I attended my third FinCon last month—virtually. It was a great experience, and I have some thoughts.
What is FinCon?
FinCon, for those who do not know, is a conference for financial content creators (bloggers, podcasters, YouTubers, and others). It was wonderful as usual. Kudos to the whole FinCon team for a great event. I especially appreciated the energetic hosting by Andy Hill of Marriage, Kids, & Money, and Paula Pant of Afford Anything.
(Loyal readers will remember part of my claim to fame (wink) was an MKM podcast episode featuring me and others on cryptocurrency earlier this year.
My ticket included the recordings of all of the sessions, and I have been spending a bit of time each week going through the FinCon videos and recordings. So much solid content!
I attended my first FinCon in 2019, and you can read all about it here.
In 2020, FinCon was supposed to be held in Long Beach, CA, but due to the pandemic a virtual event was held in its place.
I actually enjoyed the fully virtual experience, and I’m not sure why I didn’t write about it. However, I was really looking forward to getting back to an in-person conference. FinCon 2021 was a “hybrid” event, meaning that there was an in-person option, in Austin, Texas, and a virtual option.
I thought at the time, hahaha, we won’t need another virtual conference (never say never). And so I signed up for the in-person conference. But thanks to COVID and Delta, and discussions with family, had me conclude just a few weeks before that it made the most sense for me to attend virtually.
My Takeaways
I get a lot of energy from conferences like this.
Even virtually, I had a good chance to connect with a lot of people I had met before, and meet some new people. I was able to have relatively in-depth conversations with a number of people also attending virtually. Those include Tanja Hester (who has a forthcoming book, Wallet Activism, that looks provocative), Michelle Black, whose talk at FinCon 2019 propelled me into pivoting from money coaching to freelance writing, a better fit with my lifestyle and time, and many more.
Thank you, FinCon, for a virtual option.
I am beyond grateful that FinCon organizers decided on a hybrid event this year. I had fully intended to attend in person, but switched a few weeks before the event. About 20 percent of attendees were virtual, and the team did a great job making sure that we were included.
I am also grateful for all the food photos the in-person attendees posted to the conference app. I posted at one point that the virtual attendee were 50 percent here for the food photos and suggestions. I’ve begun a list of great places to try when I–and I hope the whole family–will be able to get to Austin.
In-person conferences will never go away.
Even though virtual was better than nothing, I am DEFINITELY looking forward to in-person events in future. I have already purchased my ticket for FinCon 2022. I predict conferences will not go all virtual any time soon, but I am glad there is technology to offer it when needed.
I’m happy to be a money nerd.
Most importantly, there are so many amazing content creators, fintech products & services, and resources out there—truly something for everyone—and I’m honored to be a part of this community.
Did you attend FinCon 2021? Do you plan to attend FinCon 2022?
