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Dubai, for the first time, hosted the FiNext Awards and Conference on the 26th and 27th of February, 2020 at Le Méridien Dubai Hotel & Conference Centre. This much awaited conference of the year 2020, brought together and celebrated the excellence of companies and leaders in the Financial sector. The conference hall of the venue transformed into a knowledge hub when the best minds came together to discuss revolutionary ideas, current trends, and future opportunities of the FinTech industry.
Day one witnessed esteemed personalities like Ramkumar Balasubramanian, the Head of Financial Planning & Analysis at Barclays, Rowland Hirst, the CEO at Forum360, Danny Abla, Founder of BANKIOM, Anne- Sophie, the Founding Partner of CIRCE Partners and Talal Tabbaa, the Co-Founder and COO of Jibrel Network as individual speakers among others. The discussions happened on topics and ideas that are expected to change the course of and shape the FinTech industry in the future. Throughout the day, panel discussions packed the stage with innovative and knowledgeable minds like Irina Samoylova, Peter Tavener, Deborah Webster, Nikhil Sama Ankur Sambhar, and many others well-known in this industry. The panels discussed in detail topics like- Mobile and Digital Wallets: Bringing Fintech to the Masses, Regulatory Expectations and its implication on banks and their clients and Digital Future of Finance.
Day two began with the stand-alone session of Haysam Fahmy, the VP of Mastercard, who spoke about ‘Smarter Digital Acquisition for Banks in 2020, followed by a session by Ian Dillon, the Co-Founder of NOW Money who expressed his thoughts on ‘Fintech- The opportunity for customers and banks in the Middle East and Africa’. Aamena Khan, Partner at PwC had the session on ‘New World, New Skills’ while Amnah Ajmal, the Group Executive- Merchants at Mastercard spoke on ‘ Digital transformation and power of partnerships with Fintechs. The panel discussions for this day brought Harsh Patel, Daniel Gould, Emre Karter, and Irina Samoylova together to discuss their views on ‘Fintech & Banking: Bridging the divide’. Another panel moderated by Khadeer Peer Shariff had Muadh Alhusaini, Rudra Dalmia, Kaushleandra Singh, and Ritu Marya discussing ‘ AI, ML, Blockchain in Finance’.
Besides the informative sessions and discussions, the conference provided a comfortable environment for its attendees to interact and connect over lunch and coffee.
The award sessions on both the days celebrated and honored the hard work of the leaders and the companies who have dedicated their time, energy and minds to the FinTech industry and changed its course through their ideas, innovations and persistent efforts as well as celebrate the people who have put their lives in innovating and transforming the way how people transact through technology.
Fin-Tech industry needed space for the smartest, innovative, inventive and ambitious people to connect and create, consequently FiNext Awards and Conference were started as a dedicated platform to serve the needs of the Fin-Tech industry in terms of interaction, innovation, networking and showcasing of the talent.
Testaments of the attendees is the reflection of the success of the event and the effort of the organizers. Abdullah Almarzuki, the Head of PMO at Abdul Latif Jameel United Finance Co, said “I thank all the organizers of this event, for acknowledging the achievements and efforts of all the awardees. And at the same time, my Congratulations to all the awardees leaders and organizations, for their great contributions and achievements.
Such events will continue to bring inspiration for people to strive hard and achieve their goals in their career and will also be a stepping stone for greater opportunities.”.
Chirag Sampath, a Senior Executive with 20 years of experience in Financial Services said “I am honored and delighted to be part of the innovative Fintech community that is laying the foundations for a new era in the Finance industry. This prestigious award motivates me to strive further and to continue the hard work towards creating simple yet transformational Fintech solutions for the future.”.
Alexander Wiener-Fererhofer, the head of corporate customer business services & Director VKB Bank Wels , Austria said “Life begins at the end of the comfort zone – the FiNext Conference is a perfect place to go beyond the usual business life cycle and become familiar with new financial ideas and thoughts. Compared with a multinational network, it is a great way to be fit for future challenges”.
FiNext Awards and Conference provides a platform to learn about innovations in the FinTech industry and know the people driving the disruption and changing the course of this industry. The conference has been built to provide a platform for startups, SMEs, key decision-makers, researchers, investors and people from the media to interact and garner meaningful alliances.
As Anas Jawed the Co-Founder and CEO of FiNext Conference puts it ‘we are beyond the point where FinTech was a new industry, it’s the time where we are seeing the birth of improvised solutions through the existing and ever-developing technology in the financial space. This is why we need to develop a global community of individuals and companies who are operating in the financial sector and are enthusiastic about technological innovation. FiNext Conference is facilitating just that.’
The fourth edition of FiNext Awards & Conference at Le Méridien Dubai Hotel and Conference Centre on 26th and 27th of February, 2020, was presented by InternetShine Corporation USA.
After a successful conference in Dubai, the next FiNext Conference will be held in San Francisco on July 30th – 31st 2020, Amsterdam on November 26th – 27th and their most awaited Dubai event on January 27th – 28th, 2021.
Conference Website: www.dubai.finextcon.com
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