ALIGN: Connecting the Family and the Family Office

ALIGN is a three-day conference that brings family office leaders together with the family members they serve. It is published by MLR Media through Family Business Magazine and its sister title FO Pro: The Family Office Professional, and it moves between US cities, with recent editions in Chicago and Dallas. The organiser's stated purpose is keeping the family office effective now and across the generations that follow.

Who attends

The premise sets ALIGN apart from most events in this directory. Family office conferences usually gather one side or the other: either the executives who run the offices, or the principals who own them. ALIGN is built on putting both in the room at once, and the recent theme of culture and connection reflects that.

That produces a different kind of session. Where an executives-only event can talk about reporting systems and staffing, and a principals-only forum can talk about what the family wants, ALIGN is set up for the harder conversation between the two. Families sometimes send a principal and their chief executive together, which is unusual on this circuit and is probably the best use of the format.

How access works

Registration is open online through the Family Business Magazine and FO Pro event pages. There is no application or qualification step published, so this is a paid conference open to anyone willing to register rather than a screened forum.

Neither the magazine's events index nor the FO Pro listing publishes a rate. Sponsors do publicise early registration deadlines and discount codes for their contacts, which confirms that a published price exists at the registration step, but the figure is not on the public pages. Ask the events team for current rates before budgeting.

What attendees get

Three days on a single theme, held at a hotel rather than a conference centre, with the programme built around governance, culture and the working relationship between a family and its office. The organiser runs several other events through the year, including Transitions in spring and autumn, a private company governance summit and a family business legacy meeting, so ALIGN sits in a wider programme aimed at family enterprises.

The practical case is for offices where something is not working between the family and the people who serve them. That is a common problem and a hard one to raise at an event aimed at only one side of it. ALIGN is one of the few conferences designed for exactly that conversation.