Scotland Fintech Festival 2023

8.30am - 4.30pm

The conference will reflect on the evolution of financial technology against this backdrop of volatility; considering the key trends, challenges and market disruptions, and discussing the opportunity for Fintech to help customers manage the cost of living crisis and help the country to build back better.

5.30pm

Join the Scottish Business Network for an exciting in-person event with Eric McAfee, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and venture capitalist with a lifelong commitment to agriculture and renewable energy. This is a unique opportunity to gain valuable insights and network with like-minded professionals.

08:30am - 10:30am

The topic we’ll be discussing and exploring is: How do you identify and secure a winning partnership? How to identify a winning partnership, the next steps to secure that partnership, learnings and experiences from our expert panellists, a Q&A to answer your partnership queries. This event is hosted by Findr, the marketplace for business partnerships, helping the likes of Deliveroo, Experian, Mastercard, and 100s of others identify & secure Discovery calls with their targets.

3pm - 4.30pm

The University of Glasgow’s Adam Smith Business School is pleased to host this round-table discussion as part of Scotland’s FinTech Festival. We will be featuring contributions from leading industry experts and university researchers. We also draw inspiration from Adam Smith as we continue to mark Adam Smith 300, the tercentenary of his birth. Join us to discuss the ins and outs of the Consumer Duty that came into place in July 2023, how it supports consumers and how it generates resilience and growth for the market.

8am - 10am

Imagine a Scottish Economy and tech ecosystem where large businesses are encouraged and incentivised to procure from smaller, local tech start-ups and scale-ups. We expect local restaurants to serve up locally source ingredients - why should tech be any different? As the discussion on Community Wealth Building and its ability to act as a driver for economic prosperity heats up, we invite you to engage with our panel of esteemed government officials, corporate procurers, and entrepreneurs, all interested in building greater partnerships between the big and the small to drive a prosperous Scottish economy. Come and join the conversation, and help yourself to breakfast on us!

9am - 11am

We are delighted to invite you to a Scotland Fintech Festival roundtable discussion at CodeBase, Edinburgh on the intersection of finance, fintech, and their impact on the customer and the climate journey. This event will bring together thought leaders and innovators to explore how these sectors can collaborate to create amplified value for customers while addressing critical climate challenges. The problem statement of discussion is: how can finance and fintech create amplified value across the customer and climate journey?

4pm - 8pm

This event includes free dinner (pizza or sushi) and is sponsored by Polygon. This is a technical workshop and anyone that has basic skills in software development can attend.

9am - 1am

Join us to hear how we can unlock the value of working with real-world financial data to support the design & execution of truly impactful, innovative research.

9.30am - 12pm

Greg will explore and present ideas to make your next networking event more enjoyable. The session will look at key area’s of positive networking including: - Preparation - Sparking conversation - Being your natural self - Understanding realistic outcomes.

8.30am – 10.30am

Join us at our Edinburgh office as GP Bullhound will reveal the key findings of their annual Titans of Tech report, charting the growth trends of Europe's tech ecosystem, and highlighting the companies that are demonstrating the greatest ambition. For more details and to register interest, please email events@addleshawgoddard.com

5pm - 8pm

It has now been over 5 years since the legislation enacted to enable open banking took effect in the UK. What has been achieved and what remains to be done? In this panel session we will consider: 5 years of open banking: biggest successes and challenges - Opportunities for innovation with open finance data - Regulatory and key stakeholder change on the horizon - Where can open finance really make a difference?

9.30am - 4.30pm

How will data and artificial intelligence (AI) shape the way we live and work in the future? How will they shape future healthcare, future energy supplies, the future workforce and more? And how is Edinburgh leading the way as it seeks to be Europe’s Data Capital of the future?

4pm - 5pm

In this meetup, you will learn about the causes and consequences of the cyber skills gap, and how to overcome it, combined with a view of whether cyber skills gap is more a perception problem. You will hear from James Walsh, Head of Cyber, Hays who is a Cyber Security Recruitment expert who will share his insights and experiences on how to attract, train, and retain talent in cyber security. You will also have the opportunity to network with other professionals and enthusiasts who are interested in this topic.

8.30am - 10am

Come and enjoy some breakfast, a coffee and a chat with some fantastic people in the GreenTech community - hosted by Barclays Eagle Labs and CodeBase. Jo Weston, aka ‘Chief Mission Officer’ helps CEOs and leadership teams to build impactful brands centered around a clear purpose and mission. Jo has worked both in UK and more recently in the Netherlands with award-winning start-ups, scale-ups, green tech and B Corps.

