FinTech North – 2022 reflections, plans for 2023 and beyond
Since our inception in 2016, we’ve grown from what started out as a one-day event, to an established ecosystem facilitator operating across the breadth of FinTech in the North. We hold a unique position, not only because we are regionally focused, but also because we don’t align to a particular city or region. We operate across the whole North, as a platform to enable collaboration. FinTech North is also strongly aligned with FinTech nationally and is part of the FinTech National Network.
At our events, we provide a platform to share ideas, celebrate Northern FinTech innovation, champion diversity and share best practice. We welcome speakers from all sub-sectors of FinTech and financial services. We see our events as a microcosm of the thriving FinTech ecosystems in the North – a platform to celebrate innovation and stimulate collaboration across the sector. We also strive to be as inclusive as possible and aim to consistently feature diverse and under-represented speakers at every opportunity.
Brands and organisations continue to utilise FinTech North as a strategic platform to grow their profile in the sector, develop their professional networks and ultimately, to engage in a truly thriving ecosystem.
In 2022, despite navigating a post-pandemic environment and dodging travel disruption, FinTech North recorded a landmark year of events and now work with more partners than ever before.
In this article, we’re going to share the story of FinTech North’s 2022 and introduce our future plans on how we intend to continue serving the Northern FinTech community the best way we can in 2023.
We’re delighted to say that we now boast a community of over 5,000 people with an interest in FinTech across the North, have doubled our head-count to a team of 2 full-time employees and frequently meet with our advisory board of FinTech leaders from across the North. FinTech North continues to grow as an organisation, but that same passion in developing Northern FinTech still remains.
FinTech continues to showcase it’s worth and pertinence in financial services innovation, from government level, flowing to academia and start-up innovation. Exemplified by recent developments in the sector, such as the recent appointment of Charlotte Crosswell as chair of the Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology and the launch of a new centre for FinTech studies at The University of Manchester.
FinTech North’s 2022
As the FinTech sector continues to impress, FinTech North continues to grow.
Last year, we were (and still are) really proud to launch our digital sandbox and dedicated FinTech marketplace, in partnership with NayaOne. Since this was announced, we’ve integrated the marketplace onto our website and have now on-boarded several FinTech organisations from across the North. We massively encourage others to join up and collaborate. If you’re interested, or want to learn more, click here.
As part of our internal efforts to measure and track our performance, we are working to develop a public-facing dashboard to share our impact as an organisation. Whilst this is still in development and something we hope to publish onto our website at some point this year, we’re delighted to share a preliminary summary of FinTech North’s performance in 2022:
- FinTech North ran 17 events in total throughout the year, welcoming nearly 1,000 delegates from across the Northern FinTech ecosystem in total. We estimate that c.26% of these delegates were in senior roles – c.suite and above.
- FinTech North hit a landmark of 100 events across the North and beyond.
- At our events; we heard from 253 speakers in total – 150 of which were debut speakers, 70 were from out of the region and 98 were speakers from FinTech organisations.
- 30.1% of our speakers were women – we aspire to have a 50/50 gender split of speakers. By no means are we there yet, but we believe this is a positive development, and further fuels our ambition to achieve equality at all of our events.
- As a fundamental objective of our organisation, we’re strongly committed to providing a platform for under-represented founders and speakers from diverse backgrounds.
- Over 3,000 views on the recordings of our events.
- 130,000+ impressions on Linkedin.
- 38 partners brought on board; to support FinTech North activity and deliver value for organisations, at all levels, in the ecosystem.
What’s next for FinTech North?
Community Survey 2022
FinTech North has always been a community platform. To ensure this is upheld, we run a survey to hear the views of our community every year. The intention of this is utilise the feedback to improve our events and develop our offering in the following year.
We’re delighted to announce that our community survey is now live! Help shape our activity for the next 12 months and be in with a chance of winning a £100 voucher prize.
With our community at the forefront of our every move, we can’t wait to hear your thoughts and adapt our offering accordingly. You can fill out the survey here.
2023 Events
We’re now pulling together our events calendar for the next year. We can confirm our annual flagship conferences; our signature events, curated to celebrate the thriving ecosystems in each region in Leeds, Newcastle and Manchester. We’re hopeful of reaching Liverpool with a conference too. We will also run monthly events on more specialised topics such as:
- Open Banking and Open Finance
- Operational Resilience
- RegTech
- Mortgages
- Gamification
- Web3 and the Metaverse
- AI in the future of Financial Services
- Future of… savings, money and payments
- Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies
- Regulation
- and more…
Speaking and Sponsorships
With these events, we have many sponsorship and speaking opportunities available. If you are interested in supporting our 2023 events, or looking to use FinTech North as a platform to support your business development strategy, now is a great time to get in touch. If you’d like to find out more, reach out to us via email at info@fintechnorth.uk.
Partner with FinTech North in 2023
Furthermore, we have annual partnership packages available to come on board and support our organisation. To find out the benefits of this, and to claim your FinTech North partner badge for use across your website and collateral, reach out to us via info@fintechnorth.uk.
Joe Roche, Engagement Manager, FinTech North
“FinTech North is a small organisation with a huge reach, an organisation that has an impact far beyond bringing people together. I think we will look back on 2022 as a year where we really pushed past being an organisation that runs great FinTech networking events and became more – an organisation that enables FinTechs to grow, helps to put regional ecosystems on the global stage and works strategically with businesses of all shapes and sizes. We have big plans for the future, especially in areas like talent and skills, so watch this space! Thanks for all your support this year and we look forward to seeing you all again in 2023!”
Christopher Sier, Chairman, FinTech North & FinTech Envoy, HM Treasury
“FinTech North was the first regional FinTech network in the UK, created from the demand by the Northern FinTech community for what can be best described as a ‘home’; a safe place where we could meet, discuss, learn and grow. And from that starting point 7 years ago we have indeed grown and grown and grown, always fed by the demand from our members. And I am still constantly surprised by the sheer diversity of the people I meet, the subjects we cover and the expertise we find. I hope to be long involved.”
Julian Wells, Director, Whitecap Consulting and FinTech North
“7 years on I still get a real buzz out of every FinTech North event that takes place. The FinTech sector has certainly matured and grown substantially since 2016, but the core purpose and principles of FinTech North remain unchanged and it feels like a lot of people get a lot of benefit and value from being part of the events and the community. I’m looking forward to seeing what 2023 brings, and feel confident it will be our biggest and best yet.”
Finally, we’d just like to thank the amazing Northern FinTech community for their support and engagement throughout the year. FinTech North is only going to get bigger and better, and evidently, so will the FinTech sector. We look forward to seeing you again soon!
