Sibos 2020 Resident blogger, Leda Glyptis: Sibos is done. Roll on Sibos.

Fintech visionary Leda Glyptis, a true Sibos Insider, is the resident blogger for Sibos 2020, offering her unique take on this year’s event. Read her final blog, part of a series released daily throughout the week.

Sibos is done. Roll on Sibos.

"You are sad."

That’s what Tanya Andressyan told me when I told her Sibos is my favourite week of the year.Better than Christmas? She asked.Yes, better than Christmas.It has all the best bits of Christmas - amazing food and cocktail parties at all hours, swagtastic presents ranging from socks to the bona fide pony express toy horses we got in 2014 and you don’t need to negotiate who you are spending boxing day with this year if Aunt Doris was with your cousin Ewan on Christmas Eve. Everyone is there. You don’t even have to call.You just know they will be there.

And another thing.

I have taken client calls on holiday.I have responded to ‘super urgent’ slack essays on Christmas Day.I have done RFP reviews from my hotel room late at night during business trips.I have reviewed pitch decks on Sunday mornings.‘Can it wait till Monday?’. ‘I am on leave’. ‘I am travelling this week’ always gets a ‘if you don’t mind… this is important…’ response back.Not so if you say the magic word.Sibos.I can’t take the call. I can’t submit the RFP.Say it’s Sibos and they will slap their foreheads and move the submission date. How did we miss that? It’s Sibos. Of course you won’t submit the RFP. It’s Sibos. Of course you won’t take the call. You will be on Sibos time, in Sibos land. The only things you will do, will be there. Face to face. Content, meeting, challenge or catch up. Interview, review, presentation or negotiation. You will do it all. You will do it there.

The only time that is sacred in this industry, the only universally accepted reason why you can’t meet, speak, take a call, do a thing is ‘it’s Sibos’.Clients. Staff. Bosses. Even my mother. They know that during Sibos week what you do is… Sibos.It’s like magic.

This year was different. I won’t lie.The content was brilliant, no changes there. The people were brilliant. As we have come to expect.A friend for whom this was her first Sibos said to me incredulously ‘have you seen the speaker list’. Yes I have. I do. Every year.

Why do I love Sibos? We’ve been there.For the buzz, the energy, the ideas, the learning.For the people. The great and the good.Walking into a Sibos session is like doing a rapid fire ‘who is who’ of global banking. Walking across the exhibition hall is like a family reunion. Old colleagues, providers, mentors, mentees, sparring partners and pioneers. Friends, by now, one and all.Day one of Sibos week is the least Covid-proof thing imaginable: hugs. I am counting down to next year already. For the learning. The energy. And the hugs. You’ve been warned. There will be hugs next year. All the hugs.

But there is one more thing I am looking forward to, already, looking ahead to next year.

Because there was one more thing that was different about this Sibos and it wasn’t just our remoteness. It was a somber tone pervading all conversations.Covid was ever present.In the things we’ve achieved, the things we didn’t get round to doing and the things we deprioritized. The things we learned about our organisations’ resilience and ability to move fast when we have to and the things we had to face up to around the futility of some of our efforts to-date. Covid was present in all our conversations and its impact was openly discussed: in accelerating, slowing down, showing up and resetting.Covid didn’t change much but it changed everything. It didn’t change what we had to do but it altered the tone and benchmark against which we prioritise what gets done first and the standards against which we decide when something needs to be done by. When is fast enough. What is good enough.

Covid made a few things very real.And here’s to hoping that its menacing presence will abate. So we can move around. So that families will stop mourning loved ones. So that the frail, the elderly or those with compromised immune systems will stop living in fear.So that we can breathe again. So I can go round hugging you lot next time I see you.But here’s to hoping, also, that the sobering focus it brought us - because we had no choice - will become a thing we choose to keep.

Because our innovation should be intentional, outcome-focused and swift.Because our decisions should be treating life and business with urgency.Because life, survival, growth and serving our communities is urgent business. Always.

So when I see you next year expect a hug.And a question.Did you learn anything in the past year? Did you learn that the thing about survival is not just the sigh of relief at the far end of the storm but also holding onto the thing that helped you survive in the first place? Because you might need it again.

So. Next year let’s make up for lost time. Because it’s Sibos. That time out of time where all else pauses while we do Sibos things.And holding each other accountable on maintaining the urgent focus Covid forced us into should now be one of them.After the hugs.The hugs will come first. Because it’s Sibos. And it’s always been all about the people. The people who rallied in hard times and who, I hope, will hold onto what they learned as we go on ahead towards better days. And we will have to decide to use this time and place to hold ourselves accountable. No excuse will do. It’s the magic word. We will have to do it, if we commit now.Because it’s Sibos.