We recently attended the Hong Kong FinTech Week – a dedicated week-long fest of FinTech demos, talks, visits and networking. There was a fantastic list of speakers, especially from other parts of the world such as Revolut (https://www.revolut.com) from the United Kingdom and Tinkoff Bank (https://www.tinkoff.ru/) from Russia.

While we were there as part of our client work, some things stood out for the content marketer in us and we’ve compiled our thoughts here.

Here’s some marketing tips if you’re participating in (or organising) an industry event:
 

Presentation matters
The slide decks can be broadly divided into the ‘corporate’ and product-focused versus audience-centric slides.

The ‘corporate’ presentations with lots of carefully vetted words were forgettable and made us shuffle in our seats after one minute into the presentation.

The audience-centric ones had very few words but strong, clear visuals. These presentations were quoted by other presenters during the two days – hello, free brand plug!

One presenter even incorporated live product demos, which made his talk seamless and easy to understand.

Our takeaway: Your slide deck can make or break your presentation, and the impression that you give your clients. Be succinct. Avoid wordy slides – show them by using words strategically with strong visuals as complements.
 

Speak (and be) human
The most memorable presenters that we saw at HK FinTech Week had these traits in common: They were irreverent, dressed to stand out, and told stories to connect with the audience.

The irreverent speakers – those who didn’t mince their words to please certain segments of the audience – came across as more confident rather than those that just quoted from their slides.

This confidence showed not only through their presentations but also in the way they dressed – one virtual bank founder, for instance, wore green pants, which made him stand out instantly in a sea of suits and blue denim jeans.

Telling stories is another way to stand out in marketing your company. One FinTech CEO broke away from his slides to tell stories of how they helped a roadside food stall expand into different locations, and how they helped a customer buy more lingerie. These experiences resonate with the audience’ daily lives and make their presentation more memorable.

Our takeaway: You’re on stage, so stand out. Don’t be afraid to break away from the cookie cutter presentation to get your point across. Weave corporate stories into your presentation to help them relate (we run bootcamps to help you with that!).
 

Practice what you preach
When talking about FinTech, the future of finance comes to mind: cashless payments, easier transactions. The organisers of HK FinTech Week hit the right spots by incorporating technology elements into their event.

There was an interactive meeting app where delegates can pre-schedule meetings with other delegates. An interactive event platform, sli.do, was used to encourage audience Q&A, and there were wireless phone charging docks across the conference area.

However, the devil is in the details.

The café in the conference only accepted payments in physical cash or good ol’ card (in a festival that featured e-wallets and cryptocurrencies!).

There were very few power ports for laptops, forcing busy delegates to run on battery or sit by wall sockets to get work done.

Our takeaway: Think through all aspects of your presentation/event/booth/any experiential marketing. Join cross-industry events in other parts of the world or engage third-party agencies with cross-industry experience to ensure that your audience goes away satisfied and happy.