Banking 2.0 V-News: Focus on Wells Fargo

From my opinion, Wells Fargo is "The" perfect example of how a bank should leverage the web 2.0. Tim Collins, SVP Experiential Marketing, and Ed Terpening, VP Social Media, surely have two of the most exciting jobs in the banking industry!

Back in 2005, Wells Fargo became one of the most innovative banks online when they became the first major bank to have a presence on Second Life.

vSafe: online storage facility
Last week, Wells Fargo announced the launch of v-Safe, another innovative service available online.
 
The service will allow customers to securely store documents such as financial statements, loan and tax documents, wills, passports and birth, marriage and death certificates in an electronically secure centralised location.

In the UK, BT successfully launched its BT Digital Vault service. And O2 is currently extensively promoting its O2 Bluebook service.
WF's goal is surely to increase stickiness, customer retention. Will they also manage to somehow increase the share of wallet of their users?

According to you, is it the role of telcos or banks to help us store our valuable documents?

I welcome another innovative initiative from Wells Fargo, but shouldn't banks focus first on increasing the level of security of online banking? Many customers are still not comfortable with banking online... Are they ready to trust their bank and store non-financial documents online? Won't they see that as another way for banks to profile them?
 
Related articles on Visible Banking
* Wells Fargo 2.0
* Wells Fargo co-Founds "the Blog Council"
* Interview Erik Hauser, Creative Director @ Swivel Media
* CenterStage: Wells Fargo First Consumer-Generated Marketing Program

News on finextra: Wells Fargo's online initiatives
Please note that the list is not exhaustive.

* Wells Fargo unveils online storage service - 20/03/08
* The Blog Council is born with Wells Fargo as co-founder - 10/12/07
* Wells Fargo introduces online workstation for commercial customers - 18/10/07
* Why Wells Fargo left Second Life - 13/06/07
* Wells' Web makeover woos punters and analysts- 25/05/07
* Wells Fargo introduces Webcast series for small businesses - 26/04/07
* Wells Fargo: Adventures in the blogosphere - 30/03/07

European Tech Tour - Web & Communities Summit: a great web 2.0 event

The European Tech Tour Web and Communities Summit was a great success.

Attending the event was an exceptional opportunity to network with the top European VCs, the top 25 start-ups and their CEO/Founder, the top executive search firms, and the media (press & prominent bloggers).

I have only heard a extremely positive feedback from all the finalists and the delegates.

Congratulations to the organizers: Sven Lingjaerde, Founder & President at European Tech Tour Association, and Yann Mauchamp, Executive Director Web & Communities Summit 2007, and to their team members: Simone Theiss, Meryll Moreau, Pamir Gelenbe and Stephane Ville to name a few.

The 25 finalists
I met with most of the CEOs, and they were all very enthusiastic about the Summit.


Depending on the stage of their company, their expectations & goals varied quite a bit.


But they all agreed that the Summit was a superb opportunity to:
* raise your profile and gain more exposure in the industry
* identify potential investors (and more likely, being identified by VCs)
* network with other entrepreneurs
 
The 25 start-ups which have made the final are:
Amiando, Bragster, coComment, CyberSports, Dailymotion, delilui, Double Trump International, Flashgames247.com, Goojet, Handmade Mobile, MyThings, NEO, Polar Rose, Qype, Refresh Mobile, Seatwave,  sMeet, TestFreaks, Truphone, Wazap, WeFi, Wikio, WooMe, Xcerion, Zyb Technologies.

Sectors: dating, internet content - video, online ticketing, e-commerce, online advertising, online games, mobile internet, mobile telecom, social networking, virtual worlds.

Congratulations to the teams behind those innovative startups!

Interviews
A special thank to Meryll Moreau who give me a hand and helped me schedule the video interviews.

I think we have done extremely well, with 17 video interviews shot in just one day:
* Wikio - Pierre Chappaz, Founder & CEO (ex-Founder of Kelkoo)
* Dailymotion - Mark Zaleski, Chairman
* CyberSports - Malcolm Clark, CEO
* Seatwave - Joe Cohen, CEO
* smeet - Marc Fleischmann, CEO
* TestFreaks - Kristofer Arwin, CEO (ex-Founder of Pricerunner)
* Flirtomatic - Mark Curtis, CEO
* cocomment - Matt Colebourne, CEO
* Goojet - Marc Rougier, CEO
* Amiando - Felix Haas, CEO
* mippin - Scott Beaumont, co-Founder
* neo - A.Nabergoj, CEO, and M.Pangerc, CTO
* WeFi - Amit Shaked, VP
* Bragster - Bertrand Bodson and Wil Vernaeve, co-Founders
* DiLeLui.com - Jerome Boudot, CEO, and Celine Salomon, co-Founder
* navx - Jean Cherbonnier, CEO
* YouFig - Allon Mason, co-Founder
 
