And what a day! Kudos to Jim Bruene, Eric Mattson , and the rest of their team for putting together such a smooth event with hardly no technical glitches.
I invite you to check my wrap up on Visible Banking, add yourself to the list of tweeps @ FInovate09 (for those you attended the event), check the pictures and videos I shot at the event (and add yours) on the Visible Banking Facebook Page.
16 Video Interviews
I have been incredibly busy while staying in NYC. Indeed, I managed to shoot 16 video interviews between Monday 28th and Wednesday 30th September. I will be posting all of them on my blog soon. Stay tuned!
If you can't wait to watch them, I invite you to visit my Dailymotion page and the Visible Banking Facebook page.
Interview #4 - SmartyPig: Mike Ferrari, Co-Founder & Bob Weinschenk, CEO
SmartyPig is one of the coolest initiatives in the banking industry. Basically it is a online service which enables you not only to set up your own saving goals, but also to share them with your family members and friends.
They aim to turn people into 'smart savers'. And it is totally social. I love The Pig! ;-)
SmartyPig partners with only one bank per country, hence the importance of choosing the right financial institution. They claim to be able to customize and roll out their service in just 90 days.
SmartyPig is currently available in the US and in Australia. Expect more countries and partnerships next year!
As you would expect, you can find SmartyPig on twitter @Smartypig (over 4,500 followers), facebook (over 2,000 fans), and their blog. You can find SmartyPig Australia on twitter @SmartyPigAU, facebook, and their blog.
Mike Ferrari, Co-Founder & Bob Weinschenk, CEO
I first got in touch with the two Co-Founder, Mike Ferrari and Jon Gaskell, last year when I was Senior Innovation Manager at Lloyds TSB. I introduced SmartyPig to my Savings colleagues, but got nowhere. Shame. I would have loved to see the bank becoming SmartyPig's UK partner and embracing social media in a high profile fashion, like ANZ did in Australia a few months earlier.
What a great team! Not only Mike, Jon, and Bob, their new CEO, are really nice guys, but they are enthusiastic, passionate, and know how to communicate their vision. I left our meeting re-energized!
In addition to Linkedin, you can find Mike on twitter @mferrari and Jon on twitter @jongaskell2.
At Finovate, Mike demoed SmartyPig's fully customizable new sharing features on twitter, facebook, as well as their improved widget which could be embedded in over 20 social media sites.
During the interview, Mike will talk you through those new sharing features, while Bob will share with us his priorities as new CEO:
1. finding a bigger partner in the US,
2. carefully selecting the right long-term partners outside the US (Bob sees a big opportunity in Asia where saving is a natural),
3. expanding their redemption program.
I invite you to watch my interview with Mike and Bob.
Our Sponsor
A big thanks to my sponsor for this US trip, Finroad the online community for Financial Markets professionals.
Related articles on Visible-Banking.com
* Coverage - Finovate09
* Coverage - Finovate07 & FinovateStartup08
* Visible Banking Services
* Visible Banking Directory: Social Media in Finance
* Visible Banking Twitter Watch (710 accounts tracked in 38 countries)
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