Financial Technology Congress - A Mixed Picture

I visited Boston this morning to attend the Financial Technology Congress where Cognito was a media partner. Unlike the SIFMA or other large industry events the show is designed to be a select affair but even bearing that in mind proceedings were more subdued than expected.

Perhaps not surprising: we're hearing from other conference partners that even where travel budgets haven't been cut executives are still choosing to stay close to their desks while industry news still seems so unsettled. As one client I spoke to put it: "When my house is on fire I may one day be very interested in a discussion about flame proofing your home, but right now I just need a hose."

On the flip side one of the speakers discussing data mangement challenges was a senior operations exec at JPMorgan who until recently was a senior operation executive at Bear Stearns. His tone was measured and his vision was decidedly long-term and one delegate remarked that he gave the same speech only days after the Bear acquisition. Clearly then, per the earlier post, despite a lot of turbulence in the market there is also no shortage of business as usual.