How to REWIRE the Service Sector: Financial Services & Professional Services
- Date
- 2026-01-21
- Location
- When in the lobby take right around the corner(next to bar), then go to the Elevators. Take elevator to the third floor and find your way to "Fluela”, Davos, Graubünden, Switzerland
- Host
- unDavos Summit
About this event
Service businesses are being pushed to change from every direction: client expectations are rising, margins are under pressure, and AI is reshaping what expertise looks like in practice. This gathering is for people who want to think seriously about what comes next for financial services and professional services, with others who are asking the same hard questions. About the Event This is an in-person conversation and networking meetup focused on how to rewire the service sector, with particular attention on financial services and professional services. The goal is not abstract futurism. It is to bring together people who care about how service businesses are built, delivered, and improved in a world where trust, efficiency, technology, and human judgment all matter at once. Expect a room that blends community, discussion, and practical exchange. Whether you work inside a large institution, advise clients directly, build tools for service teams, or are simply curious about where the sector is headed, this event creates space to compare notes with people facing similar challenges from different angles. The theme of “rewiring” matters because many service models were designed for a different era. Firms are now rethinking workflows, pricing logic, client communication, talent models, compliance processes, and the role of automation. This meetup is designed to help attendees explore those shifts with more clarity and less noise. Rather than positioning the topic as a single-industry issue, the event connects two worlds that often have more in common than they admit: financial services and professional services. Both rely on trust, knowledge, relationships, and operational discipline. Both are also under pressure to evolve quickly without losing the qualities clients depend on. What to Expect You can expect a high-signal, in-person meetup format built around conversation, perspective-sharing, and professional connection. The setting is designed to make it easier to move beyond surface-level small talk and into the real questions shaping service businesses today. Likely discussion themes include: How AI and automation are changing service delivery Where human expertise still creates clear advantage New expectations around responsiveness, personalization, and transparency Operational bottlenecks inside advisory, financial, and client-service teams How firms can modernize without damaging trust or quality What “future-ready” service models may look like in practice Because the event is also a networking and community gathering, expect a mix of structured conversation and informal exchange. You may find yourself discussing strategy with someone from a financial institution, comparing operating models with a consultant, or trading observations with a founder building tools for service-heavy industries. This is also a useful format for testing your own thinking. If you are working through changes inside your organization, exploring new offerings, or trying to understand how adjacent sectors are adapting, the room should give you multiple reference points quickly. Why Attend If you work in or around service businesses, this event offers a chance to step out of day-to-day execution and look at the bigger redesign underway. Many conversations about the future of services stay too general. This one is grounded in sectors where precision, judgment, compliance, relationships, and delivery all matter. You should leave with a sharper sense of where pressure is building and where opportunity is opening. That could mean seeing a familiar challenge in a new way, hearing how others are adapting their business model, or discovering that problems you assumed were unique are shared across the sector. Attending can be valuable if you want to: Understand how peers are thinking about service transformation Meet people across finance, advisory, consulting, and adjacent fields Pressure-test ideas around operations, client experience, or technology adoption Build relationships with others interested in the future of knowledge work Get out of siloed industry thinking and compare patterns across sectors There is also real value in being in the room early for conversations like this. The service sector is not changing all at once, but it is changing steadily. Being part of a focused in-person discussion can help you identify what is hype, what is structural, and what deserves action now. Practical Details This is an in-person event in Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday, January 21 at 11:00 AM GMT+1. If you plan to attend, give yourself a little extra time to navigate the venue so you can arrive settled and ready to connect. To find the room: when in the lobby, take a right around the corner next to the bar, then go to the elevators. Take the elevator to the third floor and make your way to "Fluela." These directions are worth following closely, especially if the venue is busy. A few practical notes: Format: in-person community, networking, and meetup-style discussion Focus: rewiring financial services and professional services Best for: people who want thoughtful conversation, not just passive attendance Arrival tip: come with enough time to locate the room and start conversations before things get underway If this topic sits close to your work, your clients, or the future you are trying to build, this is the kind of event where one strong conversation can make the trip worth it.
Who should attend
This is for you if you want a smarter conversation about how service businesses are changing and what to do about it. - You work in **financial services** and are thinking about client expectations, operating model change, automation, trust, or the future of advisory work. - You are in **professional services** such as consulting, legal, accounting, strategy, or other expertise-driven fields and want to compare how peers are adapting delivery, pricing, and workflow. - You lead or support **transformation, innovation, operations, or digital initiatives** and want grounded input from people working through similar shifts. - You build products, tools, or services for firms in finance or professional services and want to understand the real problems practitioners care about. - You are a founder, operator, investor, or ecosystem participant interested in where the service sector is heading and which changes are structural rather than temporary. - You value **high-quality networking** and prefer meeting people around a concrete theme instead of making generic conference small talk.