10am - 11am

In this meetup, you will learn about the causes and consequences of the cyber skills gap, and how to overcome it, combined with a view of whether cyber skills gap is more a perception problem. You will hear from James Walsh, Head of Cyber, Hays who is a Cyber Security Recruitment expert who will share his insights and experiences on how to attract, train, and retain talent in cyber security. You will also have the opportunity to network with other professionals and enthusiasts who are interested in this topic.

As one of the Scotland’s biggest software conferences for over 25 years, ScotSoft allows you to connect, learn, and innovate while meeting new talent at the Young Software Engineer of the Year Awards. This year, the event offers an unparalleled opportunity to gain invaluable insights from industry leaders, collaborate with peers, and explore the latest industry trends.

10am - 5pm

This September, we return to bring together leaders of innovation and design teams for a day of inspiring and practical keynotes and intimate, facilitated workshops. No sponsors. No sales pitches. The focus will be on real-world innovation and design: how to create future products and services in complex and changing environments, while growing and nurturing your teams, and yourself.

6pm - 9pm

Data drives good decisions, it is critical to innovation… but what if the data doesn't exist or is locked away behind layers of financial legislation and compliance? This panel discussion will consider the opportunities to breakdown barriers and accelerate innovation in FinTech and financial services through the adoption and utilisation of synthetic data sets.

3pm - 4.30pm

Scotland possesses a vibrant fintech cluster. Over 220 firms are innovating to support citizens, businesses and society in the UK. As those fintech SMEs grow nationally they will also often explore international opportunities. The Scottish Government published "A trading Nation" in 2019, a plan to grow Scotland's exports. It is also driving the Scottish Tech Export Plan with Scottish tech clusters including FinTech Scotland. At this round table meeting, part of Scotland Fintech Festival and hosted by Ivan McKee MSP, the Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing, Economy, Fair Work and Energy, Neil Gray, will meet fintech entrepreneurs to discuss how the Scottish Government can best support them on their global expansion journey.

1.30pm - 2.30pm

Open Banking Excellence (OBE) has teamed up with the NCC Group to hold a free masterclass which will answer this question, address the cybersecurity challenges in our industry and explore solutions. We’ll be looking back in time to uncover some of the mistakes made during the five year journey, consider what should have been differently and provide actionable advice for ecosystem players that want to deliver world-class cybersecurity.

6pm - 9pm

It'll be a fun and casual event to discuss and wind down from the day's work, along with a panel discussion on an interesting and relevant fintech-related topic. This time, we'll be talking about delivering a customer-centric product as a fintech. Specifically, we'll talk about: The challenges fintech product teams face with customer-centricity and product delivery - What the ideal fintech product team looks like - How to ensure product customer-centricity in a team.

1pm - 5pm

One of our key roles as an industry body is to connect our membership to drive forward our strategy and improve outcomes for customers. Our membership is also expanding in this area, and we have many new members with propositions and solutions that can drive improvements for customers, colleagues and communities. The data summit will bring together our membership to share the latest data insights, challenges and solutions linked to our strategy.

1.30pm - 4pm

Experts from Edinburgh Napier University (ENU) will bring us the latest thinking in Fraud and Financial Crime in a bespoke educational afternoon. In this session, the following topics will be covered: Fraud and Financial Crime (LLMs/ChatGPT and Fraud): How a spinout at ENU is taking on Impersonation and Imposter Fraud - Quantum Computers. The opportunities and risks of Quantum Computers and Post Quantum Cryptography in Finance

Join Phoenix Group for a discussion on how we can embrace innovation to help more people benefit from financial services, by fulfilling the promise and avoiding the pitfalls of new technologies to improve financial inclusion for all. Our expert panel of speakers will discuss current and future practices in making the sector more inclusive, and explore how we can do more to help people live better, longer lives in a rapidly changing world.

1:30 - 4:30pm

The North East is home to a growing cluster of highly innovative digital tech companies. Providing digital tech products and services in sectors beyond energy and responding to opportunities in emerging potentially high growth/high innovation sectors such as FinTech is essential to the continued growth of the NE tech cluster. Join us for a unique event at ONE Tech Hub during Scotland's FinTech Festival and discover the Scottish FinTech sector's key challenges, trends and opportunities.

Find out how you can take the user experience of your digital product to the next level by giving it a design health-check with the team from Interaktiv Studio. In this one hour workshop, we'll explore common user experience design pitfalls, help you spot them in your product, and give you practical advice on avoiding them.

