Earlier this week I attended Finovate London on a recommendation from a friend. The 7-minute-presentation format – strictly enforced – ensures that you get through the many innovations pitched during the conference at a good pace. Excitement is not always guaranteed, but at least the not-so-good or not-so-relevant move on quickly. All presentations are later published on Finovate’s website, for a useful replaying or sharing of the more interesting ones.
For a conference showcasing the “Future of Financial and Banking Technology” I found it perhaps a bit too focused around three clusters:
– personal finance: expense-tracking, easy-borrowing, moving money around easily;
– security/fraud detection, in particular on mobile devices;
– analytics/trading for the masses.
The name of the game is “client engagement”, with cross-device delivery of ever simpler packages of services, breaking down the barriers between financial institutions and their customers.
The extent to which individual internet footprints such as search-engine utilisation or social networking data are used by the new generation of software products felt as awesome (in how creatively it gets used for security, marketing, selling) as scary (thinking of the implications in matters of privacy and freedom).
I did not see much in terms of “employee engagement”: after all, financial institutions can be very large workplaces which offer plenty of opportunities for disruptive innovation. For sure, many internal processes have long been commoditised but there is still room for optimisation – for happier, more productive employees. This said, it is clear that many of the concepts aimed at enhancing the experience of mass users can translate into improvements in the software used inside a firm.
It was refreshing to see people from all over the world bravely competing on the stage to display the fruits of their hard labours. And I met some interesting people. And I had time to think about the imperative of innovating. Overall, I give this experience a “thumbs-up”.