You could be forgiven for thinking the delegates filing into the recent Financial News Trading Forum at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel in San Francisco had got the wrong date, venue, event, or all of the above.

The forum was convened to discuss such topics as algorithmic trading, direct market access and electronic trading. Most of the delegates, however, looked more like they had come together to discuss the merits of outdoor living, "how eating right changed my life" or why five workouts a week wasn't enough.