#ConnectedWomen Singapore member Lise Chew is a lawyer-turned-entrepreneur and speaker. She is the founder and brand strategist of The Brand AdvantEdge, a brand consultancy company in Singapore. Read on as Lise reports her experience at #SFFxSWITCH 2019.

The inaugural Singapore FinTech Festival (SFF) and the Singapore Week of Innovation and TeCHnology (SWITCH) came together for the first time as SFF x SWITCH, which ran from 11 to 15 November 2019, and I was fortunate enough to attend.

While I would consider myself a tech savvy entrepreneur, I was overwhelmed by firstly, the sheer size of the event which gathered the global innovation and business community (with over 400 speakers, more than 900 exhibitors, 41 international pavilions and about 60,000 participants from 130 countries!), and secondly, the depth of tech this event covered. Upon entering the exhibition space, which also contained the nine different stages for the a three-day SFF x SWITCH Conference (11 to 13 November 2019), I wandered about the booths, unsure of what to expect whilst my senses were overloaded with information.  

The theme of SFF x SWITCH was Sustainability and Climate Change, given the growing calls for the technology and financial sectors to be enablers and change agents for sustainability. The theme was reflected in the content of the conference, the event space at the Singapore Expo and through the provision of food from sustainable sources. 

The event featured innovative technologies across give key sectors – FinTech, Urban Solutions and Sustainability, Health and Biomedical Sciences, Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering, and Services and Digital Services – to catalyse cross-industry exchange and learning in technology adoption, application of research and development, and commercialization of new solutions. 

Since there was so much ground to cover, I popped in and out of the different stages where prominent speakers discussed topics on Sustainability, Finance and Tech; Future of Finance; Investment and Global Markets Opportunities; Exponential Technologies; Global Access to Innovation; Future Directions with Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Healthcare Innovation; Powering Cities of the Future; and Sustaining the Future of Humanity. Besides these discussions, there were also competitions like the Global FinTech Hackcelerator Demo Day, the FinTech Awards, and the SlingShot 2019 and investment opportunities during the Global Investor Summit. 

A summit of particular interest to me was the SME Digitalisation and Platforms – Business sans Borders (BSB). This summit spotlighted key issues faced by SMEs and covered pertinent issues such as SME financing and possible roadmaps for BSB beyond 2020.  

I appreciated the fact that there seemed to be no expense spared at this event by the Singapore government to support technological innovations and advancements. It was exciting to just be in an atmosphere of creators and innovators and I felt right at home with all the entrepreneurial discourse. SFF x SWITCH is symbolic of Singapore’s national effort to integrate research, innovation and enterprise as an iterative, interactive ecosystem – so that each one will spur the others to greater heights, with the aim of improving lives in Singapore and globally. 

SFF was made possible by MAS, in partnership with The Association of Banks in Singapore, and in collaboration with SingEx Holdings. SWITCH is organised by Enterprise Singapore, NRF and Intellectual Property Intermediary (IPI) in partnership with SingEx.

#ConnectedWomen, a global community of women entrepreneurs, freelancers and professionals, are proud media partners of SFF x SWITCH. SFF x SWITCH return on November 9-13 2020, for updates visit www.SFFxSWITCH.com.