Monthly Posts: September
Life after Sibos
September
A week has passedsince Sibos doors have shut down for 2009.
All in all, the eventsummed up more participants than expected, but a lot fewer thanVienna(maybe a man*daysreporttheparticipation will bring a clearer view ). Moreover, the splitfloors system ( all banks stacked on the ground floor and allpartners & vendors based one and a half stories upwards ) didnot help motivating people to travel between these two. I thinkthat maybe a better shuffle of banks-corporates-vendors would’vehelped having better networking within the exhibitioncentre.
For us, it was apleasure both meeting old friends and making new ones whom we’ll bedelighted to see next year closer to home, in Amsterdam, or evensooner than that.
Already having 10years of continuous presenceas participants & the first time Sibos exhibitors experience inVienna last year, Hong Kong edition, even if further away fromBucharest, went easier on us as to where stress, organization,preparation & presentation were concerned. We knew what toexpect.
Sessions andconferences were interesting, but all wandering around the same oldbuzz-words we’ve been hearing for quite some time now. Everybodyexpects regulations, everybody’s trying to swim ashore far awayfrom the crisis’ swirls, everybody wants things to be simple,transparent and clear. Everybody wants innovation & not manythink there is much of it around.
Innotribe was fun -showing thumbs up to new tools of targeting the right kind ofaudience: facebook, twitter, blogs. On Facebook, our team membersalready do have accounts ( go ahead, search, add & get incontact with them ). Twitter & blogging we’ve only just startedexperimenting as it seems to be the next step taken by many in thisbusiness – voilŕ! I think it should makebanking & bankers more human & people-oriented than before,which in fact might bring the outstanding innovation of the retailbanking distribution chain.
Sibos 2k9 was allabout finding partners, finding opportunities & networking;some would add parties, but those were scarce, letting everybodyinvade the Lan Kwai Fong pubs & bars all Sibos week long. Therewas 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 thisstrong Asian market willing to expand to Europe, where we, eventhough a very small company, have our say. Hong Kong brought ushuge opportunities and new ideas which we’ll certainly bring tolife by Amsterdam 2010.