AccelerateHER by Investing Women: Bootcamps and Angel Investment opportunities
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Edinburgh: 25th September
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Glasgow: 21st November
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Aberdeen: early 2019 (exact date to be confirmed shortly)
Applied Fintech Project at the University of Glasgow
After the many important achievements during its first year of existence, the University of Glasgow Fintech Society is delighted to share its ambitious plans for the upcoming academic year.
Now that the new academic year is approaching, the society aims to develop even more by offering innovative learning opportunities.
A proof of this is the Applied Fintech Project (AFTP), a 7-week-long activity based on experiential learning, which will take place between September and November 2018.
During the working period, the teams will be supported and guided by mentors (University of Glasgow alumni and/or professionals) and they will be asked to prepare a report and a presentation to show their work.
The AFTP will end with a final event on Friday 16th November 2018, during which the teams will have the chance to present in front of an audience of academics, professionals and students. A board of judges will then deliberate which team has presented the best solution to the case.
The event, taking place at Glasgow University Union (GUU), will also represent a great networking opportunity for everyone involved.
The Applied Fintech Project is not only an exciting opportunity for the students and the businesses involved, but also the first project of its kind organised by a student-led society in Scotland.
Fintech Society members will work in teams to map out the challenges and opportunities faced by the businesses with regards to Fintech, drawing on cross-disciplinary research to devise tailored insights and potential solutions for the firm. At the same time, the startup providing the case will benefit from having the opportunity to gain another perspective on the specific Fintech-related issue from university students. Furthermore, the business will havethe chance to promote themselves among university students interested in technology,finance and innovation.
Apart from the kind support received by Orca in the provision of the case, the AFTP is supported by the UofG Fintech Society’s main sponsor, Previse, a successful Fintech startup that uses an artificial intelligence solution to support instant payments between corporates and SMEs.
Global outlook #1 – New Zealand – Banqer
Blockchain Live 2018
On September 26 in London, Europe’s premier blockchain event will bring the latest and greatest in Blockchain, DLT and Smart Contracts. Blockchain Live 2018 will welcome big names such as Bitfury, ConsenSys and EOS.
For the first time, a meeting of some of the greatest experts in blockchain and DLT will be hosted in London. Amongst others, Nick Szabo, the father of smart contracts; Alex Tapscott, Author of the Blockchain Revolution; Blockchain Guru, Oliver Bussmann and the Chamber of Digital Commerce’s Perianne Boring will share their thoughts.
Blockchain Live 2018 will deliver industry inspired content. The conference will help businesses wishing to harness the potential of blockchain. It will look at the full spectrum from pioneering developers to the new generation of investors and entrepreneurs.
The event will contain a mix of free-to-attend and paid-for content. The paid-for events: the Blockchain Leaders’ Summit and C-Suite Stage, are directed at business leaders who want to learn from real life case studies on strategic implications of blockchain.
The C-Suite events will help attendees make the most of a blockchain enabled future.
There are 7 free-to-attend Industry Stages’ around some verticals such Fintech, Govtech, TechDev, Product Journey, Cryptocurrency, Energy Forum and Creatives including gaming, gambling and entertainment.
You’ll be able to listen from BNP Paribas, SWIFT, London Stock Exchange Group, EDF, Coca-Cola, Bupa and HSBC.
On top of all of this the organisers are bringing 2 new events to Blockchain Live 2018:
Blockchain Bust Up: Live debate on the governance and regulation around Blockchain and DLT
Investor Zone featuring The Start-Up Village and Pitch: a hive of blockchain innovators with new and exciting technologies
To read more and register click here
The Herald Intrapreneurial Conference in association with CivTech®
What is Intrapreneurship?
It is an essential part of a nations landscape to encourage, discuss and focus on Intrapreneurship to ensure that a nation’s economy grows.
Internal Entrepreneurship – intrapreneurship – is crucial to companies who wish to keep their competitive edge. It is becoming increasingly important, in such fast-paced times, to encourage and grow those from the inside of a company, where their talent and knowledge lies.
The conference
To help achieve businesses’ ambitions for empowering those with an entrepreneurial spirit, The Herald are holding their first Intrapreneurial Conference to engage, inspire and showcase organisations, companies, workplaces and individuals who are leading the way on their Intrapreneurial journeys.
Intrapreneurship has never been more important to our businesses, our economy and our society in such changing times. This is an event you do not want to miss.
The Intrapreneurial Conference takes place on August 28 at 200 St Vincent Street, Glasgow.
