We look at the upcoming “Fintech Connect” conference at Excel London this 4th December 2024, and ask – do we really need yet more advice?
Actually – we do. At a time of unparalleled uncertainty as to how our service providers indeed “provide” the services and facilities that you and I need, the obvious answer is that you and I need all the help we can get.
The Fintech Connect web page (https://www.alphaevents.com/events-fintech-connect-london) is broad and extensive. Whatever level of need or focus you may want to pursue, there is already a clear avenue of topics, seminars, speakers. You take your pick from the packed agenda, or you make selections on screen. Are you a Financial Institution? Well, you can meet new disruptive tech people, as well as potential partners. The options go on.
And that’s the problem. Because, when you scratch the surface, take a peek under the hood, so to say – there are some key strands that are common to all of us, and that reflect the deeper anxiety and questions that everybody, including you, seem to be facing.
And they are the issues of AI and its relevance. And what about payments, and connected finance? You can also include the dark art of Cyber into that mix, – although this is not a Data discussion per se.
Sure, the Conference starts with general discussions about Transformation etc – but it takes less than two hours before we are already deep into Ai – and disruptive merchants.
At a time when consumer acceptance of AI seems to be in negative values, and its influence into fake content, and particularly facial recognition, makes the general public suspicious of general announcements of AI – there is a clear need to identify specific examples of benefit in the financial processes we adopt.
Malin Lignell, VP Technology and Innovation Strategy at Handelsbanken, and Speaker at this Conference, goes further, and has both a practical and philosophical outlook. This Conference is not about the “now” of what we are doing – it is about the “what should we be doing”. She has deep awareness and experience. Looking at me across my laptop screen, from her office in Torsgatan, Stockholm, she talks fluidly about “scenario analysis” – how can we create our innovation strategy – when there is so much uncertainty in the first place?.
It’s tricky. Right now is not the time to have that deeper discussion. But it is an analysis that we need to make, and sometimes, the best way to do that, is in the companionship of others, who can offer those impactul views.
Fintech Connect brands itself as that personal meeting space. You just rock up, pick the right strand, listen to others, and let them connect with you.
