Sibos 2010 - come a few days, meet a 1000 bankers

You have to admit, the Innotribe sessions at Sibos 2010 had the vibe, energy, soundtrack and dialogues of Hollywood blockbusters this year.  Good storylines, happy endings and one-liners that would put Sly and Arnie to shame. Anyway, if you haven’t been, here’s a summary.

The most used word: “ubiquitous”, followed by “trust”, on par with “data”.

The best speaker: Peter Hinsen.

The worst speakers: the Deutsche folks.

The best one-liner: “banks will win with everyone else”, in the context of the mobile banking panel debate, expressing the need of collaboration between banks, telecommunication companies and others in the face of new competition.

The most amusing one-liner: “put your IT people in front of your customers, even if they’re nerds”. With all respect to the semantic web technology companies out there, how the hell do you tag that and add a business ontology on top?

The best compere: Mateo.

The worst thing: the WIFI. Surely SWIFT, you can do better! Don’t you know, we have zero tolerance for digital failure?

The best thing: the art. The results of the innovation workshops were captured in beautiful graphic illustrations that, I’m sure, captured the spirit of the workshops in a fashion that no note taking could ever do. Really something worth considering for your next scoping workshops or boardroom meetings.

The worst experience: the security guard pulling me up because I was wearing an entrance badge showing my name but the picture of a female colleague who had cancelled at the last minute. Unfortunately, responding to the question “is this your name”, with “no it isn’t, but it’s my picture” didn’t trigger the guard’s sense of humour.

But the best experience at Sibos 2010 was the general feeling of optimism. With 170 sessions, 175 speakers and 9,000 attendees it was clear that the industry is optimistic again. A positive spirit could be found in every presentation, every interaction and every dialogue. A spirit of collaboration and consultation as well, fundamental not only in regaining the trust of our customers but also in facing the many new entrants challenging the fragile fabric of the banking industry today.

So what about Sibos 2011?

Hasta la vista baby, I’ll be back.