Register on https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-herald-intrapreneurial-conference-in-association-with-civtech-tickets-47350832615
For further information please contact Kirsty Loughlin on 0141 302 6016 or email kirsty.loughlin@newsquest.co.uk
Thrive in the Digital Age 2018: Focus on future Leadership and skillset
Shifting from an age where humans had to adapt to machine interfaces, to a new era in which machines adapt to human interface. How will the paradigm shift to natural AI affect the way we work and how we interact with technology? The changes in digital space are affecting us as customers but what about us as employees and our career paths? There are many unanswered questions in todays fast changing technology landscape but with changes and uncertainties often comes opportunities and innovation.
Tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today. “Thrive in the Digital Age” brings together Keynote speakers from Google, Accenture Digital, Fintech Scotland, RBS and DLA Piper. Keynotes will share latest news of their fields, from new discoveries to new applications. They will also focus on career outlook based on their vision of the changing landscape in their disciplines as well as how they are working to influence the future.
Why Attend
Get inspired
Industry pioneers will share their vision on digital era, future leadership and how to accelerate your career.
Drive a discussion
Ask and discuss all your burning questions with industry experts during our panel and networking sessions.
Networking
Meeting like-minded people in a lively and friendly environment with food and drinks.
Supercharge your Career
Make this Thursday a day to recharge and refocus your career.
Contribute to a great cause
All earnings from the conference will go towards the Prince’s Trust. While developing yourself, you are supporting young people’s growth.
What’s included in your ticket
✓Access to all speeches
✓Take part in our panel session
✓Access to our booths
✓Energetic brain food, including, refreshments throughout the day
✓Access to post-conference drinks reception
Driving fintech growth in Scotland
FinTech Scotland, in partnership with Scottish Enterprise, has announced today the appointment of corporate innovation firm Vivolution to support the drive of fintech growth in Scotland.
One of FinTech Scotland’s strategic priorities is to support fintech firms’ growth and innovation by enabling access to funding and professional support services.
To deliver this, Vivolution has been appointed to lead a new Fintech Network Integrator service providing take to market and Investment sourcing services to fintech start-ups and scale-ups.
Specifically, Vivolution will be helping fintech firms from across Scotland to accelerate their potential in domestic and international markets as well as encouraging collaborations between financial services, start-ups, investors, regulators, industry and academia.
Commenting on this announcement, Stephen Ingledew said: “Scotland has got everything it takes to be one of the leading fintech hubs in the world and the appointment of Vivolution will further support the collaboration across the sector. We are looking forward to working closely with the team.”
Fintech director at Scottish Enterprise, Danny Cusick, added: “Our Network Integrator is a tried and tested model aimed at supporting the development of emerging or niche sectors. Through innovation and collaboration, Vivolution will work with Scottish Enterprise to help companies to maximise their growth ambitions and position Scotland as the location of choice for future Fintech investment.”
Mark Roger at Vivolution, said: “We are delighted to be working with Fintech Scotland and Scottish Enterprise to help develop the eco system here in Scotland. Through their ongoing work to encourage and support emerging innovation and investment potential, there is a real opportunity to position Scotland as one of the leading centres for Fintech innovation, collaboration and growth ”“ and we’re delighted to be playing a part in this.”
Startup Summit Edinburgh – An Overview
Startup Summit was designed to bring together, inspire and educate entrepreneurs at all levels of business growth. Scotland has a thriving startup scene and a huge amount of enterprise support available; Startup Summit brings all the knowledge and connections under one roof.
At Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh, this year’s summit will host over 30 world-class speakers across three themed stages: the Main Stage, the Business Builder Stage and the Impact Stage. Over 1,000 attendees are invited to join in with discussion panels, workshops and the interactive exhibition space. For business leaders at all stages, Startup Summit is an opportunity to engage with experts, build a network and gain valuable tools for long-term success. There are also 30 exhibitor spaces at each summit, which allow entrepreneurs to meet similar business, mentorship enterprises and potential corporate connections.
The theme for this year’s Startup Summit is the power of company culture.’ Experts will be looking at the growing values-led mentality of both consumers and employees, as well as addressing recent controversies and issues such as the gender pay gap results and the gig economy.
Previous years have seen a variety of high-profile speakers and entrepreneurs attend Startup Summit. In 2017 alone, the event hosted James Watt, Founder of Brewdog, Josh Littlejohn, Founder of Social Bite, Chris van der Kuyl, Founder of 4J Studios, Mary Owen, Founder of Ellis Productions and Scottish First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon (who launched the Unlocking Ambition initiative). This year, confirmed speakers include:
Alan Mahon, Founder of Brewgooder
Mike Atterley, Founder of BlackCircles.com and CEO of Atterly.
