Fast times at Singapore FinTech
Team Sylo give the lowdown on the savvy island’s 2019 FinTech week.
Singapore FinTech Festival is always a highlight in the Asia-Pacific region. This year with 60,000 attendees and over 1,000 exhibitors, it was bigger and brighter than ever.
With more than 35 per cent of companies at the festival in the blockchain space, we knew we were in good company. Our second year exhibiting at the event, it was one that saw Sylo firmly flying the Kiwi flag.
We were lucky enough to present at NZTE’s NZ Innovation Pavilion alongside 12 of the best enterprises our country has to offer. There were many familiar faces, such as our co-exhibiting partners from the Centrality ecosystem, Centrality FinTech, Pl^g, CentraPay, and Trackback.
Presenting at the event on behalf of Sylo was our General Manager Neil Morrell and Senior Engineer John Carlo San Pedro. The duo proved to be a fine combination of fun, friendliness and tech finesse.
“It was great to be part of the NZ Pavilion this year alongside other fantastic Kiwi tech companies,” said Neil.
As for the response to what Sylo’s got to offer?
“This year saw a lot more interest in the digital currency space than last year,” he said.
An altogether “refreshing” evolution, you could put that down to our having laid the groundwork with our large-scale exhibition stand in 2018.
“We had a huge amount of people who came to our booth that we met last year and were now Sylo Smart Wallet users,” said Neil.
“To be able to show our growth in just 12 months, from getting people to sign up for our Beta testing last year, to now meeting users from all over Asia, it was amazing. And particularly nice to hear from Singaporean students who use the app to chat in their uni groups!”
John found the most interesting conversations he had with attendees circulated around the Sylo Smart Wallet’s digital asset functionality.
“When showing people the Sylo application, I think people were generally impressed with how easy it was to transfer tokens directly in the chat feed,” said John.
“I also had a chance to speak with other engineers working in the decentralised space, and it was awesome to see how passionate they were about their work. Overall I thought the event was quite energetic.”
However, stealing the show at our stand this year wasn’t a supercharged slide, but a grand cultural gesture, as the NZTE delegation shared a traditional Maori dance, the haka.
Though made famous by the All Blacks, what we know here at home is that a haka is for more than just kicking off a sporting match.
A deep gesture of respect, you may witness a haka at any kind of poignant event or celebration. It’s a way to say, ‘What’s happening here matters to me.’
It was a special moment for both those exhibiting and attending.
“My highlight of the festival was when we had a small crowd gather around the NZ pavilion during the haka,” said John.
“I thought it was such a wonderfully Kiwi moment, to present not only the technological innovations happening in New Zealand, but to show our cultural roots as well.”
All in all for us, it was an event well worth taking part in once more.
“We loved visiting Singapore and will certainly be back next year…If not before!” said Neil.
“Singapore is an amazing country and we were very well received by the community there. It was great to see our loyal users and also help introduce a huge number of people to our Sylo Smart Wallet for the first time.”
What more could we ask for?!
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Read more updates from the team coming soon by keeping an eye on our Twitter and Telegram.
Or if you’re ready to experience the social future of FinTech, download the Sylo Smart Wallet now via the Apple App or Google Play stores.
