Active asset management has always been difficult to carry off, but it has become harder than ever for numerous reasons, including a higher level of expertise among professionals in the industry, according to Larry Swedroe, the passive investing firebrand, who Sunday launched the first keynote talk of the 8 th annual Inside ETFs conference.

Swedroe also told attendees at event in Hollywood, Florida, that many of the investment themes favored by active managers of the past have now been isolated and integrated into rules-based passive investment strategies.

“Alpha, or what was once considered alpha, is getting converted into beta,” Swedroe said, referring to the plethora of strategies, many in an ETF wrapper, that isolate investment factors such as volatility, size, value, momentum and quality, to name a few.

Speaking about what he called “The Paradox of Skill,” Swedroe said: “As the competition gets stiffer, it gets harder and harder to differentiate yourself from the crowd.” His talk, titled “The Incredible Shrinking Alpha,” is also the title of a book Swedroe is publishing on the subject.

About 1,900 people are attending the four-day event, with about 60 percent of them financial advisors. Inside ETFs, the world’s biggest ETF conference. runs from Sunday, Jan. 25 through Wednesday, Jan. 28 at the Diplomat Resort & Spa. It is being put on by ETF.com, the ETF news and data provider.

The first day of the conference also included a number of panels on the basics of ETFs and some of the bigger themes in the investment markets, including quick snapshots of equities and fixed-income portfolio construction using ETFs.

Looking Ahead

A number of investment- and ETF-industry stars are scheduled to speak  at the conference, including bond investing guru Jeffrey Gundlach, indexing executive Rob Arnott and passive investing advocate Larry Swedroe.

Nonfinancial personalities, such as former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw as well as political consultants James Carville and Karl Rove are also appearing at the event. Online registration ends Friday; however, you can register at the event itself.

This year’s Inside ETFs comes at time of accelerating growth in an industry that began in January 1993 with the launch of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY | A-98). That fund now has $191 billion in assets, and the entire constellation of more than 1,600 U.S.-listed ETFs now collectively have about $2 trillion in assets. Inflows into ETFs reached an annual record of $243 billion in 2014.

The bottom line is this: Investors are catching on to the fact that ETFs have emerged as perhaps the cheapest, most accessible and efficient way to gain exposure to virtually all the pockets of the investment universe.

The goings-on at what is considered the  see-and-be-seen event in the 22-year-old ETF industry will be covered by the financial TV network CNBC. The network’s popular “Fast Money” program will broadcast live from the event on Tuesday, Jan. 27, at its regular time of 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. ET. Also, CNBC’s “On-Air Stocks” Editor Bob Pisani will be at Inside ETFs, doing live segments from Jan. 26-28.

Panels & Parties

Inside ETFs is known for its relaxed, yet incisive, collection of panel discussions and presentations on issues wide and narrow related to the fast-expanding ETF industry.

Included on the conference agenda are panels on the macroeconomy and investment outlooks in light of the ongoing complexities related to the U.S. economy, the eurozone’s debt crisis, slowing growth in China and ongoing questions about Japan’s battle to end its 25-year-old flirtation with deflation.

Many other panels and speeches are scheduled during the four-day event covering hot trends and issues of the day in the ETF industry. Those include a three-panel series on the growing popularity of so-called smart-beta ETFs that are designed to beat broad market indexes, a discussion on the finer points of trading ETFs and a presentation by the Winklevoss twins on their plans to launch a bitcoin ETF.

The event also includes numerous parties hosted by ETF fund sponsors and indexing firms.