Earlier this month, we had the opportunity to travel to New York City to attend FinovateFall2023. Alongside 2,000+ attendees, 1,000+ financial institutions and 70 emerging technologies coming from both startups and established firms.
Our marketing team recently attended HubSpot’s annual INBOUND conference in Boston, Mass. with over 11,000 business, marketing, and sales professionals to network and learn from HubSpot leaders and top industry experts. “INBOUND takes the best of our work – the culture, the innovation, the creativity – and propels it forward for the collective good,” said Yamini Rangan, HubSpot CEO. “It’s where careers take off, businesses begin to scale, and community changes us for the better."
Class is back in session! Once again, school buses are lining the streets, and store shelves are packed with notebooks and pencils, but this season is much more than just back-to-school time.
It's also conference season, when dozens of tradeshows and industry events pop up around the world, attracting vendors and media from all over. Although conference life may just be part of the gig for some, for many, it's a chance to get out of the office, network, and gain fresh insight. The question is, though: how can you best prepare and make the most of it?
Last month was the annual FinovateSpring conference, and as always, it did not disappoint. This conference is said to be “the future of Fintech events” and has been described as “the best Fintech show of the year.” This year, FinovateSpring took place at Marriott Marquis in San Francisco on May 23-25 where 1,300+ attendees were able to engage with impressive demos, insightful keynote speakers and expert panels. This event was a great opportunity for professionals in the Fintech industry to see the newest, most innovative technology, meet new people and discover new organizations. I had the privilege to participate in the first FinovateSpring in 2008 and have been fortunate enough to attend every event since. Attending for 16 years in a row, including the virtual events during the pandemic, has given me many valuable opportunities to learn more about this constantly evolving industry.
This year marked BankTech Ventures second annual Limited Partner Summit. BankTech Ventures is the first venture fund created specifically by and for key leaders in the community banking landscape. Launched in 2021, over 100 banks are now part of the fund, with 11 investments already made and over 100 companies in its current pipeline ready to continue fueling the innovation ecosystem for community banks.
Fintech Nexus completed its metamorphosis. In 2022, the show launched its transition from LendIt into a namesake focused on industry connections. The two-day show remained in New York, gathering a good crowd of fintechs, venture capitalists, banks, credit unions, media and influencers. While there were still strong lending echoes from the vendors in the exhibit hall, the agenda this year was balanced with a wider focus on payments, embedded banking, security, consumer data and more.
The first in-person edition of Fintech Meetup wrapped up—and what a show it was! The industry’s newest fintech conference, described by some as “the future of fintech events,” took place at ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas on March 19th-22nd. The event was organized by the team behind the original Money 20/20 and had 3,000+ attendees, 40% of which were fintech founders and C-level executives.
ICBA LIVE could not have been timed better. Thousands of community bankers and fintechs converged in Honolulu over the weekend of March 12, when the stability of our nation’s financial markets was being challenged (yet again). ICBA and its bankers reacted quickly, providing much needed communication about how community banks are different, the stability of their financials, and that we are not facing a systematic problem.