Hackathons aren't all about  glasses, geeks, pocket-protectors, and Red Bull, although such stereotypes may turn off many from entering them...

Don't have FOMO.  Check out our Singapore FinTech Festival coverage:

We were honored to partner with the Monetary Authority of Singapore on their first week-long global Singapore FinTech Festival in November which coincided with our Singapore campus opening.  The Festival attracted more than 11,000 from all over the world.

No, we did not learn his presidential preferences (although that was a pressing topic). Vikram Pandit, the former CEO of Citigroup Inc. was a guest speaker at the Economist’s Finance Disrupted (#FinanceDisrupted) conference recently in New York City put on by Economist Events (great job Stephanie and Maria)  The theme, “Collaborate or Die,” featured fireside chats with leading FinTech experts on topics such as blockchain, financial inclusion, insurance and more. The Economist news desk Editor-In-Chief, Zanny Minton Beddoes, chatted with Pandit in the late afternoon. In attempts to make this coverage “hot off the press” before the conference ends (!)

Here are some quick interesting bits we learned:

• Vikram still takes taxis (revealed during discussion of the different business models of Uber vs. taxi medallions)
• And, maybe older than we think (guess it’s those genes): He still remembers when Mosaic (?!) was around (sharing this while making the point that FinTech is in early stages)
• He loves Singapore (the moderator brought this up after he mentioned the country 3x) Why? Government policy towards regulation (Byte Academy loves Singapore too :)
• He does not like picking banking partners: Moderator: “Who you would pick as a partner with if you were back in banking?” Vikram: “Thank G-d I don’t have to make that decision.”

Overall Vikram was a diplomat avoiding the moderator’s attempts to extract a true opinion (for instance, he avoided her question “does the US suck with regulation?")

Stay tuned for a more extensive follow-up on the Economist’s FinTech Disrupted conference…

Guest post by Arvind Padmanabhan, from Indian Engineering Design Forum, who attended our event this week on "Demonetization and its impact on FinTech and Digital Payments" in Bangalore.

Recently Matt Gertler, cryptocurrency attorney at Digital Asset Research answered a big question on many minds recently: are we in a cryptocurrency bubble?  Particularly with the rise of ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings) and China's recent ban on them, this has been on many minds recently.

Finovate 2015, one of the world’s largest FinTech gatherings, was held mid September in New York City, the same city where the conference was first held in 2007. For 2 days, 1500 innovators gathered at this demo-focused conference series focused on showcasing the best and most innovative new financial and banking technologies. Like in past years, Finovate attracted a high-impact audience of senior financial and banking executives. In addition to New York, the event takes place in different locations around the world throughout the year including San Francisco, London and Singapore.  The 24 events over the years have attracted more than 16,000 attendees.

On March 22, Byte Academy partnered again with Finovate Group on the second annual FinDEVr New York.   The conference, which is part of THE FinTech for developers event series,  had been held solely on the West coast for years before its 2016 New York launch. Participating companies showcased new tools, platforms, APIs and/or case studies designed to help developers create better, more efficient innovations. Last year FinDEVr was held for one day.  At two days, the conference was longer and larger -  an indication that the FinTech developer community in New York is booming strong.