At yesterday's second annual FinovateEurope, 35 companies laid it on the line with in the grueling 7-minute demo format plus a day of networking in the old London fish market on the Thames.

For the first time ever, and much to our astonishment, every demo finished at or under the time limit. Thankfully, we never had to hear the bell signifying that time is up.

At the end of the last demo, eligible audience members (note 1) voted for their 3 favorite demos (note 2). All 35 companies received votes (employees of presenting companies cannot vote), but 4 stood out in the vote tally (alphabetic order):   

• Cardlytics (with Aimia) showed its in-statement ad platform and management tools (demo recap)
  
  
• Dynamics which launched it's "chip and choice" card for
  the chip & pin world (demo recap)
  
  
• eToro which launched its crowd-sourced "guru finder"
  to help located traders to follow/copy (demo recap)
  
  
• Nutmeg launched an investment service focused around the needs
  of the everyday investor (demo recap)

Dynamics and eToro are previous Best of Show winners. You can read our live blog posts on each demo now. And in 2 or 3 weeks we'll have the full demos available at Finovate.com.

Thanks to everyone who attended and presented. We are truly humbled by the support from the European financial community and we are already making plans for the 2013.

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Notes on methodology:
1. Only audience members NOT associated with demoing companies were eligible to vote. Finovate employees did not vote.   
2. Attendees were encouraged to note their favorites as the day went on and choose 3 favorites from just the demos of that day. Ballots were turned in at the end of the last demo session each day. 
3. The exact written instructions given to attendees: "Please rate (the companies) on the basis of demo quality and potential impact of the innovation demoed. Note: Ballots with more than three companies circled will not be counted." 
4. The four companies appearing on the highest percentage of submitted ballots were named Best of Show.

FinovateEurope 2012 is less than a week away and we are very excited to return to London to showcase the best new innovations in financial technology from across the globe.

On next Tuesday, dozens of cutting-edge startups and leading established companies (check out the list of presenters) will take the stage to debut their latest and greatest ideas via Finovate's signature fast-paced, demo-only format

We blew past last year's attendance total of 450 last week and tickets have continued to sell strongly (there are still a few left if you want to register).

In case you're curious about who is attending this year, here is a small sample of the organizations that have already registered:

If you want add your organization's name to this list and join our top-notch audience to watch the future of European finance and banking technology debut live next Tuesday, please register soon before it is too late. We'll see you in London!

FinovateEurope 2012 is sponsored by: Bluerock Consulting & The Bancorp Bank

FinovateEurope 2012 is partners with: BankerStuff, BankInnovation, Celent, Deutsch Startups, Finance on Windows, The Financial Services Club, The Financial Services Innovation Centre, Juniper Research, and PYMNTS.com.

We're very excited to announce that FinovateEurope 2012 has officially blown past last year's record attendance of 450 with two weeks still to go.

On February 7th in London, this year's audience will get to witness dozens of new fintech innovations debut from both cutting-edge startups and leading established companies (check out the list of presenters) via Finovate's signature fast-paced, demo-only format.

In case you're curious about who's attending this year, here is a (very) small sample of the organizations that have already registered:

If you want to join the top-notch audience and watch the future of European finance and banking technology debut live, there are still a few tickets left. But please register soon as tickets are continuing to sell quickly. We'll see you in London!

FinovateEurope 2012 is sponsored by: Bluerock Consulting & The Bancorp Bank

FinovateEurope 2012 is partners with: BankerStuff, BankInnovation, Celent, Deutsch Startups, Finance on Windows, The Financial Services Club, The Financial Services Innovation Centre, Juniper Research, and PYMNTS.com.

With 2011 put to rest, the Finovate team has returned to the office excited to make FinovateEurope 2012 in February our biggest and best European event ever.

Over the holidays we received a number of inquiries about whether it was still possible to get an early-bird ticket to the event. Given that, we've decided to extend our early-bird ticket deadline until this Friday (January 6th) so that you can lock in your spot at the early-bird rate.

Tickets for the event have been selling strongly and we expect a record crowd on February 7th in London. Here is a small sample of the organizations that have already registered to attend:

If you want to guarantee your chance to watch the future of European finance and banking technology debut in London in February, please register soon. As I mentioned above, tickets for the event are selling quickly -- well ahead of last year's pace when we sold out weeks ahead of the conference. In addition, with the extended deadline, if you register by Friday January 6th then you'll get the affordable early-bird price on your ticket.

FinovateEurope 2012 is sponsored by: Bluerock Consulting & The Bancorp Bank

FinovateEurope 2012 is partners with: BankerStuff, BankInnovation, Celent, Deutsch Startups, Finance on Windows, The Financial Services Club, The Financial Services Innovation Centre, and PYMNTS.com.

With the holiday break fast approaching, we wanted to remind you to register for FinovateEurope 2012 before the early-bird ticket deadline on this Friday, December 23rd (and before you check out for some well-deserved relaxation at year-end).  

Despite the uncertainty of the last several months, tickets for our second annual showcase of the cutting-edge European fintech innovations have been selling strongly (well ahead of last year's pace that led to our first sell-out event).

Here is a small sample of the organizations already registered to attend: ABN Amro, Alfabank, Balderton, Barclays, BN Bank, BNP Paribas, Capital One, Celent, DAB Bank, EFMA, Gartner, Greylock, ING, La Poste, Liberty Bank, Microsoft, MorningStar, JP Morgan, PostFinance, Rabobank, Skandia, Standard Chartered, and Yahoo.

Next February in London, the executives from these organizations will get to see over three dozen new innovations in financial and banking technology debut (check out our recent "sneak peak" blog posts on the Finovate blog -- post #1, post #2 -- to whet your appetite). 

If you're interested in joining this top-quality audience and watching the future of global fintech via our signature demo-only format, then please grab your ticket at the early-bird rate today. Hopefully we'll see you in London and, in the meantime, we'll simply wish you happy holidays!

FinovateEurope 2012 is sponsored by: Bluerock Consulting & The Bancorp Bank

FinovateEurope 2012 is partners with: BankerStuff, BankInnovation, Celent, Deutsch Startups, Finance on Windows, The Financial Services Club, The Financial Services Innovation Centre, and PYMNTS.com.