Spring Conference Season 2024
Wow what a busy few weeks for David Birch for the Spring Conference Season 2024 which has seen Dave’s feet barely touch the ground with back to back events for 4 weeks and there’s still a week of the season to go!
A quick round up of the events so far:
Mobile World Congress (MWC) – Barcelona
Artificial Intelligence was a big topic across this Spring’s Conference Season and that included at Mobile World Congress where Dave sat in on sessions such as ‘AI Unleased: Big Ideas, Bold Solutions and Bright Futures’. As Dave mentioned over on X there “is no escape from AI!”
Digital Identity was also covered at MWC with the European Commission hosting a session entitled: ‘The EU Digital Identity Wallet – Opportunities for collaboration with the mobile industry’ which Dave had been particularly looking forward to.
A session from Mastercard concluded that “out of band biometrics (eg via bank app) is the biz” as Dave summed it up.
“Passkeys plus SIM as a “gold standard”” was another conclusion drawn from the event in Barcelona.
Last but not least, Dave learned that “at last someone is tackling the world drummer shortage head on” – view the video here to understand more on this one!
Fintech Meetup – Las Vegas
Takeaways from this year’s Fintech Meetup, week 2 of the Spring Conference Season 2024:
“Big predictions are tokenisation of real-world (dollar) assets and I am certain he is spot on – the global demand for dollar assets is insatiable – and of course generative AI” – Dave’s take on Matt Harris’ session at Fintech Meetup.
“Zach from Plaid says that early stage funding is holding up and he think there will be “more shots on goal” in B2B than B2C”
Dave was also on stage a few times hosting some panels:
New Innovations in Digital Identity & Trust with Rick Song – Persona, Alain Meier – Plaid, Sarah Biller – Fintech Sandbox
Interview with Jonny Ayers of Socure on generative AI being used by fraudsters in identity attacks
DefenseStorm Sponsored Session: Mastering Cyber Risk Management: Innovating to Stay Ahead of Cyber Criminals
Merchant Payment Ecosystems (MPE) – Berlin
Another reminder that artificial intelligence is everywhere during Anna Maj’s panel discussion: “There’s no getting around it – AI is disruptive in payments just as in all other sectors”
“ECB say that the digital euro will come in “two forms”, online and offline (ie, device to device). Personally, I think that all payments should be device to device” says Dave Birch!
One of the firm’s Dave has an investment in was also on stage: Sam Flynn (CEO of Hands in) was talking about their split payent solution that is now live with Air Europa!
Dave was also on stage himself:
Panel on generative AI in payments
Panel on European payments and a CBDC
Wrap up panel on 3 days of content covering everything from AI to softpos
European Card Payment Association (ECPA) – Lisbon
Last but not least, the final stop in the Spring Conference Season 2024 will see Dave speaking at ECPA in Lisbon on ‘The Impact of Generative AI on Payments Organisations’. See you there!