Great networking
I met over 65 people one-to-one from the following companies:
24 access, Accel Partners, Amastrust, amiando, Atlas venture, ballou>>pr, Bragster, Brown Rudnick, BusinessWeek, Calibre One, Clipperton Finance, ClusterBridge, cocomment, CyberSports, Dailymotion, dilelui.com, eBay, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, endeavourvision, European Respiratory Society, European Tech Tour, EuroUS Ventures, Flirtomatic.com, Forsyth Group, goojet, GPXS, Heads!, Holtzbrinck Ventures, Invision, IQ Capital Partners LLP, iris capital, LegitiName, LeShop.ch, Logitech, Lund XY, mippin, navx, neo, OpenWays, Partech International, Perey, Profession web.ch, Reuters, Sesame Partners, smeet, Swisscom, SwissCyber, Test Freaks, Weber Shandwick, WeFi, Wellington Partners, Wikio, World Economic Forum, Xcerion, youfig, zyb.

Photos

Thanks again to Yann and Sven for inviting me to cover the summit.

Tech Tour 07: Interview with Marc Fleischmann, CEO of smeet

I met Marc Fleischmann at the European Tech Tour Web and Communities Summit in November 07. His company, smeet, was one of the 25 finalists.

Interview with Marc Fleischmann

 

Tech Tour 07: Interview with Malcolm Clark, CEO of CyberSports

I met Malcolm Clark at the European Tech Tour Web and Communities Summit in November 07. His company, CyberSports, was one of the 25 finalists.

Their goal is to dominate the online sports game market. Currently, they are working on Football Superstars, a MMOG where you can play virtual football games as a player or as a manager.
They plan to launch their first game in May 2008.

Starting with football is smart: it is one of the most played and watched sport on the planet, so their potential market is enormous.

Malcolm would like to see the best games on television one day. That day, they will know they made it big.
   
Interview with Malcolm Clark

adtech London 07: interview with Craig Hepburn, Global Webmaster at STA Travel

I met Craig Hepburn after his panel session at the ad:tech conference. Craig is on the speaker circuit, being regularly invited to share his hands-on experience in digital/social media, web 2.0 and virtual worlds. I catched up with Craig last week in London.

In the last three years, Craig has done a tremendous job at STA Travel: Craig is the in-house web 2.0 evangelist, and he successfully helped his company launch many web 2.0 initiatives.

I invite you to check some of STA Travel innovative projects:
* Blogging: www.statravelblogs.com
* Social networking: www.mapmyadventure.com
* Virtual worlds: www.virtualstatravel.com

Craig is also a fellow blogger, please check his blog http://forwebsake.blogspot.com. In his blog, Craig shares his passion for innovation and his thoughts on topics such as Web TV, Virtual Worlds or location based technology.
 
Interview with Craig Hepburn

During the interview, Craig and I talked about:
* social media & web 2.0, key challenges and opportunities
* virtual worlds, the real value
* blogging, key challenges for a corporate
* blogging, your own expert/industry blog

The Virtual Worlds Forum London 07: interview with Justin Bovington, CEO of rivers run red

I am glad I managed to spend some time with Justin Bovington at The Virtual Worlds Forum. Justin is a regular speaker, and I missed him when I covered the ad:tech event in London a couple of weeks ago.

His company, rivers run red, is one of the most experience companies in virtual worlds. It was the world's first creative agency to establish a working presence within a virtual world. They help companies like ING, Vodafone, Intel or Coca Cola to build compelling and entertaining virtual worlds to their customers.
   
Interview with Justin Bovington
Justin is passionate about social / digital media, web 2.0 and virtual worlds. Justin believes that virtual worlds are for the internet what television was for the radio. He created his company to help the leading global companies extend brand experiences into virtual worlds.

Nowadays, thanks to broadband we have access to deeper, richer, experiences on our desktop. Justin explains why your company should be on a virtual world, and probably on Second Life, the best metaverse out there according to him... and IBM.

Virtual worlds: part of the communciation mix
Virtual worlds are becoming part of a global communication mix. They are not everything themsleves, they are very powerful when used in combination with the total mix of communication that you have. You bring your community into theses spaces, and you reward them: you give them more and richer experiences.
 
Virtual worlds: test new product ideas
Virtual worlds enable you to test new product ideas and new environments (like Deutsche Bank and its Q110 initiative - a innovative branch in Berlin and its equivalent in Second Life): you get real time analysis from several hundreds of members, you can study their behaviour patterns, and usually they react differently online.

Virtual worlds: behind the firewall
Virtual worlds are extremely useful "Behind the Firewall" too: it enables people to work differently. They don't need to travel that much, which translates to hard cost benefits. As a consequence, it increase s productivity. Contrary to conference calls or webex, people are more focused during the meeting. They can also prepare their meeting and continue the point they want to make online afterwards.

User generated content: an opportunity more than a threat
Companies have a tendency to be more reactive than proactive. Social media and virtual worlds enable companies to develop collaborative spaces very cost effectively.
 
Justin and I share the same vision on web 2.0 & User Generated Content (UGC): even though it is potentially a threat, it should be seen more as an opportunity. You just have to seek guidance, implement the right moderation process, and dedicate some resources to engage with your members.

