During the pandemic, we all adapted to working remotely (more or less!), and many wondered whether there would still be a need for big, in person events again. Last week Sibos proved that while payments relies heavily on technology and standards as an industry, it ultimately is still a relationship business, and in person meetings still matter. (As does seeing Franco! *). Sibos was back with a bang.
That said, it would seem to that the industry felt comfortable attending quite late – registrations almost doubled in the last few weeks before the event. And that probably explained why a few “usual suspects” didn’t have stands, and had much smaller number of attendees. The show floor felt smaller –– but the spacing better. Frankly, our feet thanked the shortage distances – we’re out of practice!
The Fintech zone, while not quite so remote as the previous show in London, did seem to be a little odd, with whoever designed the space thinking it was still 2010 – lots of scaffolding, and video games surrounding some of the most innovative businesses in the world...?
As always, I only managed to attend those session that I spoke at. My thanks again to TCS Bancs for allowing me to talk about their solution, and how it was used in one of our Model Bank winners; and to CGI, where we discussed how a payments transformation can make a real contribution to a banks ESG goals.
