Finovate Fall 2013 wrapped up a whirlwind two days of FinTech innovation in New York on September 10 and 11. Eight of the 69 presenting companies were voted Best of Show by those in attendance.
Five of those eight winners had direct or indirect applicability for the investing/financial planning/wealth management space (LearnVest, MoneyDesktop, Motif, TipRanks and Yodlee).
Rising Above a Difficult Venue
This year’s venue at the Manhattan Center (which includes the historic Hammerstein Ballroom) was not the best for this kind of show. Finovate is really two simultaneous events– the eight sets of back to back to back rapid-fire 7-mintue demos (no slides or Q&A), and the longer one-on-one interactions with the presenters at each of their booths for those who want to learn more and/or make connections. Past venues provided sufficient separation between the stage and the presenter booths to allow both to co-exist. That was not the case this year, and unfortunately both parts suffered a little.
Beyond rows of chairs close to the stage, better seats with tables were placed around the two balconies, with remote viewing via video screens also available on the 7th floor and its balcony (plus a press room in the basement) . This split up the crowd a quite a bit and did make it more difficult for the ongoing conversations and networking that are so valuable at a show like this. There were also a few audio glitches that detracted, but the WiFi was much better than last year at Javits Center.
Still, it was great to see all of the newest innovations, meet the innovators behind them and catch up with my growing list of friends at these must-attend events.
Bank Innovators Council
(In a semi-related note, we held the launch party for the new Bank Innovators Council on the middle night of Finovate. More than 75 bankers, partners and thought leaders joined us on a Manhattan rooftop to kick off this new organization designed specifically to help bankers innovate together in ways they cannot do alone. More on this in a future post)
Finovate Fall 2013 Best of Show Winners
(in alphabetical order):
Congratulations to all of the Finovate Fall 2013 Best of Show winners, all of whom are very deserving of this honor.
I also send an extra personal congratulations to my friends at MoneyDesktop and Yodlee, whom I have had the pleasure of getting to know and work with over the past year. I look forward to our future collaboration.
Read the entire story on finovate.com, where you will also soon be able to see videos of all 69 presentations from Finovate Fall 2013.
