The Show Must Go On!
The Show Must Go On!
A review of the cathartic Clubhouse talk - The Show about Shows and don't miss May 12 special future of Crypto economy show
Hi FINTECHTALKERS,
The FINTECH ELDER recaps The Show of Shows of FINTECHTALK from last week and the upcoming show schedule. Read on!
The recap foretells the future of media and events. There are some interesting insights that are worth your attention like how media and event companies will be tech. platform businesses and why silicon valley venture capital firms are rushing into the media business (Glad to see the Big VC firms fast- following the iValley and FINTECHTALK™ model which has been in writing and broadcasting the future with its ecosystem startups and partners since 2016 :)). To join iValley, a 3rd generation startup factory, click here.
DON’T MISS the upcoming all-star lineup of The FINTECHTALK Show with a special edition on Wed May 12th at 12 pm - the Future of the Crypto Economy with Coinbase and others.
Table of c̶o̶n̶t̶e̶n̶t̶s̶ future in this edition
The Future of Crypto Economy, Stablecoins and NFT - Save to calendar -> May 12th at 12 pm PDT - With Coinbase and others
The Future of wealth-management in the era of digital assets and crypto - Save to calendar -> May 26th at 12 pm PDT - WIth Fidelity and others
Open Banking 2.0 - Platformization of Financial Services - What’s next - Save to calendar -> June 9th at 12 pm PDT - With Synctera and others
The FINTECH ELDER recap about the future of Media and Events.
Upcoming FINTECHTALK™ Shows
May 12, 12 PM PDT - The Future of Crypto Economy with Coinbase and others
What's next? Stablecoins, NFTs and more with Surojith Chatterjee (Coinbase), David Putts (Billon Group), Mehul Patel (EDDASwap) among others!
May 26, 12 PM PDT - The Future of Wealth Management in the Era of Digital Assets with Fidelity and others
Listen to Nancy Tengler (Best selling author, Financial Columnist @ USA Today, Frequent Guest on CNBC, Fox Business and Bloomberg TV), Alessandro (Ale) Vigilante (Fidelity Investments) and the others talk about the future of wealth management.
Show schedule at www.fintechtalk.co, DM us on @iValleyIC if you’d like to come on the show!
The Show Must Go On and it Will!
The FINTECH ELDER recap of the Show of Shows (The FINTECHTALK show held May 5th on Clubhouse)
I listen from the digital shadows. I am silent but not muted. I know.
Some talks are so unusual, that I need to think twice about what’s being said. The topic can be below the radar but can be very important, from so many points of view, and Fintech in particular.
IValley hosted another of its carefully put-together FINTECHTALK events, focusing on the subject of Events.
We used to attend events, do you remember? Conferences, expos, product launches, and technology unveilings. Oh it was fun! We met interesting people, we learned so many things! The good old days….
March 2020. You know what happened.
So this Clubhouse talk was about the phenomenon of events – how have they evolved and what they would look like. That got me curious, so I logged in and watched the affable Paddy rotate the mic.
The hugely successful Anil Agarwal, who knows quite a bit about events as Co-Founder of Money 20/20 and now Co-founder of the Fintech Meetup had a few telling observations.
“Fintech is at a tipping point, an immutable transformation in every possible way,” he said. “In this business, nothing happens without complex partnerships. Players must work in an ecosystem, with new value chains and business models, and new products. Fintech facilitates partnerships.”
He argued that we have a very great need to communicate and collaborate because of the magnitude of interconnections. While it was true that there were no in-person events last year, he expected something to change this Fall. Technology plays a role whether online or in-person. His basic premise was that we believe all companies including event companies will be fundamentally tech companies. Clubhouse is a prime example.
He commented that many companies have used this time to prepare for a bounce-back over the next year or so, by building event products.
Anil was otherwise upbeat; “Virtual events can certainly generate revenue – we generated 10 million in online events over the past 8 months”, he said. “Our focus is on filling gaps and enhancing social capital.”
“The events industry is a tech laggard, highly fragmented with high barriers to entry, “commented Anil. “Innovation is sluggish and does not move easily from silo to silo. Technology is clunky but yet is likely to commoditize everything. The strategic focus of events is now to be: (1) Learn (2) Network and (3) Trade.”
(Paddy Ramanathan later adroitly expanded this mantra to include a fourth dimension – Empower for inclusion focussed missions!)
“Slack channels are helpful to collaborate and share,” continued Anil. “I see a rise in Substack newsletters. There will be more towards synchronous communication as opposed to asynchronous communication.”
What will the new normal look like? For sure, technology will disrupt in all ways; selling 10x10 booths is out – selling meetings is in.Bo Brustkern, the Co-Founder of Lendit asserted that platforms are being ceded to “facilitate and promote”. He made the point, echoed by all panelists, that the pandemic had caused a real shakedown in the events industry.
How things change! During the 2010s, the focus was on expos and show floors. Content-driven fintechs were not the darlings of the day. But now! With Expos shut down, content leadership is now a primal need to help communities gather.
Like Anil, Bo believed the pandemic had led to many independent companies pivoting and innovating as they desired. I liked his analogy to this being like 3D chess! It’s now a totally different game!
“We see a hybrid of physical and online events”, said Bo. “But ultimately, we are now selling meetings (as others concurred through the event).”
He used sports as an interesting analogy. Once we had NFL now we have Pick Your League – very different businesses. And that is what events are now going to be all about – completely different!
At a time when all aspects of our social interaction demand heightened sensitivity, the issue of gender sensitivity and empowerment cannot be ignored. Simran Aggarwal, President, and Co-Founder of Fintech Meetup spoke with considerable passion, underlining that diversity and empowerment of women was a particular focus at Shoptalk 20/20. She has a bold target of 100% women speakers at Fintech events and has been working towards it. At her events, she was able to track 1100 women making 50000 requests for Fintech connects. Her goal is a totally inclusive community for Fintech events. Something tells me she will get there!
The maverick Fintech weatherman Sanjib Kalita, otherwise the Chief Editor of Money 20/20 cited his own experiences of surviving two huge upheavals: the dot com bust and the financial crisis. He drew convincing analogies from sub-surface existing problems that suddenly became vivid at the height of the crises. (Intel’s floating-point error, the mortgage crisis and now the challenge of next-to-impossible live events).
“Events need to be reinvented. At moneypad, simple things like podcasts have suddenly become potent with more downloads in a week than footfalls at a live event! Ultimately, we need to be moving from product-centric views to consumer-centric views, and this time has helped everyone focus on this.”
The affable Greg Palmer of Finovate came straight to the point:
“Where is the core value you are offering when you no longer have the opportunity to do events? We will clearly never go back to the past way in which events were conducted!”
He advised focusing on building digital experience, thereby reducing the barrier to entry to Fintech events. In his view, people seem to prefer digital events and may not wish to revert to physical attendance. This in turn fosters a more inclusive environment, cutting across various barriers.
Greg felt there were two contradictions, both of which were true:
There continues to be value in face-to-face communication
Media/content is also key
Ignoring the human dimension of the grim challenge we face was clearly not possible. MR Rangaswami, Founder of Indiaspora and many other events with a social focus, spoke about his recent experience in raining $1 million in just a couple of days for those affected by the COVID crisis in India. Virtual networks work!
Sometimes it feels great to listen in quietly to strong and successful personalities discuss the future. Technology may be your thing, but if you ignore the vision and wisdom that was on display, your Fintech foray may be less than satisfactory.
May your Fintech future be eventful!
EPILOGUE - DIGITAL INFORMATION PLATFORMS
-The Fintech Elder
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