2pm - 3pm

Showcase Innovation services and provide detail on the offerings/requirements/application processes

08.30 – 10.00am

As part of Fintech Scotland’s Festival, Evelyn Partners is hosting a breakfast event in partnership with TechPassport, Scottish Enterprise, N4 Partners and Royal Bank of Scotland Entrepreneur Accelerator at their new Glasgow office and would be delighted if you could join us. “Mastering Scale” will bring together a combination of FinTechs and key businesses from the broader ecosystem to discuss the elements required to successfully scale and some common pitfalls. The event will consist of a short panel discussion followed by interactive Q&A.

9.30 - 12.00

We will “jargon bust” data protection, discuss the legal implications of using open source software and what founders should be considering when granting data protection and IP warranties.

4.30 - 7.30pm

Join Deloitte Fusion to hear their leading industry research on female financial equality, and learn to gather insights around your own products and services through a User Research Masterclass. Don’t miss out on shaping a more equitable financial future!

8.45am - 2pm

Finance, technology and data collectively have a role to play in creating the infrastructure required to deliver a sustainable future, and in enabling businesses and people from different industries and disciplines to work together to facilitate change. Join us for this half day conference as we consider action and approaches to tackling climate change through collaboration across a range of sectors including fintech, financial services, housing, energy and space.

9am - 12pm

In July, the UK Government proposed sweeping reforms which will see pension funds investing intensively into the domestic growth companies of the future. With an estimated £75bn on the table, it’s understandable that many innovative and disruptive FinTechs will want to know how to access this potentially transformative pool of funding. Join leading financiers from London, Glasgow and Edinburgh to understand what potential investors will be looking for and how companies seeking financing can prepare now to best position themselves to attract the money.

4pm - 6pm

In a world where algorithms increasingly shape our decisions, how can we apply ideas from the humanities to avoid these systems becoming decision-making ‘black boxes’ – and ensure people are held to account when things go wrong? Join three experts from the worlds of academia, design and business for lightning talks that will look beyond the code and examine the ethical and design underpinnings of AI, followed by an open discussion.

2pm - 3pm

Are you a UK fintech looking to expand your business into the United States? Join our webinar on "Navigating the US Regulatory Landscape" as we delve into the intricacies of the US regulatory landscape and explore the opportunities and challenges it presents for UK fintech companies seeking to expand across the Atlantic. Whether you're a seasoned fintech entrepreneur or a budding startup, understanding the US regulatory environment is crucial to successfully entering and thriving in this dynamic market.

5.30 - 8.30

As part of the Scotland Fintech Festival 2023, Rise, created by Barclays and Streets Consulting are proud to bring you a great night of comedy and networking at Barclays Eagle Labs to raise funds in aid of the charity, Street Child. The event will be MC’d by Julia Streets, founder & CEO of Streets Consulting and host of DiverCity Podcast. As a former sell-out stand-up comedian herself, Julia has gigged at the Edinburgh Fringe and London's iconic Comedy Store. Julia will be introducing a great line-up of comedians, which will be revealed in due course!

9.30am - 12.30pm

As the amount of financial assets and information about them in the market increases, it becomes more challenging for investors and financial advisors to select relevant assets to add to financial portfolios. Financial asset recommendations alleviate this information overload by leveraging AI methods to identify a reduced set of assets of interest to the investor. In this event, researchers from the University of Glasgow will discuss how these technologies work, their current challenges and display and demonstrate recent advances on financial technologies.

3pm - 8.30pm

The theme of this event is around education and skills requirements fit for a future Web3 world of employment, what employers and educational establishments should be and are doing now to prepare the next generation, and what employers should be doing to prepare themselves for technologies such as CBDCs and stablecoins becoming part of normal business life.

2pm

Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange regularly raise follow on capital to fund ongoing growth in their businesses, with London’s AIM market representing the biggest growth market in Europe. At this roundtable event, Cavendish will be providing an insight into the different profiles of the companies listed in London and will be discussing the benefits of becoming a public business with a particular focus on how to best build the investment case when considering a listing.

8.30am - 10am

Money has been around for millennia. Largely, money has remained the same for most of that time – a physical object that could be exchanged for goods and services. But last century, money began radically changing as it intersected with the computer revolution. From plastic cards to cryptocurrency, money is continuing to evolve, and at this event, we examine where it’s headed.

9.30am - 11.30am

Rui Cardoso, Head of Insights at Smart Data Foundry will discuss how Private Sector data shared by NatWest Group has been used to create a cost-of-living dashboard for East Renfrewshire Council.

