The Connector.
The Connector.
The Connector Podcast - Nordic Fintech Week: Where Innovation Meets Humanity (Special Discount code: “TheConnector20”)
Special Discount code: “TheConnector20”
David Grundy takes us behind the scenes of Nordic Fintech Week, revealing why this gathering has become Europe's premier dedicated fintech event. Unlike other technology conferences that cover multiple domains, Nordic Fintech Week maintains a singular focus on financial technology, creating a unique space where startups and established institutions converge with shared purpose.
The 2023 theme, "Can we keep technology human?" perfectly captures the event's philosophy. As Grundy explains, the goal is making complex technologies tangible and valuable: "You're telling me all this stuff is great, but show me what that actually means for me as a customer, what does it mean for me as a bank, what does it mean for me as an individual." This approach transforms abstract concepts like AI and quantum computing into practical applications with real-world impact.
What truly distinguishes Nordic Fintech Week is how it embodies fundamental Nordic cultural values – collaboration, trust, respect, and inquisitiveness. The event intentionally creates spaces for meaningful human connection, from dedicated networking areas to signature experiences like the morning run where CEOs and developers connect in a relaxed environment. The Nordic Fintech Awards showcase innovative solutions with demonstrated traction, maintaining complete independence and integrity in their selection process. With meticulous program curation and overnight venue transformations that Grundy describes as "completely insane," everything serves one purpose: fostering the connections and collaborations that drive fintech innovation forward.
Whether you're a startup founder, financial institution executive, investor, or technology enthusiast, Nordic Fintech Week offers a uniquely valuable experience. Join us May 24-26 in Copenhagen to experience this remarkable convergence of technology and humanity – where the future of finance takes shape through genuine connection and collaboration. Register now and become part of the conversation that's defining the next generation of financial services!
Thank you for tuning into our podcast about global trends in the FinTech industry.
Check out our podcast channel.
Learn more about The Connector.
Follow us on LinkedIn.
Cheers
Koen Vanderhoydonk
koen.vanderhoydonk@jointheconnector.com
#FinTech #RegTech #Scaleup #WealthTech
Welcome to the Connector Podcast, an ongoing conversation connecting fintechs, banks and regulators worldwide. Join CEO and founder Cohen van der Hooydonk as you learn more about the latest available trends and solutions in the markets.
Koen Vanderhoydonk:Welcome to another Connector Podcast, and today I've got with me David Grundy all the way from Copenhagen and David is super busy and, david, you have to explain us why you're so busy.
David Grundy:Yeah, well, first of all, thanks for having me on. I think, yeah, the sort of the main reason is Nordic FinTech Week, right, which is our. Obvious reason right right, which is our obvious reason, right? Yeah, largest, uh, dedicated fintech festival, I would argue in uh. Or fintech event uh, I would argue in, europe. Um, where we're solely focused on, you know, financial technology. Right, that is our, our main remit.
Koen Vanderhoydonk:It's been going near on eight years now and it's just grown year on year, so, yeah and and, because it's quite of a strong statement that you make, but what are some evidence pieces that you can put on the table to say well, you're the biggest fintech event of europe?
David Grundy:I, I think if you asked my uh, if you asked my team, I think they would give you that there is only two places in copenhagen that could actually take this event now. But yeah, I think there's other events that you know. They're great events, right, but they have a variety of topics in them. You know barbecue in Denmark, but it's not focused on purely fintech. It has wider. You know, if you look at other events across Europe, you know it's not dedicated of bringing startups and you know financial, not dedicated of bringing startups, and you know financial institutions for that one purpose. You know that fintech meeting the corporate, right. So, yes, there are other events. Um, we attend them. They're all you know. There's all got their pros and cons, but we are. We have for a number of years, uh, since the start, focus exclusively on fintechs. Right, that's what we do.
Koen Vanderhoydonk:No, no, and I can confirm, I've been there several times. It's an amazing place where there's a lot of collaboration happening between well, the buyers and the sellers, the banks, the financial institutions and the fintechs, and I think that makes it very unique. This year, the team, if I understand well. Can we keep technology human? Yes, can you provide us some insights around this? Why did you come up with this team and what does it actually comprise of?
David Grundy:I, I think it's again. It's trying to make it real for people, right? So there's a lot of you know we're not a deep tech conference, right? We have technical concepts at our conference. You know of ai. We have quantum, you know especially quantum. It's a really hard topic to take from the grassroots to what does that actually mean? You're telling me about? Well, you're telling me all this stuff is great, but show me what that actually really means for me as a customer, what does it mean for me as a bank? What does it mean for me as an individual? So this year, that's where the idea of the humanized element comes in is that, at the end of the day, innovation is about delivering value to either the individual or the corporate entity. So that's really what the human side of it is. I mean, it's probably the best way I can describe it is taking some what we say is some easier but more complex topics and making them real in terms of what does it do for you?
