The first LendIt Europe conference is happening in London on November 17th, 2014. After putting on two successful conferences in this country over the past two years and co-hosting a conference in Shanghai we are now going to the birthplace of this industry. We opened LendIt Europe 2014 for registration last night.
As many of you know I am a co-founder of LendIt and I spend a good deal of my time now putting these conferences together. I am going to be heading to London again next week to meet with many of the speakers and potential sponsors of this conference. This will be my second trip to London this year, the first one was back in March where we scoped out potential venues for LendIt Europe.
Speaking of venues, I couldn’t be more delighted with the facility for our first European conference. 155 Bishopsgate is a state of the art venue that just opened earlier this year in the heart of London’s financial district. In fact, when we toured it back in March the construction was not yet complete. It has a flexible seating area in the main ballroom, multiple rooms for breakouts and a great foyer for an Exhibit Hall. And all the technology we could want comes standard.
The night before the conference (November 16th is a Sunday night) there will be a cocktail party at the Andaz Hotel, which is about 200 yards away from 155 Bishopsgate. We also have a room block at the Andaz for everyone traveling to the event.
So what about the conference itself? There will be keynote speeches from the CEOs of the “big three” p2p lenders in the UK: Zopa, Ratesetter and Funding Circle. We will have panel discussions on a variety of topics such as small business lending, consumer lending, real estate, cross-border platforms, the impact of institutional investors and much more. We hope to have a few surprises for everyone as well. A full preliminary agenda will be available in coming weeks.
Lend Academy Readers Will Receive a Discount on Registration
As always with LendIt conferences Lend Academy readers receive a special discount. Just enter the code LENDACADEMYVIP into the discount field at checkout for a 15% discount off admission. Early bird pricing of £295 will be in place until August 31st, so Lend Academy readers will pay around £250 (plus VAT) until then. After August 31st the price goes up to £495 so it pays to be quick.
Like previous LendIt conferences we intend to broadcast LendIt Europe live online so people will be able to watch the main sessions from anywhere in the world. And edited videos should be available within a few weeks of the event.
I am excited for our first European event and I hope to see some Lend Academy readers there. I already know several people here who are making the trip and I look forward to meeting many of our European brethren there as well.
You can read the official press release announcing LendIt Europe here.
Peter Renton is the chairman and co-founder of LendIt Fintech, the world’s first and largest digital media and events company focused on fintech. Peter has been writing about fintech since 2010 and he is the author and creator of the Fintech One-on-One Podcast, the first and longest-running fintech interview series. Peter has been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, The New York Times, CNBC, CNN, Fortune, NPR, Fox Business News, the Financial Times, and dozens of other publications.