Intersekt 2017...that's a wrap!
Its been a whirlwind ride but Australias inaugural fintech festival - Intersekt - is over.In this post, were keen to bring all the highlights and key facts and figures from the festival, held from 27 October to 3 November 2017 in Melbourne.The festival culminated with our Collab/Collide Summit, which attracted some 750 people and dominated the financial services news across its two days.All up, there were 590 attendees, 100 speakers, 40 exhibitors and 20 media.Australian Treasurer Scott Morrison used the summit to announce he would be introducing legislation to require comprehensive credit reporting, to help small businesses and families get a better lending deal.He also announced that he was working with the UK Government to create a fintech bridge and confirmed the Reserve Bank of Australia was an observer on a fintech industry push to create a digital Australian dollar.You can read our coverage of his speech here and the speech itself here.We also had huge media attention flowing from the release of our 2017 EY FinTech Australia Census on the Friday. Across the two days, there were many interesting discussions and debates across issues such as open data, artificial intelligence, wealth and investment, digital identity, insurtech and regtech. For instance:
- The Victorian Government reaffirmed its focus to grow its local cyber security and artificial intelligence industry
- Our Women in FinTech panel discussed how we can improve gender diversity in fintech
- Our FinTech Trailblazers panel was made up of fintech entrepreneurs who discussed the barriers theyve had to deal with on their journey to success
- Industry leaders discussed the need for a continued Australian Government focus on innovation as part of our session focussing on the health of the Australian fintech industry
Of course, there was so much to our festival than the summit.For instance, we also had a great open data hackathon with NAB. Our hackathon winners developed an education tool for small business based on data - you can read more about them here.On our Blockchain Day, we had a great breakfast discussing where the Australian and international blockchain industry was heading along with company pitches at Baker & McKenzie and an incredibly well attended tour of Melbournes Blockchain Centre.On our Corporate Day, Reinventure took out the Reverse Pitch - where venture capital funds pitched to startups (rather than the other way around which is usually the case!)All the photos from our festival can be found on our Flickr siteOf course, none of this would be possible without our fantastic partners and sponsors.These include the Victorian Government (our presenting partner), NAB, Accenture, Australia Post, NEM, ValueNet Venture Capital, EY, Envestnet Yodlee, Herbert Smith Freehills, UK Department of Industry and Trade, Hcash, Acorns and Airwallex and our tireless media partners Business Insider, RFi Group, FinTech Business and M+C Partners.