In a recent speaking engagement I said part of my role as CXO was “keeping my finger on the pulse of the rapidly changing FinTech world”…I qualified the statement by saying it was “hard”…like drinking from the fire hydrant.
But one of the attendees at the event "called me on it" and asked "how do you keep on top of it?" So I thought I'd share my personal favourite news sources.
Over the last 12 months I’ve trialed a lot of services and some have ‘stuck’. This is my list of the best sources – would love to hear from you if you have other ideas.
- Sites - There are particular websites like this one
www.finextra.com (in case this is copied somewhere else),
www.bankinnovation.net and www.americanbanker.com/technology/ that offer email subscriptions to the equivalent of a daily digest as well as great Twitter streams that are worth following. I find this
invaluable as I always forget to check websites - so having a curated "push" service allows me to be lazy and still keep in touch.
- Events - For me the best showcase of innovation in the FinTech sector is Finovate and the newly created FinDEVr. If you’re not familiar – it’s worth taking a look at their video archive of presentations here: www.finovate.com/archives.html –
each video is only 7 minutes long and it’s not a presentation…it’s a live demo.
- Podcasts - There are 2 podcasts I try to listen to religiously. Tech News Today from the TWiT Network for general tech news (http://twit.tv/show/tech-news-today) and
Breaking Bank$ on Voice America from successful Author and CEO of Moven - Brett King. I'm an Android guy and use DoggCatcher as my Podcast app. These shows have become the soundtrack to my daily
commute to / from work.
- Analysts - I like the material from Forrester in the
FinTech world if you're a client. Also, the free material from McKinsey (http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/financial_services) is really valuable and you can set up an email subscription as
described above.
If you have your own favourites - please share them in the comments. It's an exciting "space" to be involved with.