fund manager workshops and networking. They will also have the privilege of hearing the former chief executive of Olympus, Michael Woodford, offer a fascinating insight into how he put himself at great risk when he exposed the massive fraud at the camera-making giant.