BarCampBank San Francisco

On Saturday, I had the opportunity to attend the BarCampBank San Francisco conference. I had never attended a BarCampBank conference, so I was excited – and didn’t know what to expect. I must say, I was not disappointed. The conversations and group discussions were very intriguing, and the relaxed atmosphere of the whole event had everyone participating without hesitation. It was a lot of fun to join such a diverse group of people to talk trends that are taking place right now in the financial service industry.

Now when I say the group was diverse, here is what I mean. The list of attendees ran the gamut from credit union CEO’s, to college students (a total of around 60 people overall). There were people representing startup ventures, corporate marketing departments, consulting firms, and there were also some programmers in attendance. This is why there is a buzz around these BarCamp events, I think. People contribute to discussions and bring a very wide range of background and perspectives with them. I learned as much in one day (if not more) at this conference than in attending an entire weekend at a traditional conference.

If you don’t know the scoop on BarCamps, here it is right from the source:”BarCamp is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from participants.”

The beauty is that anyone can organize a BarCamp, and as long as some interest is generated and there are people who want to attend. There are no rules and no pre-decided outline of content - the topics of discussion are decided upon by the attendees the day of the conference.

Anyway, enough about what they are. The BarCampBank San Francisco was very successful overall, and we should all definitely thank Matt Iverson for organizing the event (and all others that helped make it success). There is already talk about BarCampBankSF2 happening in another six months or so, and is generating discussion by attendees.

One of the biggest points made during the day was made during various discussions - if you are going to create a successful online service for customers in today’s Web 2.0 world, it must have three components: community, trust/transparency and stickiness. In today’s generation of internet users, these are the things they are looking for in any site or service they use online.

This is important for banks and credit unions because it translates into knowing what your customers are looking for in service offerings. An institution can’t just throw a website together for the sake of having a website; it must connect with, and be meaningful to the user. An example that came about during the conference centered on providing financial advice or financial planning tools online, and why there are so many that aren’t successful. The reasons included the fact that people don’t just want a tool to spit numbers at them, they want to feel connected and have a more meaningful overall experience. They want a community of users to interact with, they want real world advice about what the tool is telling them, and they want feedback from the community about whether that advice is good or not.

A lot of what was discussed at BarCampBank San Francisco dealt with technology and trends that are happening in the financial world right now. While not all of it was presented as having a direct relationship with banks and credit unions, it is certainly reshaping the industry in some way. If you want to learn more about all of the various topics discussed at this BarCampBankSF you can visit the wiki site and check out discussion notes from participants. Also, here are some photos from the event taken by participants and posted on the flickr.

If you haven’t had a chance to participate in a BarCampBank conference, think about doing it - it is a very engaging and rewarding experience.