The photo is from October 23, 2018 at The Venetian in Las Vegas. That’s me on the far right. I’m joined by basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal, Adam Roseman (Co-Founder & CEO at Steady), Katie Haun (General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz) and Matt Harris (Managing Director at Bain Capital Ventures). Adam’s company Steady had won our Startup Pitch competition the year prior, Shaq had invested in the company and become its spokesman and all of us were preparing to welcome this year’s startup finalists on stage to make their pitch. The night before I had enjoyed cocktails with another of our keynote speakers, Sir Richard Branson, at a special VIP dinner. The year prior, it was Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak that was our featured guest. Every year in Las Vegas there were 500+ amazing speakers, many of them CEOs and founders, from the leading fintech companies globally. Earlier in the year I had traveled to Amsterdam and Singapore to support two of our other global events, and to London for our annual company meeting. It was truly an amazing 5-year run for me as Chief Content Officer at Money20/20 USA. I had joined the company when we ourselves were just a startup and now we had become the leading fintech events globally, with four global editions around the world. But what was the secret sauce for Money20/20’s dramatic success?
Through the experience of building Money20/20, I’ve gained unique perspective on how content–ideas and insights delivered in a thoughtful and impactful way–can be transformational to an individual, a company or an industry. It’s too easy to default to the marketing pitches that plague most industry events. Nothing will cause an audience to dismiss what you have to say faster than a self-serving sales message–and the opportunity to share your valuable ideas is too precious to waste. Dig deeper to provide real insights and a more authentic message. Great content can define a brand, a community and build momentum for amazing new ventures and partnerships to form. Content can educate and inspire. It was content that created the foundation for Money20/20 and brought together the industry to learn, make new connections and build businesses. And content can also set the tone for more aspirational goals, like rallying the financial industry to create a more diverse workforce or applying fintech to enhance people’s financial health and thus their overall well-being.
At “The Fintech Agenda”–my career’s next chapter–I look forward to working with fintech industry clients to help unleash the power of their ideas through producing great events and developing effective content marketing strategy. I’m energized by unleashing the potential that fintech has to enhance people’s lives, and the role that content-driven experiences can play in furthering this mission. There is something magical about the audience’s reaction to a well-delivered presentation that can be an amazing catalyst. If you’re planning an event and want to take it to the next level or are trying to get more from your content strategy, then please reach out and let’s make it happen.