Fintech events are competing harder than ever and the quality of speakers and panel sessions is one front in the war.  

Banking and fintech marketing shop The Financial Brand sent me a striking email last week, which is worth citing in full:

“The Financial Brand takes your feedback seriously….People like you have said they don’t go to a conference to sit through sessions that are little more than self-promotional vendor presentations.

No one wants to pay good money and take time out of the office just to hear a bunch of thinly-veiled sales pitches.

This is why The Financial Brand doesn’t book speakers who “sell from the stage.” …If you attend The Financial Brand Forum and hear any speaker pitch their company or its solutions, just let us know.  We will ban them… for life. No joke… And they won’t just be banned from speaking again. They won’t be allowed to attend The Financial Brand Forum – ever… even if they buy a ticket….

This is just one of the many ways in which the Forum 2025 will be different than any other conference you’ve ever attended”.

Now, there’s certainly chutzpah in the idea of banning speakers. The approach reflects a strong sense of dissatisfaction with the relevance and quality of speakers and panelists at many financial services conferences, as demonstrated by delegate feedback exercises.

Most commercial financial services conferences always had speakers largely linked to sponsorship, and that model remains robust today. 

Events such as Money20/20 to SXSW have evolved the concept of speakers pitching themselves for slots. Building demand friction like this is a wise approach, and helps the overall monetization of such events. This organized pitching model is really an update of the conference producers who traditionally would try to spot good speakers from trade media coverage: ideally such speakers would sponsor in some way, but some speakers from smaller firms or not-for-profit firms would get “free” slots.

The problem with all this is that we are all hypocrites: everyone wants other speakers to be provocative and edgy, while being cautious and sales-focused ourselves. This is engrained so deeply in corporate culture. Unless you are a founder, or a thought leader with a court-jester mandate to pontificate, the upside of being provocative is much less than the potential downside.  

Speeches at fintech events also reflect the fact that many conference speakers have narrow content knowledge, uneven delivery, and uncertainty about how far to tread beyond what they know well. They have day jobs, limited time to prepare, and naturally are most comfortable conveying some version of the main sales material they use frequently.  

We certainly see the bar rising at some events, with a growing need for authentic and interesting speakers.  So if you are starting to make your way as a conference speaker, how do you avoid being blackballed by the likes of Financial Brand and impress conference producers?

Becoming an authoritative, in-demand public speaker doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a project over a couple of years or longer. Not everyone is going to write a book. 

Here are some practical things that we find work:

• Even if your content is closely related to your company and sales messages, put effort into softening the language and broadening the relevance to the marketplace.
• Make sure your accompanying slides or video reflect that with more subliminal messaging.  Most of the time, inexperienced speakers have too many generic slides that are sales-heavy.
• Build up your public online assets showing your expertise – videos on your website, on YouTube, podcasts, trade media coverage etc. 
• Use LinkedIn regularly to promote yourself with an authentic voice that also helps demonstrate what you’d be like as a speaker.
• When you’ve got a speaking opportunity, take advice and take the time to rehearse – rehearse in front of colleagues and get candid feedback. And once your speech is over, seek more candid feedback. And ask for training – which may well be available in HR budgets.

Andrew Marshall is the managing director of Cognito Americas and the company’s vice chairman. He’s available for events (and parties).