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Fintech week attracted great global interest

More than every second participant at Copenhagen Fintech Week 2020 came from outside Denmark’s borders, which is four to five times more international participants than usual.

19. Oct 2020
3 min

More than every second participant at Copenhagen Fintech Week 2020 came from outside Denmark’s borders, which is four to five times more international participants than usual. “We are so proud and very happy with the event,” says Simon Schou from Copenhagen Fintech Lab.

More than 1,400 people distributed across over 50 countries tuned in to Copenhagen Fintech Week when the conference got its digital début on 15 September. A début that exceeded all expectations, according to Simon Schou, the innovation director at Copenhagen Fintech Lab, which is the organiser of Fintech week.

“In my view, this year’s Fintech Week has been one of the most global Fintech conferences this year in Europe outside London. We are extremely proud of this. We are very very satisfied with the circulation and participation, and we also have the impression that the participants have used it relatively actively,” says Simon Schou, innovation director at Copenhagen Fintech Lab, to Nyhedsbrevet Finans.

According to the innovation director, the digital setup has increased the conference’s international reach. More than half of the participants of the conference come from outside Denmark’s borders, and that is 4-5 times more international participants than normal, explains Simon Schou, who is happy with the great interest.

“We are extremely pleased to have expanded the international global network with speakers and participants from all over the world, including places like South America, South Africa and Australia, which would never be represented at a physical conference. So even though participants from Nordea and Danske Bank were not able to talk in person, they had the opportunity to gain new contacts and set up a virtual meeting with someone from, for example, Banco de Brasil or Banco de Chile,” says Simon Schou.

Next year’s Fintech week will also be digital

It is difficult for the innovation director to assess the extent to which the participants of Fintech week took advantage of the opportunity to establish relations across countries and continents. To learn more of the value of the digital conferences compared to physical conferences, Copenhagen Fintech Lab is therefore sending out a survey to more than 1,400 participants.

Thus far, Copenhagen Fintech Lab has gained lots of digital experience and an archive in excess of 40 hours with recordings from all of Fintech week’s 68 sessions, consisting of presentations and panel debates. And even now it seems that digital access to next year’s Fintech week will be unavoidable.

“It makes sense to create a hybrid variant, where it is possible to participate both digitally and physically at Fintech week next year. We have already decided to make a digital alternative for all our events over the next year, so that we do not end up in the situation where we have to cancel an event due to corona,” concludes Simon Schou.

Facts on Fintech Week 2020

  • Some 1,400 participants from over 50 countries
  • 175 speakers from some 40 countries
  • 68 sessions consisting of presentations and panel debates distributed across 4 stages running simultaneously
  • Each participant was registered to an average of 12 sessions
  • Each session had an average of about 100 registered persons
  • More than 640 different companies participated, including some 300 Fintech startups, 180 larger companies, more than 60 investors, some 15 knowledge institutions (universities) and others.

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