Over the past seven years, Startup Summit has grown exponentially and is now recognised as one of the leading events for entrepreneurship in the UK. Startup Summit has been organised by WeAreTheFuture since 2011, which underwent a merge and is now part of FutureX. The team at FutureX believe that values-driven entrepreneurship is the key towards a more virtuous economy for all. Through unique events, programmes and partnerships, FutureX educate and inspire the next wave of business leaders to grow their organisations with a purpose greater than profit.
Each year, FutureX run a Startup Summit Competition, which will see one UK-based tech entrepreneur awarded a top prize, including a free place on the Silicon Valley Accelerate Programme in Spring 2019. Three finalists will pitch head to head on the main stage at Startup Summit for this unique opportunity. Previous winners include Christopher McCann, Founder of Snap40 and Tarryn Gorre, Founder of Kafoodle.
What FinTechs really need”¦ And why it helps to ask them
Fintech”¦the realm of Open Banking, Data Sets, IOT, VR & AR Platforms, Data science, WCDI, sandboxes, Secure IT”¦..
All very Tech orientated, as the name suggests! So, when global Digital Transformation and IT service providers Sopra Steria teamed up with sector growth enabler FinTech Scotland to support the FinTech community, they made a fair assumption that the most valuable help they could offer would be access to UK banking systems as a development and testing environment.
Seemed logical, so the project to prepare this infrastructure entered the planning phase. However, before moving into build, the team took a step back and decided to present the initial concepts to a selection of Fintech MDs and CEOs.
Good job they did.
25% of Scotland’s FinTechs were interviewed, with only two of them giving the idea the thumbs up, and only one saying it was something they’d value enough to pay for. (note: it wasn’t necessarily going to charged for, but the question was a great indicator of value)
So, the main assumption had been wrong”¦.a discovery that has saved a lot of time and money being invested in something that wasn’t necessarily needed by the customer. Not that it can’t be offered at some point, it’s just not the priority or part of the MVP.
However, the in-depth interviews also unearthed some even more surprising information. When asked about the main issues and challenges facing their businesses, the feedback had a lot in common with start-ups and innovators in other sectors:
Finding the right people, especially IT specialists
Lacking a support network, experienced Execs and mentors who had “been there and done that”
Knowing how to scale operationally
Funding
The verdict”¦?
FinTechs are just like any other business and they face the same challenges. They are founded by entrepreneurs, not necessarily “Tech” experts.
The conclusion”¦.?
Genuine, unbiased customer insight and feedback is vital at the very start of any innovation process, whether it’s starting a new business or developing a new product or service. Under-rated and rarely done properly, it doesn’t have to be an expensive or lengthy process.
In today’s agile world it can done in a matter of weeks, but can save months of wasted time and resource, and £000’s of investment.
https://propositionb.com/proposition-Development
100,000 signatures for the Pension Dashboard petition
38 Degrees recently launched a petition in response to media reports that the Pensions Dashboard might not go ahead.
The report suggested that MP Esther McVey, the work and pensions secretary, was thinking of ditching the pensions dashboard due to more pressing priorities.
100,000 signatures
The petition has now reached 100,000 signatures, showing the depth of feeling and the support that the initiative has in the country. It also means that it can now be considered for debate in Parliament.
The benefits of the Pensions Dashboard are easily seen and have clearly struck a chord with people.
Anthony Rafferty, Managing Director at Origo said: “We at Origo have been passionate supporters of the Pensions Dashboard since the initiative was launched, believing it is essential to help individuals engage with their retirement planning, particularly in the new pensions environment which was ushered in with the pensions freedoms.”
The technology is ready
The technology was recently successfully tested on 15 million users. It is now ready to be implemented and used by customers and financial planners. It is seen as a vital tool with people working on average 11 jobs in their lifetime and struggling to keep on top of their various pension pots.
Anthony Rafferty added “We believe the Pension Dashboard is a superb opportunity for Government and the industry to provide a simple way for UK pension holders in the country to track their pensions, understand their value and what that means for their future and where appropriate, to act on their data in their best interests.
“The DWP Feasibility Study into the Pension Dashboard is expected to be published later this year which we hope will reflect the strong support the initiative has both within the industry and with consumers.”