Article actual date: Feb 24, 2021

While the world abounds with uncertainties, one thing is for sure — the extraordinary circumstances brought upon by the global pandemic is no match for the global FinTech community. Standing resolute against the crisis, the Singapore FinTech Festival (SFF) x Singapore Week of Innovation & Technology (SWITCH) 2020 proved to be a roaring success as it treated heads of state, industry leaders, policy makers, investors as well as multilateral agencies to an electrifying first-of-its-kind hybrid experience.

Hybrid at the Edge of New Frontiers

In response to COVID-19 restrictions and safety measures, the traditionally face-to-face event transitioned to a 24-hour hybrid platform, harnessing the powers of digitisation and leveraging an increasingly tech-enabled global landscape.

Speaking on the format of the festival, Edwin Chow, Assistant Chief Executive Officer (Innovation & Enterprise), Enterprise Singapore, said, “SFF x SWITCH’s hybrid programme breaks down the barriers the barriers of geography and time zone with the innovation and startup communities, making this a truly global event for everyone to participate in.”

SFF x SWITCH 2020 showed that going hybrid does not mean sacrificing user experience. The immersive Online City hosted a number of engaging activities such as live sessions with climate scientists, FinTech masterclasses and experimental musical performances.

The pioneering hybrid event was spearheaded by the industry leader in trade exhibitions and conferences, SingEx. With a strong portfolio of events spanning various sectors such as Innovation and Technology, Industrial Transformation and Sustainability, SingEx is an established leader in the business events space. The indispensable value of SingEx’s robust engagement solutions was key to the success of SFF x SWITCH 2020 from start to finish.

Emphasising on the importance of user-centered design, Aloysius Arlando, Chief Executive Officer, SingEx, said “Together with our partners we’ve designed the entire customer journey identifying critical touchpoints for optimal experiential engagements, paving the way for a bold new format that’s driven by customer insights.”

Multifaceted Global Summits

A carefully curated agenda brought an array of invaluable content experiences which revolved around 5 main themes — Economic, Impact, Infrastructure, Investor and Talent. These summits were graced by a star-studded cast of speakers, with notable personalities such as New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and CEO of Microsoft Satya Nadella offering insightful perspectives on the colossal FinTech ecosystem.

A common thread which ran through all 5 themes was unsurprisingly the role of technology in crisis response. As Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, succinctly expressed during the Economic Summit, “We have seen this year, how online has been a lifeline”.

The pandemic has certainly accelerated digital transformation, with Mr. Pichai noting that “In South East Asia, 8 out of 10 people said that technology helped them navigate the pandemic. Whether it was families searching for the latest COVID-19 information to small businesses using digital tools to reach new customers, or students continuing to learn remotely.”

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Multinational Global Business Matching

Supplementing the diverse array of content were networking opportunities from around the world, as part of the event’s unique round-the-clock 24/5 value proposition. This was an important element which formed the basis of the hybrid event’s Online City.

Jublia is proud to have been the event service provider for SFF x SWITCH 2020. It was thrilling working alongside an amazing team and partners to pull off such a successful behemoth of an event, one of the first hybrid models at that. Jublia has been close partners of the Singapore FinTech Festival since 2017 and we are definitely grateful for this continuing collaboration.

For the 2020 edition, we were tasked with the duty of empowering engagement and networking for the event’s global community. With our expertise, participating organisations from various virtual locales were able to share and engage with other global participants in discussions as well as schedule 1-to-1 meetings with each other. Some of these meaningful connections include private equity companies with investment firms and leading technology hirers with the best and brightest industry talent.

Over 4,400 business meetings were facilitated through SFF x SWITCH which speaks volumes to the words said by the government’s enterprise development agency. “We believe this event will continue to provide the ideal platform for innovation enablers, enterprises and startups from both Singapore and other countries to forge new global connections and make new deals.”

Conclusion

In spite of the unfortunate disruptions to the events landscape, the Singapore FinTech Festival has maintained an unwavering commitment towards providing a state-of-the-art platform for the growth of the FinTech ecosystem. The digital readiness of all those involved is in line with the dynamic nature of the industry, with the success of SFF x SWITCH 2020 as a testament to the industrious ambition and steadfast vigour of the global FinTech community.

Once again, Jublia would like to express our gratitude to the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Enterprise Singapore and SingEx Holdings Pte Ltd for this partnership opportunity. If you would like to know how you could similarly scale your events to greater heights with virtual or hybrid solutions, please feel free to drop us a note at info@jublia.com or reach out to anyone you know at Jublia!