5.30pm - 8pm

Register your place for Open Source Edinburgh on 05 October at Lloyds Banking Group's Port Hamilton building (the old Scottish Widows building for those who know it). The event is taking place as part of the Scottish Fintech Festival and we hugely appreciate Lloyds's hospitality in hosting us. Starting the evening, the team at Lloyds will provide an overview of the group's journey to setting up an Open Source Programme Office. They will share details of their mission to OSPO, and how they put people at the heart of that change.

9am - 12pm

A great event for founders to upskill and learn about all cybersecurity considerations to take into account when building/running a business. NCC will deliver an interactive Cyber Incident Response workshop so that people can experience hands on how to deal with cyber threats,

3pm - 4pm

This panel discussion will feature panellists from QuorumCyber, NCC Group, i-confidential and OccamSec

1pm

As part of Scotland's FinTech Festival, this event will outline some key areas of knowledge and innovation related to the usage of cryptography, blockchain, zero trust and quantum computers. It will be presented at the Craiglockhart Campus in Edinburgh, and also online. It will be presented by Professor Bill Buchanan and Dr Mwarwan Abubakar.

09:30-10:30

Join us for some breakfast at our Deloitte Datathon launch event. Our Datathon is a data-focused hackathon event that will focus on Sustainable Growth, aligning with Scotland’s National Strategy for Economic Transformation. This launch event will outline what to expect; we will welcome guest speakers from our partner firms who will share their expertise on the challenge statements and showcase the vast array of unique data they are providing for use during the Datathon.

10.30am - 11.30am

Join us for an exciting online event, ScotPayments:Transforming Public Services through Digital Payments, on Mon Oct 09 2023 at 10:30 AM BST. Isaac Smith (Senior Responsible Officer) and members of the Programme team will take the time to introduce how payments can support the digital transformation of public services.

9.30

Fintech companies are constantly innovating and developing new products and services. However, while many of the technological solutions are user-centred, they are not necessarily human-centred. They typically focus on process, user experience and scalability, but often neglect the deeper needs, emotions, instincts, and social factors that impact people's financial wellbeing. This event challenges fintech leaders to think about their products at a deeper level, through a human-centred lens. Please join us for a very insightful programme.

1.30pm - 4pm

Having launched UKFin+ in Birmingham and London in July, we are now running regional workshops to discuss our funding opportunities, to develop project ideas, and to answer questions from potential applicants. Our Edinburgh workshop will be on Monday 9th October between 1330 and 1600, at Inspace, University of Edinburgh. The workshop is open to any academics, researchers or representatives or organisations interested in joining UKFin+ and developing ideas for funding.

9am - 1pm

In this upcoming half-day workshop we will bring together a diverse group of experts from academia and industry to discuss specific issues related to the use of generative AI in the financial services sector. This session will centre its discussions around three core questions: Corporate Governance and Ethical Considerations - Data Requirements, Privacy, and Security - Evolution of Financial Regulation

5pm - 8pm

Scottish Blockchain Meetup is open to everyone involved in the tech / business communities and those that aren’t. Experts, amateurs, miners, critics, whoever. If you are interested, you’re welcome.

8.30am - 10am

A roundtable discussion for FinTechs where we will explore how approaches to ESG & sustainability can help you improve access to funding and grow your business. This includes: Improving the terms on which you borrow and raise equity, Increasing your attractiveness as a supplier to the Financial Services industry, Supporting you to achieve your goals in the UK and globally by adopting industry best-practice such as the ISO Sustainable Finance standard. The roundtable will also allow participating companies the opportunity to discuss your experience and concerns in a Chatham House environment, facilitated and led by experts from the climate and sustainability team at Pinsent Masons.

9.30am - 1pm

Interactive and informative workshop on digital innovation exploring generative AI, Blockchain and VR - fab opportunity to try out VR -

11am - 11.45am

The Department for International Trade’s Venture Capital Unit will be hosting a fireside chat and welcome all fintechs. Attendees will hear from first hand experience, what works and what doesn’t when looking to raise capital from the US.

4pm

GrowthBuilders FinCrime Edition Innovation Showcase on the 11th October, in collaboration with FinTech Scotland & FinTech Alliance. In this 45 minute quick-fire event, the cohort will present their value propositions with a view to disrupting the Financial Services industry. The purpose of the event is to drive innovation in Financial Services and create commercial partnerships with tech scaleups. Each company is later stage (Series A - C+) ranging from Strategic tools for optimising Fraud, AML/KYC, Cybersecurity and other emerging FinCrime solutions.

An evening to celebrate the development of the Scottish Financial Technology ecosystem, with a series of awards categories designed to recognise outstanding individual and organisational achievements within the sector.