The day after the glitzy trade show is never a good day

I swear there are about 10 banking trade shows happening at any one time.

If you want to participate in the future, you have to let go of the past

So many, so grand, so immersive… that often I find myself wondering if they have severely over-estimated the size of the market they serve… like… are there even enough of us to keep all those massive spaces filled again and again?

And that is on top of the actual conferences – the smaller and more muted affairs where generally genuine conversation can take place.

And yet. These large-scale trade events come thick and fast, and they tend to be buzzing with activity.

Their floors are full, the stands are packed and there is a lot of chatter. Marketing outreach, hot-off-the-press announcements, partnership explorations and industry gossip.

Showcases. A lot of showcases. A lot of shiny, futuristic, not-yet-commercially-available stuff on display.

And if you are lucky… some genuine thought leadership and sales opportunities. Though people will repeatedly tell you that they don’t come here (wherever here is) for that. They go to the smaller, focused, industry events for that. The trade shows are for the buzz and glitz… apparently.

So even when you are not lucky, the experience still tends to be valuable… you walk away with industry connections refreshed, a sense of what the competition is up to and who moved jobs where (and occasionally some juicer tidbits as well).

But lucky or not, whatever happens, you walk away with sore feet and an inbox full to bursting back at home. That is the guaranteed universal experience of the post-event hangover.

Whether you are super selective or go to as many trade shows as possible.

Whether you go to 10 of these or just the one… normal business is suspended while you are there. Even if you make valiant efforts to stay on top of calls and emails… it is a thankless task.

You are coming back to a mountain of things that accumulated in the time you were away and now require your attention… plus all the conversations and opportunities and follow-ups you initiated also while you were away.

It’s a come-down for many, for sure. We often joke about how it is the price we pay for the opportunity to meet colleagues face to face and hear new things and grab some branded swag (I have a blindingly orange set of waterproof speakers courtesy of one such event that I am very attached to). Coming back to the day job after that is always a bit of a come-down, only post an event it is a come-down on steroids, if that is a thing: accumulated tasks that are neither shiny nor fun, tasks that distinctly lack the carnival atmosphere of a trade show…

Tasks that seem drab by comparison to what you have just been doing. But tasks that are real.

They are the job.

We joke about it, but it’s the truth.

And there is a slight emotional hijacking that many folks experience on that first day back from a big trade show. One day you are on what looks like a movie set and the next day you are two hours through a four-hour risk committee call…

And it’s not just the accumulation of work… it’s not just the distance between your surroundings then and now… it is also the distance between the conversations you were having only yesterday… and what you are faced with now.

Because of course at a trade show all the news is good, all the topics are at the 10,000-foot view and all points of view are forward looking.

That is what we are told by organisers the audience demands. It’s less about the content and more about the contact (that’s a direct quote, by the way), and less about practicality and more about strategy and dreams. Also a quote.

So.

AI, not AML.

Unless it’s AI for AML – which, funnily enough, is a fascinating topic.

And OK, admittedly I am much more alert to AML conversations… or the absence thereof… since I started working with the wonderful FinScan team… but I have always been alert to the distance between the things we talk about and the lived experience of many of our teams inside our organisations. The sexy trumps the mundane, always. But it’s the mundane that trumps the aspirational when the chips are down.

With very public compliance showdowns for many of the industry’s darlings… the regulator putting the brakes on the growth of one more challenger bank because of AML failures… the distance between the aspirational and the real is becoming existential.

I don’t mind being a spoilsport… I don’t mind getting the eye rolls every time someone asks me about AI and I insist on talking about their data lakes and existing legacy architecture.

I don’t mind being the one who will talk about migration discipline and tech estate rationalisation on an AI panel.

Because it happens to be true: I am that guy… and you need to rationalise your tech estate to participate in the future fully.

Both of those things are true.

You can’t have it both ways. If you want to participate in the future, you have to let go of the past. No matter what some of your consultants tell you, no… you cannot have a data-first business with systems from the 70s.

You have to rationalise, you have to invest, you have to execute with discipline and focus.

And yes… a lot of that work is deeply unsexy… but that’s how you get to the sexy stuff.

Only… when you get to the sexy stuff, you realise that the only way it stays shiny, operationally resilient and profitable is if you keep doing the unsexy stuff really well.

So… sure, you talk to me about AI over there and I will talk about mainframe migrations and AML over here.

I can meet you halfway and talk about how you can do that essential, important stuff in a very innovative, sexy, shiny way if that helps?

And it should.

Because innovation that is useful, innovation that solves real, material needs for scaled businesses is the stuff that we should all be excited about. And there is a lot here to be excited about.

And maybe… just maybe… if we index more on that stuff next time we go to a trade show… the emotional hijacking upon our return will be lessened.

You will go back to work tired… with a lot of emails to respond to… but also armed with ideas that are immediately applicable to your business. Shiny solutions for real problems. Strategic applications, not just strategic views.

Wouldn’t that be something?

#LedaWrites

Leda Glyptis is FinTech Futures’ resident thought provocateur – she leads, writes on, lives and breathes transformation and digital disruption.

She is a recovering banker, lapsed academic and long-term resident of the banking ecosystem. 

Leda is also a published author – her first book, Bankers Like Us: Dispatches from an Industry in Transition, is available to order here.

All opinions are her own. You can’t have them – but you are welcome to debate and comment!

Follow Leda on X @LedaGlyptis and LinkedIn.