The Virtual Worlds Forum London 07: interview with Rick Reesen and Klaus Hammermueller, IBM

This is my second video interview with the IBM Digital Convergence Team at the Virtual Worlds Forum.

In my first interview with Paul Ledak, we talked about IBM's expertise in virtual worlds, without insisting on the banking industry. I also had the chance to spend some time with two of IBM Digital Media experts specialized in the banking industry: Rick Reesen, System Architect based in the South of France, and Klaus Hammermueller, Digital Media Architect based in Austria.

During the interview, Rick and Klaus shared their expertise and talked about second life, IBM's financial services showcase in Montpellier and their recent integration of a virtual ATM in second life to test some of the processes, and Deutsche Bank's innovative Q110 project.
 
Interview with Rick Reenes and Klaus Hammermueller

The Virtual Worlds Forum London 07: interview with Paul Ledak, VP at IBM

I met quite a few people from IBM's Digital Convergence Team at the Virtual Worlds Forum last week.

It is a global team: I met people based in the UK, the US, Austria and in France.

IBM takes 3D Internet and virtual worlds seriously: they use Second Life internally extensively to foster innovation, communicate in an interactive and cost effective way, train people, urge their employees to express themselves, interact, and collaborate.

With such a big workforce, spread all over the world, it is an excellent way to engage their employees. For IBM, it is also an excellent marketing tool: it gives them a lot of exposure in the press, it helps them build a strong expertise and credibility in that space, it demonstrates that innovation is at the heart of their strategy.

The IBM team was great, and I want to address a special thanks to Lisa Smith in Marketing : despite a busy schedule, Lisa and her colleagues immediately accepted to do the video interviews. After just a couple of minutes I was sitting upstairs in the speakers area with 4 virtual worlds experts from IBM.

Interview with Paul Ledak
My first interview was with Paul Ledak, VP Development Digital Convergence. Paul was invited to speak about interoperability and share his views on how close we are to a multi-world integrated framework.

Paul is an expert in virtual worlds, and he is not directly involved in the banking industry. During my interview, we discussed about IBM's experience in Second Life, B-to-C virtual worlds versus "BTF" (Behind The Firewall) virtual worlds, and interoperability.

The Virtual Worlds Forum London 07

The Virtual Worlds Forum was well attended: most delegates came from media agencies, venture capital firms, research firms and IT companies.


I spent just half a day at the conference, on Thursday 26th October. I spent most of my time working the room and meeting with exhibitors. I attended the session with the venture capitalists.

To find out more about the show, I invite you to check the official website with a few podcasts and the official blog.

Good networking opportunity
I met 17 people from the following companies: SXSW, Forrester Research, Hawkpoint, Drakeford & Kane, There, IBM, rivers run red, theguardian, The Electric Sheep Company, Ambient Performance, Techmedia and VastPark.

Interviews
It was another productive day for me and my blog Visible Banking. I managed to shoot three video interviews:
* Paul Ledak, VP Development Digital Convergence at IBM
* Rick Reesen, System Architect at IBM, and Klaus Hammermueller, Digital Media Architect at IBM
* Justin Bovington, CEO at rivers run red
 
Photos

Meet me @ the Virtual Worlds Forum & Finextra FIFS

Next week, I will attend the Virtual Worlds Forum Europe 2007 in London. This event is organized by the Virtual Economic Forum.


I would like to thank the organizers who added me to the press list. I plan to shoot a couple of interviews with some of the key speakers on Tuesday during one of the workshops, and on Thursday during the conference.

I would like to interview some of the key speakers such as:
* Paul Ledak, Vice President of Development for IBM's Emerging Business Opportunity in Digital Convergence
* Meg Pickard, Head of Communities and User Experience for Guardian Unlimited
* Steve Prentice, Group Vice President and Chief of Research at Gartner
* Paul Hemp, Senior Editor at Harvard Business Review
* Mike Butcher, Editor at TechCrunch UK & Ireland
* Betsy Book, Director of Product Management at Makena Technologies
* Justin Bovington, CEO of Rivers Run Red
* Paul Jackson, Principal Analyst at Forrester
   

Today, I have just registered to Finextra - Innovation in Financial Services (FIFS). In the past, I attended a couple of finextra events: they are free, the speakers are usually very good, and it is an excellent opportunity to network with innovative bankers or solution providers.

I am looking forward to this event to meet my peers and the innovation experts in the uk banking industry.  Moreover, Pol Navarro, Head of Innovation and Distribution Channels at Banco Sabadell, has been invited to speak about innovation and web 2.0. Pol sent me an email, and I very much look forward to meeting him face-to-face, and ideally shooting a video interview.


If you plan to attend any of those events as a delegate or a speaker, and if you want to share your passion and your expertise in innovation and web 2.0, please do not hesitate to send me an email (cm_langlois[AT]yahoo[DOT]co[DOT]uk) to make sure we meet during the show.