Sometimes interesting things fall into your lap and that’s the case with a bit of news about the future of the SIFMA Tech conference. It appears the future of the venerable technology management show of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association is in a state of flux.
I reached out to SIFMA’s public relations team to find out why there was no listing for the SIFMA Tech show on the events page for 2015. I was doing a bit of long-term planning for my editorial team and looking ahead to June. The securities industry advocacy group usually slates the show early on in the year.
When responding to my inquiry, SIFMA spokeswoman Katrina Cavelli’s response had the very intriguing sentence: “We do not have a technology management conference on the schedule.”
That’s a wow in my book.
I naturally rushed follow-up questions to her. After more email messages and phone calls, I got the following response: “SIFMA is exploring technology focused conference programming as part of our robust conferences and events offerings.”
I quickly asked via email: “So, does this mean the end of SIFMA Tech as we knew it?”
“That is not what I said,” was the response.
I pursued the matter further and followed up with more attempts to get clarification and got: “I’ve given you SIFMA’s official statement. I’m happy to talk further when/if there is more to discuss. Thanks again.”
In the meantime, I spoke to an industry source who says that SIFMA officials are mulling their options and dates.
The show has been a magnet for the industry and attracts lots of people in mid-June to the Hilton New York, 1335 Avenue of the Americas, in midtown New York.
Last year, IBM and Tata Consultancy Services served as platinum sponsors while Hootsuite was a gold sponsor along with Broadridge Financial Services. Genpact and Headstrong Capital markets were silver sponsors. The Exhibit Hall offered 12 Learning Labs, whose sponsors included Avaya, Cambridge Semantics, NetApp and Sapiens Decision. These 20-minute group sessions featured “candid presentations and Q&A on strategies and products,” SIFMA officials said.
Some of the top industry issues covered in speeches, sessions and exhibitions were data management, transaction infrastructures, trading technology, risk, compliance and operations, cybersecurity, the consolidated audit trail (CAT) and the shortening of the settlement cycle.
A key speaker last year was Michael Morell, former deputy and acting director of the CIA who addressed the issue of cyber threats to the financial services industry. Morell has more than three decades of experience with the CIA and has advised six US presidents.
The conference sessions featured a wide selection of industry leaders such as Cynthia Meyn, executive vice president and senior operations manager for mutual fund giant Pacific Investment Management Co. (PIMCO); William Nelson, president and CEO, Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC); and Steven J. Randich, executive vice president and chief information officer for FINRA.
From what I could attend, as far as content, a lot of good stuff still goes on at SIFMA Tech. I think the problem is getting paid attendance for the exhibition part of the event. From a purely anecdotal perspective, the foot traffic among the exhibitors last year appeared to have dropped off dramatically from years past.
So, the best I can tell you is that there are no dates yet for SIFMA Tech in 2015. It may be that SIFMA decides to offer the same show as we’ve come to know or there might be other incarnations that cover technology management issues in a new way.
I will let you know as soon I know for certain.
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