The Future of Fintech: Highlights from Finovate Europe 2024

Finovate Europe is among the leading B2B fintech gatherings worldwide. In 2024, it was a conference of two halves. The first day was dominated by demo sessions from fintech start-ups vying to catch the attention of senior decision-makers from financial firms. The second day featured buy-side speaker panels debating the future of the industry. We were especially impressed by the quality of the thought leadership opportunities that the event presented. In particular, AI Expert Nina Schick 's comments on Artificial Capable Intelligence (ACI) struck our attention, providing a new framework to think about AI.

The start-up demos were a great platform for emerging fintech solutions

Start-ups’ demos of new innovative solutions were the most compelling element on day 1 of the conference. A series of 7-minute demos from 36 startups competed for the audience’s attention and for the Best of Show Award. Congratulations to the winners, Tuum, Corsound AI, and Zeed! From multi-factor authentication, to workflow and API platforms, and customer journey personalisation, there was a host of innovative solutions on stage sure to interest anyone focused on digital transformation in financial services.

In addition to the 7 minutes on stage, demoing companies had their own booths in the Demo Expo area, where they each had a table and large screen to demonstrate their solutions to delegates who came to chat with them. These booths were vibrant with life during the networking breaks, attracting numerous attendees eager to learn more about the innovations on show.

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Sponsors had a real opportunity to position themselves as thought leaders

On day 1, most sponsored sessions were integrated into the main stage agenda alongside keynotes and demos. In contrast to the demos’ specific solutions, sponsors focused on the big picture, positioning them as true thought-leaders. For enterprise level players in the fintech ecosystem, EI sees strong value in taking part in these well-attended thought-leadership opportunities.

We were in the room for the main-stage session led by EI client, Swift. Nick Kerigan , Managing Director and Head of Innovation presented his vision for the future of financial innovation: “a digitally native world where AI and tokenisation seamlessly work together, building off each other’s capabilities”. This was a thought-provoking session and the audience was engaged throughout.

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Sessions on Generative AI and CX disruptions kept the audience engaged

After the demo sessions, leaders in the field came on stage to present their perspectives on industry disruptors. Nina Schick 's session on generative AI was truly captivating, as she cut through buzz and fears around Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and presented the concept of Artificial Capable Intelligence (ACI). Rather than achieving the human-like thought predicted for AGI, Nina suggested we will much sooner achieve ACI, and that’s what the business world needs: AI models that are highly capable of taking on some, but not all, human tasks to help us be more efficient.

While numbers of attendees did drop slightly from day 1 to day 2 (as we would expect for multi-day conferences), they were no less engaged. The second morning of the event featured some of the strongest thought-leadership sessions, demonstrating the benefit of staying until the end. Sessions ranged from analyst all-stars presenting their research on disruption in financial services, to Ken Hughes ’ keynote on the “blue dot customer” which was peppered with jokes, raising laughter across the room. Ken explained why “Standing still is the fastest way to move backwards” as financial institutions need to keep up with evolving customer expectations, with younger generations holding higher expectations than ever before.

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The exhibition and networking floor was buzzing with activity throughout

In the networking breaks delegates poured out into the exhibition hall to chat and grab a coffee or a bite to eat. The event app gave delegates an easy way to connect with each other and set up meetings on the day. Additionally, invite-only networking rooms provided more exclusive opportunities to connect with specific groups (women in fintech, leading startups, etc.), offering great opportunities to meet different groups within the fintech ecosystem.

In short, we had a great time at Finovate Europe, and were impressed with the quality of the discussion and the range of commercial opportunities on offer. We can’t wait to see how the discussion moves on in San Fran and NYC later in 2024.

For more insights on events like Finovate, please follow us on LinkedIn. If you would like to know more about how Ei can support your events strategy, please get in touch via Ei’s LinkedIn page or email us at [email protected].

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