Visible Banking: Finovate 2009 - Visible Banking Wrap Up: Blog Coverage (#8) + Video Interviews (#16) + Tweeps (#35) + Pics (#120)

As you all know, I was very much looking forward to participate to my third finovate event. Updated on 06-oct-09

And what a day! Kudos to Jim, Eric, and the rest of the team for putting together such a smooth event with hardly no technical glitches.

Fantastic People
I have met so many fantastic people since I started using social media sites such as Linkedin back in 2003. Starting the Visible Banking blog was one of the most gratifying things I have ever done in my career. The reach offered by blogs is impressive. But nothing will ever replace meeting people in real life.
What a pleasure it was to meet in the flesh people I have been in touch with online for such a long time: the Smartypig's team (Michael, Jon and Bob), Stessa (Gartner), Morriss (Everything CU), Jacob (Celent), Steve (Discover), Ami (Advanta), Charis (Banking Review Media) who came all the way from Australia to attend finovate...

I always feel at home at Finovate. I was delighted to catchup with Eric, Jim and his wife, Aaron (Mint) and Martha (Atomic PR), Murali and Olly (Billeo), Charlie (Andera), Tiffany (Prosper), Peter and Melanie (Yodlee), John and Gabe (First ROI & Bancvue)... You guys rock!

Tools & Services to Reach Financial Wellbeing
Finovate 2009 was all about providing tools and services to help american people reach financial wellbeing in a personalized, transparent and convenient way. Most demoing companies focus on helping people better manage their money and improve their spending behaviour.

Well done to all the demoing companies which did a great use of their 7mn slots. Congrats to the 5 Best of Show winners: BancVue, Credit.com, Digital Insight (Intuit), Silver Tail Systems, and Yodlee!

Two companies have been named a few times, Amazon and Apple, for their unique ability to drive an outstanding level of customer advocacy via their simple and intuitive interface and their best-of-breed user experience. Even though it makes sense to aim for the best, I still wonder how financial institutions could ever have real 'fans'? Can trading Stocks or finding the best Mortgages ever be fun? What's your take on this?

Having said that, I salute the hard work produced by the demoing companies to provide a simple, intuitive, interface and display the most relevant info possible to their users.

VB Top Demoing Companies
Please find below my top 4 at finovate 09.
* Kasasa
I hope one day you will have the chance to watch John & Gabe presenting on stage. They show so much energy and passion, and they complement each other perfectly.

I love the way they will help community banks leverage social media. Do you Kasasa on on twitter, blog, youtube, and facebook?

* Yodlee
From my opinion, Peter is one of the most knowledgeable people on Personal Finance Management out there. I was delighted to shoot my third interview with him at Finovate.

I love the latest release of Yodlee's MoneyCenter: its much-improved user interface, better use of the outstanding volume of data Yodlee has aggregated all these years, and the launch of its own FinApp Store.

* SmartyPig
It was a pleasure to finally meet Michael and Jon face-to-face, as well as meet Bob on his first day as SmartyPig CEO!

SmartyPig is one of the most exciting online services available, and a great addition to any online banking offering. I love their new sharing features which enable their users to automatically share their goals on twitter, facebook, and over 20 other social media sites thanks to their fully customizable widget.

* Strands
Strands does an excellent job providing intuitive online tools and 'people powered' applications. I love their focus on people, the end-users.

One of their best achievements so far is to power BBVA's 'Tu Cuentas' online community. Check out their improved power search and their new partnership with savings.com to provide relevant online coupons and discounts to their users.

Video Interviews
I have been incredibly busy while staying in NYC. Indeed, in the last 10 days before finovate, I organized an ambitious number of video interviews between Monday 28th and Wednesday 30th.

I am delighted to confirm I shot most of them and I even managed to add a couple of extra ones.

Please find below the list of video interviews shot during finovate:
* Advanta - Ami Kassar, Chief Innovation Officer
* Brightscope - Mike , Co-Founder & CEO
* Celent - Jacob Jegher, Senior Analyst
* Discover - Steve Furman, Director E-Business
* Everything CU - Morriss Partee, Chief Inspiration Officer
* First ROI - John Waupsh & Gabe Krajicek
* Fiserv. - Steve Shaw, Director, Strategic Marketing
* Gartner - Stessa Cohen, Director
* MasterCard Worldwide - Jim Issokson, Senior Business Leader WW Communications
* Mint - Aaron Patzer, Founder & CEO
* Prosper - Tiffany Fox, Communications Director
* S1 Entreprise - Mark Moore, VP Marketing & Jenni Palocsik, Sr. Product Marketing Manager
* SimpliFi - Bryan Link, CEO
* SmartPig - Michael Ferrari, Co-Founder & Bob Weinschenk, CEO
* Strands - Atakan Cetinsoy, General Manager Personal Finance Products
* Yodlee - Peter Hazlehurst, SVP Products

Please stay tuned. I will publish the videos on Visible Banking on regular basis in October, and I will update my post accordingly.

Finovate - Blog Coverage
I invite you to check the #finovate feed on twitter as well as the extensive coverage on the following blogs:
* Jim Bruene, Netbanker, Twitter Transcript from Finovate 2009
* Steve Furman, Discover, Finovate. Worth the Wait
* Carrie Davis, SpendOnLife, Hot Financial Trends: Finovate 2009
* Ari Weinberg, FiLife, Take It to the Bank
* Mike Linskey, Fincision, Finovate 2009 – live blog
* David Weliver, MoneyUnder30, Ten Financial Companies to Watch from Finovate 2009
* Larry Chiang, Duck9, Financial Startups Demo Their Dashboards At Finovate
* Charis Palmer, Online Banking Review, The wrap from Finovate 2009 - where were the bankers?
Please do not hesitate to leave a comment and flag any missing blog post!

Directory of Tweeple @ Finovate 2009
Earlier this week, I started to list all the tweeps who attending finovate 2009 in NYC.

Please check the list which already counts over 30 people. If you were in the room on Tuesday and you are not listed, please leave a comment with the required info!

Pictures: Two Photo Albums, over 110 pics
I took over 100 pictures during the finovate drinks on Monday 28th and the finovate event. I invite you to check them out, add your pictures, and tag yourself if you are on any of them!

2 photos albums: Finovate 2009 (96 pics) & Finovate 09 (09/28/09) - Networking & Interviews (24 pics)

Great Networking
I contributed to dozens of events all over the world in the last five years. The Finovate events have always proven to be the best for networking.

In just one day, I managed to have one-to-one conversations with over 50 people from 40+ companies such as 1st Mariner Bank, Atomic Public Relations, audeo partners, banking review media, Billeo, Billshrink, Blue Dun, BrightScope, Celent, cohn&wolfe, consumerunited, CooperKatz, Critical Mass, Discover Financial Services, Everything CU, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, FiLife, financial red, fiserv., Gartner, Group SJR, IdPops, Jack Henry & Associates Inc., Kapitall, kiboo, LendingTree, MasterCard Worldwide, Mint, outright, Prosper, Rabobank Nederland, S1 Enterprise, SeerGate, Simplifi, SmartyPig, LLC, strands, Tier One Partners, USAA, William Mills.