Dear Community Member,

Last year, we inaugurated the Bank Innovation Build conference to bring together industry participants to share best practices and ideas for exceptional banking innovation operations at financial institutions.

Well, the world’s predicament has certainly changed since then — but the need for Build has not.

Bank Innovation Build is the one event built to figure out how to improve innovation — and there’s no better time for this than now. The coronavirus has plagued the world, and demanded new ways of thinking, operating and serving clients — in ways beyond even what the credit crisis precipitated. Simply put, we’ve got to figure this out.

Unfortunately, the coronavirus pandemic prevents us from physically coming together to solve these challenges. That is why we are presenting the 2020 Bank Innovation Build as a Virtual Experience that will allow us to safely collaborate to discover new solutions and relations that will spur banking innovation to flourish in 2021 and beyond.

As the pandemic took hold of the U.S. economy, we surveyed the banking industry on expected results from this one-in-a-generation calamity. Specifically, we asked whether the pandemic would drive increasing demand for digital channels, permanently altering customer acquisition and servicing models in banking. Nearly 90% of the respondents agreed or strongly agreed that this would be the case. As one respondent put it, “The demand is already in place for digital channels in many financial institutions. Whether it permanently alters customer acquisitions remains to be seen, but changes will need to be made based on the public need.”

The “how” of those changes is what we pursue with passion at Build. Each session is designed to result in ideas you can put into action. From how to cultivate a resilient innovation culture during global uncertainty, to the lessons learned from economic, social and financial dislocation, to ideas for addressing evolving customer needs with new servicing and acquisition models, Bank Innovation Build sessions are crafted to respond to the challenges of the day.

The benefits to you will be, I maintain, even more profound as a virtual event. Our virtual event platform allows us to deliver more value to you, in the form of dynamic matchmaking and real-time data insights on market trends. We’ve spent a tremendous amount of time thinking through the virtual event experience and technology, and I know the value will be there for every attendee.

Bank Innovation Build’s mission is critical today, and I hope you will join the effort to improving the practice of banking innovation for the greater good. I look forward to seeing you online at the 2020 Bank Innovation Build.

Sincerely yours,

JJ Hornblass
Chairman, Bank Innovation