CFP Board held its 2006 Annual Meeting the first week of August in Los Angeles and Santa Monica, bringing together all of CFP Board's stakeholder groups for insights from notable speakers, educational sessions on a wide range of financial topics, and plenty of opportunities to network with CFP® certificants and others whose lives benefit from financial planning.

Included in the Annual Meeting events were the annual Program Directors Conference, the Firm Meeting and a chance for the Board of Governors to hold in-person meetings with the full Board of Examiners and Board of Professional Review for the first time.

The Annual Meeting also introduced CFP Board's first large-scale public meeting, with a financial education and planning event open to the public and all of CFP Board's constituents at the Los Angeles Convention Center on August 4, 2006. More than 75 media outlets, including ABC, CBS, Univision, NBC's Telemundo, The LA Times and The Daily Breeze, helped promote the event to consumers via television, radio and newspaper interviews, public service announcements, print and online articles, print and online community calendar placements, chat room postings and online banner placements. And the media outreach worked! The event drew thousands of consumers who learned about the benefits of financial planning.

CFP Board plans to continue its media outreach in the Los Angeles area and take advantage of the momentum built around the 2006 Annual Meeting to cultivate ongoing awareness of the importance of financial planning.

Plans are already being made for CFP Board's 2007 Annual Meeting, which we anticipate will be held in August 2007 in the greater Boston area.

We welcome comments about the 2006 Annual Meeting and suggestions for improving future meetings. Comments and suggestions may be sent to mail@CFPBoard.org.

Learn more about each section of CFP Board's 2006 Annual Meeting:

• Free Financial Planning Clinic