Koen Vanderhoydonk:
Welcome everyone and welcome to a new podcast. And today, I’m no longer streaming from Venice, but I’m doing it online with Roger, but Roger is also working at Objectway. So, Roger, what do you do at Objectway?

Roger Portnoy:
Hi Koen and to your audience, welcome as well. I am the Chief Strategy Officer at Objectway. In my job, I am responsible for product strategy, corporate development, M&A activity, and overall emerging technologies research and development.

Koen Vanderhoydonk:
That’s amoutful!

Roger Portnoy:
Indeed, many responsibilities and lots of accountability!

Koen Vanderhoydonk:
Excellent! I had the pleasure and joy to be present at OWIN23. Yeah, what is it all about?

Roger Portnoy:
Yes, the OWIN’s concept was created by Luigi, Objectway CEO, because he wanted a mechanism by which he could interact with the clients, but at the same time, interact in a way which, sort of helped clients, see a theme that Objectway was trying to bring to market. So, the events actually historically haven’t been held every year, but every other year, and in each event, it’s always been about trying to marry the kind of origin, the place where you’re having the event, with the theme of the event, and with things that Objectway is now doing in relation to the event. So, of course, we pause during the pandemic, as many did to have such live events with people in the same room, but we were able this time round to obviously reinvigorate the concept, and to hold it in the wonderful city of Venice.

Koen Vanderhoydonk:
Yeah, that was actually my next question, because the scenery was marvellous. What was the link with Venice?

Roger Portnoy:
So the link with Venice was something that was conceived when we began to think about the sustainability theme in the industry, as you are aware of your wealth management, or even broader asset management, the last seven years or so, have seen a huge increase in interest and capital flows to sustainability themes, whether those are environmental themes, social themes, governance themes, etc. The flow of capital has been in the many trillions now, to try to help our planet and help our society more broadly. Venice is a city that is steeped in the tradition of sustainability. You know, if you’re at the event, you had the pleasure of listening to the speaker, who is head of the VeniSIA and what you learned from listening to his speech was that this city has survived and drive through effectively innovation. And so, it seemed like the ideal place to both talk about sustainability, and also to introduce the concept of innovation, which was sort of the core theme of our conference.

Koen Vanderhoydonk:
I still remember the quote of the day actually, for me, the quote of the year almost: “Tradition isn’t as a successful innovation from the past”. So, are you saying that the only theme was around sustainability? Or was it also a broader theme? What were your highlights from the event? What is your personal top three or even just the top one theme of the event? The pinnacle?

Roger Portnoy:
I think the overall highlight besides the fact that the conference went well, you know, and obviously, the feedback we’ve gotten about the event itself and about the organization of the event, and how well the Marketing team handled the event and the logistics, the hotel, all those could be seen as highlight.

I would say for me, the highlight was the fact that clients shared with the audience, their own ways of modernizing their own businesses. And you know, and that and now closely, this modernization, whether you are a large universal bank, a small wealth manager or a private bank, reflected the diamond. So, we didn’t we didn’t tell people that at the beginning. You know, when we were speaking to firms, we asked them about what innovations they would talk to, and we gave them sort of general ideas of topics, but when they actually got on stage and they delivered, what you could hear in this modernization program, regardless of who was speaking about it and what the overall program was? You heard the diamond and for me, people coming in didn’t know what was the diamond, but leaving, they kind of got it.

That’s like a big deal because when you’re trying to reinvent or invigorate your brand, which we’re always trying to do, of course, you need some things which aren’t always about technology, and functionality and value chain and these other things to be present, or else your brand can become dull. So, this was a way that we achieve that. And to me, that was the highlight because going in, I didn’t really know even though I was the host, and obviously leading many of the introductions, that this would be the outcome.

Koen Vanderhoydonk:
So now, all the audience is very curious. How can they be part of the next OWIN? And I think that’s very simple to become a Objectway customer, so we always getting towards the end of this podcast. So maybe one last question, Roger, what would be a step to approach you, guys?

Roger Portnoy:
Yeah, well, actually, just let me correct you Koen on one thing you said correct, because it’s important to say that these events aren’t just for clients, we did actually have at the event, a number of prospects and we did of course, select the prospects. So, they didn’t visit our website and they didn’t say they wanted to come, and we suddenly said yes without giving about the whole conference. But obviously, you know, we have, of course, like every firm does, web presence. The other thing we have as a firm, is that we’ve developed different channels to demonstrate our web presence.

So, for example, you might have noticed that the event, there was a guy named Stephen Wall presenting, and he’s from The Wealth Mosaic. The Wealth Mosaic is a resource that people can go and find organizations like us and discover things about ourselves, you know, and therefore make themselves known to Objectway. So, of course, besides the normal digital channels, and the normal search, etc, there are sort of these distinct ways. And like I said, you know, we cover private banks, asset managers, universal banks, asset servicing firms, private clients, stockbrokers, all who are customers, and all of whom were at the event, you know, if you’re in one of those spheres, right, we’re probably relevant for you. And if you’re doing a sustainable innovation program, customer experience, lead, Target Operating Model lead, business reconfiguration lead or offering design change lead, you know, we’re probably going to be somebody you’re going to want to speak to.

Koen Vanderhoydonk:
But that’s great. Roger, it was a real pleasure having you today. I’d like to thank you a lot for your participation. Thank you also to the audience for tuning in. And please stay listening to the podcast because we will share you more information about innovation in our industry. Thank you so much.

Roger Portnoy:
Thank you very much for having me.