Koen Vanderhoydonk:Yeah, yeah, yeah, and does that also reflect then in the top sort of keynote speakers that you have invited to the event?
David Grundy:Yeah, uh, yeah, yeah, I mean we, we spend I mean funny actually, I've just come from a program, uh related meeting we spend a lot of time probably the most time actually putting the program together, right, um, sort of making sure we have the right speakers, the right message. Um, so, yeah, I think you know we're very careful about who talks at the event. I think you probably realize this yourself. When your event is successful, there's lots of people who want to talk at your event. Right, but it's about making sure it's the right person, the right messages coming across and it's in line with what you sold, right. I mean, if you're talking about an AI track, you want to make sure you're focusing on AI, but you want to bring it to a level that people understand and actually they can see how this could be delivered. Right, so there's a lot of focus on that and we make sure we bring the right speakers in to do that. You know, sort of setup.
David Grundy:So, no AI voice speakers this time around. Well, we have some. You may have seen it. We have our CEO doing a few sort of viral videos on AI and things where he's sort of interacting with the AI and, yeah, it's kind of interesting. But you know, this is where the humanized stuff comes in, right, it's kind of like making it real. So there may be a few surprises. There is always a few surprises that we throw in.
Koen Vanderhoydonk:Well, talking a bit about the human again and I don't come from the Nordic part of Europe, I'm from Belgium, the Benelux, okay, so we see you guys as being putting very high on the value ladder human contact and sort of collaboration and trust. Yeah, how is that actually then translated into into the event? Is there time for yeah, like literally coming together as people, rather than yeah, yeah.
David Grundy:So I think you know I'm from the UK, Right? So when I came to the Nordics, this was this. This concept, just at the root level, was, was quite different for me. But just if I just take a minute to explain the Nordic culture, then that lends itself into the event, right? Because my kids are at school Danish school, they're going through the whole system and the big focus in the Nordic school system is on collaboration, trust, respect for each other. All of that is drilled into the kids from a very early age. And also to ask questions, like to ask questions, to be inquisitive, right, which I think is very different from the UK system. What we left, right, Whereas do what I say now, don't question that sort of thing.
David Grundy:So if you take that concept of you know, collaborative trust and then move it to an event, you know it's in the DNA of the Nordic culture, right?
David Grundy:So that's how we build the Nordic FinTech space, and a big part if you've been there, a big part of the Nordic FinTech week will be about not just about booths and big names, and you know it's about spaces where people can connect, right, it's about where people can network. We have social events in there where people can sort of relax a little bit. But still network, Right, we try and bring that human element to the event itself and we spend a lot of time doing that. You know people probably look at us and say, well, you know that space you could have sold or that space you could have done this, and but yeah, but the networking is super important for us. But yeah, but the networking is super important for us. Right, it's making sure we can get the fintechs, the companies, the investors to actually come together and talk and have meaningful conversations. So I guess that's the best way I can describe it right.
Koen Vanderhoydonk:I believe you also have a morning run, isn't it?
David Grundy:Yeah, yeah, it's the second or third year of doing the morning run.
Koen Vanderhoydonk:And I personally never succeeded.
David Grundy:No, it's really. It's got to the point now where that takes a bit of effort to organize, right, because you have people of different standards now running and it's like so it's become an event in itself. But it's really good because you get all types of different characters from, you know, ceos of companies through to developers like joining in right, and it's a great way for, like I say informally, you know, if you're doing the slower 5k run where you can have a chat with someone, right, I mean, obviously, if you want to do the super competitive stuff, you're probably running pretty fast and that might be a challenge, but there's still times afterwards with the breakfast and joint where you can. You know you've come together in sort of one exercise and now you can network in a more. It's not calm, but it's more of a trust-based environment, right, it's not a sales pitch, it's more oh, tell me what you do. Tell me what you do. You know that's the type of conversation where you know real things happen, right.
Koen Vanderhoydonk:And I believe you're also running the awards.
David Grundy:Yes.
Koen Vanderhoydonk:Yeah, could you explain a little bit about that, and maybe too late for this time around, but what are the criteria and how can fintechs across the globe actually get?
David Grundy:Yeah, so so the awards has been running for a number of years, right, the main. I mean there's different focus points we've had over the years, but the main criteria is that we're looking for startups that are doing interesting stuff but have traction, right. So obviously we have the different themes every year. We could have best. We've had things like best European startup. You know, we've had more Danish focus, we've had AI specific. We've had more Danish focus, we've had AI specific. We've had digital asset specific. So every year we choose like six or seven themes where we go okay, what do we really want to focus on this year? And they're not always the same. And then we look for companies who have traction in that area. So we open it up Because of the history of the event.
