Day 1: "The Forex Magnates Summit Is the One Place to Meet so Many Likeminded People"

It’s been a long and exciting day for all visitors to the Forex Magnates London Summit. After an intense and highly attended speed dating-like session at the “Networking Blitz” in the Atrium, the bulk of the industry’s executives are heading for a quick break to prepare for an even longer and more vibrant second day tomorrow.

Hundreds of senior industry executives flocked to the City of London this Tuesday to attend the top notch London Summit event hosted by Forex Magnates. As the doors opened around 13:00, the attendees started registering, with their numbers rising fast to peak out later in the afternoon when the full capacity of the event was reached.

The exhibition halls were filled with people enthusing about the latest industry developments and visiting the exhibitor booths. As the afternoon progressed, the first occasion of the day for the Summit’s audience was the “Innovation Stage” Contest in the Speakers Hall.

A total of ten firms presented their products at the Innovation Panel, divided in two groups - industry veterans and startup companies.

Divisa Capital, FX Transparency, Gold-i, JFD Prime and TradeSmarter have all presented their new offerings catering to the industry and commented on the recent challenges for the foreign exchange marketplace.

The startup effort was led by Centroid Solutions, Normann, Qubitia Solutions, Tradimo Play and EXGATE. With some stunning new products presented on stage, the jury had a tough decision to make.

After the Innovation Stage presentation concluded, the stage was taken by the Fintech panel who presented a variety of companies with their views on the development of the rapidly growing fintech sector.

Going beyond FX: The stage was taken by senior executives from Acuity Trading, CurrentBusiness, Elliptic, Kantox, Seedrs and Wickr. The discussion was focused on various topics including big data, equity crowdfunding, digital currencies, peer-to-peer foreign exchange matching, the challenges associated with broker management and the next generation of secure electronic communications.

After the Fintech panel concluded, all attendees headed to the Atrium of the Grange St. Paul Hotel, where a series of speed date-like "Network Blitz” went on for more than 2 hours, while Integral hosted a Sports Bar party.

Our reporters mixed in with the crowds to pick up on the visitors' impressions.

CFH Clearing’s Head of Prime Brokerage and Clearing, Nick Mortimer said, “The Forex Magnates London Summit is the one industry event where you can meet so many likeminded people.”

“Usually it's quite hard to gather industry insiders in London who haven’t already met each other, but the Forex Magnates London Summit somehow always manages to bring in new people and present new opportunities for networking,” shared Sucden Financial’s Head of Institutional Sales, Michael Davis.

The first day of the event has been a resounding success with industry professionals expressing their immense satisfaction with the Forex Magnates London Summit and looking forward to a short break, before enjoying the second day of the summit.

Day two of the Summit will continue with panels that will spotlight FX products, Payments outsourcing, mastering the media, technological innovations in the industry and the lucrative IPO market and the challenges it presents for companies (and of course, another set of priceless networking opportunities).

Needless to say, the Forex Magnates Awards ceremony will take center stage at the end of the day, and the attendees will find out the results from the vote where they themselves selected the best products and companies in the foreign exchange industry throughout 2014.

Binarystation’s closing party will conclude the second day of the Forex Magnates London Summit at the Sky Bar of the Grange St Paul, where attendees will gather for the final moments of networking and celebrate the deals closed throughout the London Summit.