FinTech North Returns to Liverpool for Second Annual Conference
Hot on the heels of September’s sold-out inaugural Newcastle conference, FinTech North will be making its way to Liverpool for another full-day FinTech event. The conference will be FinTech North’s fourth major conference in 2019, which has been its most action-packed year so far, and its 47th event since its establishment in 2016.
The conference takes place on 14th November and is hosted at Avenue HQ in Liverpool City Centre by Barclays Eagle Labs, the bank’s national network of labs intended to create a UK-wide entrepreneurial community, and provide access to innovation programming.
The free-to-attend conference will assemble high-profile expert speakers, policymakers and FinTech firms from across the region, including representatives from Barclays, tickr, Nova, The Northern Powerhouse Partnership and the University of Liverpool. The event will provide opportunities for those in the sector to obtain insights and advice from leading lights in FinTech, learn from panel discussions, and be exposed to the region’s most promising startups and scaleups.
The conference will bring together representatives from some of the most significant organisations in UK FinTech: HM Treasury, whose network of envoys, including FinTech North Chairman Chris Sier, work across the UK to help foster and grow FinTech talent; Innovate Finance, who, along with FinTech North and FinTech Scotland, created the FinTech National Network; and FinTech Alliance, the recently launched community hub for the FinTech sector, connecting the UK to the global FinTech ecosystem. Henri Murison, director of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, will present the closing keynote.
Chris Sier said: “This has been an incredible year for FinTech North, with our co-founding of the FinTech National Network, and the expansion of our conference programme covering more of the UK than ever before. This conference promises to give an unparalleled opportunity for FinTech professionals from across the sector, in Liverpool and the surrounding region, to come together, learn from each other, and collaboratively explore how to continue growing FinTech in the Northern Powerhouse.”
Speakers include Kevin Telford from ThoughtWorks, speaking on ‘Open Finance’, tying into Kevin’s own involvement in establishing the Global Open Finance Centre of Excellence. Kevin, who also spoke at the Newcastle conference, has a focus on the use of technology to combat some of the world’s most troubling issues, such as poverty and child exploitation. Darren Earnshaw, Technology Director for Barclays Ventures, will be talking about how Barclays has embraced FinTech by disrupting itself from within. As well as individual speakers, the conference will have multiple expert panel discussions, including a locally-focused ‘FinTech in the Liverpool City Region’ panel.
Liverpool’s FinTech landscape boasts the presence of several extremely high-profile and longstanding companies, including Santander, Barclays, and Investec, who are rapidly increasing their technological footprint in the region. Alongside this, Liverpool is home to a burgeoning startup scene; Liverpool-based cofoundery Nova has helped to found more than 80 startups, and tickr, a Liverpool-based FinTech whose co-founder Matt Latham will be speaking at the conference, recently won a coveted place on the 2019 Tech Nation FinTech programme – one of several FinTech North alumni to do so. Combined, all this has seen Liverpool’s tech sector grow to producing £300m annual turnover, and employing nearly 13,000 people.
Julian Wells, Director of Whitecap Consulting and FinTech North, commented: “We are thrilled to have been able to bring together some of the figureheads of the UK FinTech ecosystem. Between them, HM Treasury, Innovate Finance, and FinTech Alliance are orchestrating the evolution of the UK FinTech sector, both within the Northern Powerhouse and across the nation as a whole. Hearing from them alongside Liverpool’s very own home-grown FinTech talent will allow us not just to celebrate Liverpool’s tech scene, but also to get a sense of how Liverpool can continue to contribute to the wider world of UK FinTech.”
He added: “Liverpool is one of the brightest lights in UK tech, and has been going from strength to strength in recent years. It is a young, vibrant city, boasting some truly innovative and disruptive ideas and companies. As always, we hope that our conference can help build strong ties between the region’s FinTech professionals, and continue the upward movement of FinTech across the Northern Powerhouse.”
Finextra covered the announcement here.
