In previous posts, we focused on the conversation presented
in some of our favorite sessions.
There’s been so much more interesting discussions – both on stage and
off – that we have a “highlights” post just to get to it all.
- Wesabe talked about how money
makes people stressed out, and how providing online tools to help people
manage their personal finance can not only relieve stress, but provide
information about how people feel about the merchants they spend money at.
- Agoracom showed how publicly
traded companies moderate forums for their own stock to provide a more
civil, controlled discussion. We actually
think the community of users can do a better job themselves without
corporate parenting.
- Google had a fascinating
presentation on how people invest together. They have research that show if people live (or work) in close proximity, they're more likely to make similar investing decisions. The same is true for language - if people communicate in the same language, they again trade in similar ways.
- New and better access to
weather data can give investors an edge in certain markets (e.g. utilities,
insurance) – or even trade weather-based derivatives on weatherbill.
- Farecompare opens up the
airline pricing structure and highlights changes faster than the airlines
can publish them themselves. If
investors can use this pricing data to better project airline revenues,
they could gain an edge in the market.
At
Zecco, we really appreciate the new ways people are looking at data and using
it to gain an edge in the market – especially because we believe that data
generated by the community can help give people a similar kind of edge. We are optimistic that Day 2 provides equally
exciting insights as Day 1.