David Grundy:Now we get a lot of applications, right. We get a lot of natural inbound. Now People know about the event. We market it quite well. We expose you know the winners in the classifications pretty well. So people know this is a good place to come and pitch if you can get through the prerequisites, right. So the best way to apply. And you asked that it's on the Nordic FinTech Week website. Right, so you can go there if you want to apply.
David Grundy:But what we're really looking for is companies who align to the tracks that we have in place and have good traction in there and have interesting offerings right. So we don't try and pick too many companies who have similar offerings. We try and get you know, differing offerings in there and then we bring a panel of judges in from our partner network and then you get to pitch effectively to the Nordic Fintech Week main stage audience right. And then there's no bias in the event. So you can't buy your way in. You can't say can I sponsor, and you know. So there's none of that. The judges are chosen by us completely independently as well. So you know, we try and make it neutral. We try and make this place where you really can pitch what you're doing. Main criteria you align to the theme and you have good traction right and you have a good roadmap about what you want to achieve, because that's what investors want to see, right. They want to see where are you going to take this? How should I get involved?
Koen Vanderhoydonk:so so super curious. Who's going to be the best superhuman of the year then?
David Grundy:oh, you know, we don't. We have to see right, it's uh, it's uh. I actually I was looking at the the, so the team have got the shortlist together now, um, and I I've got a follow-on meeting later on, but it there's some really, really interesting stuff coming out right, so I don't want to spoil too much, but you can check it all out on the website. But it always amazes me the ideas that people come up with right, it's really and not, you know, something that you can really see actually being delivered right, so it's really cool.
Koen Vanderhoydonk:I'm glad you're bringing up amazing moments, because I like to take you back um to any of the previous sort of additions and and maybe explain or tell us or about a moment that really stayed with you forever so I think that actually it's funny because I attended nordic fintech week before I was even involved in copenhagen fintech, right before I took up the coo role.
David Grundy:In attended Nordic Fintech Week before I was even involved in Copenhagen Fintech, right Before I took up the COO role in Copenhagen Fintech, I actually went to Nordic Fintech Week. I think I went to three events. So when I say that I've seen it grown, I literally have seen it grown. Right, I've been in Denmark what? Eight years now. I think I've been to three or four Nordic Fintech Weeks before I joined, right, so I saw it from that side of just turning up and, oh, isn't this amazing? And oh, look, it's bigger this year. And look, we're doing this or they're doing this this year.
David Grundy:The most amazing thing for me when I came into the organization is understanding what's involved in putting an event like that together. Right, it sounds very simple, right, but when you speak to the teams, it's very important to the teams about the quality. It's very important to the teams about what we've talked about before the ability to network, you know the social side, making sure that brings in. But the one thing that really stood out for me, which sounds really strange is. We have it at Tap One now right, which is a big venue um near athens, and actually seeing the venue empty the day before and then the entire circus starting right, literally this gets built overnight.
David Grundy:Like it's completely insane. Like you walk away one day, you come in the next day and like the stages are there, the decorations there, everything is set up and it literally, if you played it in slow motion it would be like an amazing clip to watch for like five minutes. So you know, besides the like, I'm quite into the deep tech areas. So there was an amazing quantum space. Last year. The guy who focused on that for Amazon flew over actually on his holiday. He was on his holiday and asked to come to our event and do a talk. It was completely insane. I was like, and so that was some of those things, but the event, like literally the creation of the event, for me being on the inside is just mind blowing. It's crazy.
Koen Vanderhoydonk:So yeah, so I guess everyone now listening would like to join. That's uh, yeah, 24th until the 26th in copenhagen, yes and um, yeah, but I mean down below in the comments I will add a reduction code from the connector which is still valid for a couple of days. So, by all means, hope to see you all there. Yeah, david, any last thing that you want to tell to this audience, one like your war message to say come over to our event, what would it?
David Grundy:be. I would say. I'd say that it is a truly unique experience that you need to. You need to experience at least once. Right, it sounds very corny, but I mean, if you are into, if you are into innovation and delivering value through innovation and you have curiosity, you should come to Nordic Fintech Week. There is a lot of really, really good collaborations and deals that have come out in Nordic Fintech Week. It's really great to see.
Koen Vanderhoydonk:Well, excellent. David, thank you for having you in our podcast.
David Grundy:No worries, thank you for having me.
Koen Vanderhoydonk:I'm looking forward to meet you in Copenhagen soon. That'd be great, obviously, to meet people from the audience too, so please stay tuned for more FinTech news on this podcast. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, see you.
David Grundy:Bye-bye.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to another episode of the Connector Podcast. To connect and keep up to date with all the latest, head over to wwwjointhekonnectorcom or hit subscribe via your podcast streaming platform.