A week has passed since Sibos doors have shut down for 2009.
All in all, the event summed up more participants than expected, but a lot fewer than Vienna(maybe a man*days report on the participation will bring a clearer view ). Moreover, the split floors system ( all banks stacked on the ground floor and all partners & vendors based one and a half stories upwards ) did not help motivating people to travel between these two. I think that maybe a better shuffle of banks-corporates-vendors would’ve helped having better networking within the exhibition center.
For us, it was a pleasure both meeting old friends and making new ones whom we’ll be delighted to see next year closer to home, in Amsterdam, or even sooner than that.
Already having 10 years of continuous presence as participants & the first time Sibos exhibitors experience in Vienna last year, Hong Kong edition, even if further away from Bucharest, went easier on us as to where stress, organization, preparation & presentation were concerned. We knew what to expect.
Sessions and conferences were interesting, but all wandering around the same old buzz-words we’ve been hearing for quite some time now. Everybody expects regulations, everybody’s trying to swim ashore far away from the crisis’ swirls, everybody wants things to be simple, transparent and clear. Everybody wants innovation & not many think there is much of it around.
Innotribe was fun – showing thumbs up to new tools of targeting the right kind of audience: Facebook, Twitter, blogs. On Facebook, our team members already do have accounts (go ahead, search, add & get in contact with them). Twitter & blogging we’ve only just started experimenting as it seems to be the next step taken by many in this business – voilà! I think it should make banking & bankers more human & people-oriented than before, which in fact might bring the outstanding innovation of the retail banking distribution chain.
Sibos 2k9 was all about finding partners, finding opportunities & networking; some would add parties, but those were scarce, letting everybody invade the Lan Kwai Fong pubs & bars all Sibos week long. There was a Sibos party after all & it was there, in LKF. Each & every night ( except for the typhoon night of course ).
We’re thrilled with this year’s edition and with finding this strong Asian market willing to expand to Europe, where we, even though a very small company, have our say. Hong Kong brought us huge opportunities and new ideas which we’ll certainly bring to life by Amsterdam 2010.
By: Ioana Guiman
