The Thinking Room is a new AllianceDFA initiative bringing members together to explore challenges, share perspectives and think through ideas collaboratively.
Some of the most useful conversations begin not with a solution, but with a question.
A challenge you haven’t quite worked out. An idea you want to test. An opportunity you see but aren’t sure how to pursue. Or a problem where a different perspective could make all the difference.
Think it through together
Each Thinking Room session starts with an idea, challenge, question or problem connected to digital financial services, fintech, innovation, consumer protection, or financial health.
A Contributor introduces the topic in a short presentation, setting out the context and the questions they would like to explore. The group then comes together for an open, facilitated discussion, sharing experience, challenging assumptions and generating ideas or alternative approaches.
Each session lasts 45 minutes, with 10 minutes for the initial introductions and presentation, and 35 minutes for discussion and a short wrap-up.
The aim isn’t necessarily to find a definitive answer. It’s to leave with new perspectives, useful connections, ideas worth exploring or practical next steps.
Bring a challenge or idea, not a sales pitch
The Thinking Room is deliberately different from a traditional presentation or webinar. It isn’t about showcasing a finished product, promoting a service or delivering a presentation designed primarily to share information. Instead, it creates space to work through something that is still taking shape.
You might bring an early-stage idea, a strategic question, a challenge you are facing, an emerging issue or an approach you would like to sense-check. You don’t need to have all the answers. In fact, the most valuable starting point may be something you haven’t yet figured out.
A space for members to contribute
Thinking Rooms are proposed through AllianceDFA member associations. An association can bring forward its own topic or invite someone from its network — such as a financial service provider, technology company or researcher — to share an idea or challenge with the group.
This creates an opportunity for member associations to bring relevant expertise into the conversation, connect people who may not otherwise meet and help surface new perspectives across the digital finance and fintech ecosystem.
Join the first Thinking Room
Our first session takes place on 29 October at 15:00 GMT.
Our contributor is Nuno Andrade, founder of the fintech Sinku, and a member of Portugal Fintech. Sinku is developing a product to enable fast, affordable remittances from Portugal to Cape Verde. Stablecoins are used behind the scenes to facilitate transfers, while recipients can access and use their funds via a Visa card.
The challenge: Finding a way for people in Cape Verde to deposit cash locally into an account held abroad. Sinku wants to explore potential solutions, including partnerships with local providers, that would enable cash deposits in Cape Verde to be transferred into an overseas account, in this case in Portugal.
We invite members and colleagues with relevant experience, questions or perspectives to join us. You don’t need to be an expert in the topic; a willingness to contribute thoughtfully is what matters. Register for the first Thinking Room here.
Bring something worth thinking about
We’re also inviting AllianceDFA member associations to propose topics for upcoming Thinking Rooms in November and December. If your association has an idea, question or challenge that would benefit from collaborative thinking, we encourage you to read the Thinking Rooms Guide, explore the format and put forward a proposal.
We look forward to seeing what we can think through together.