In the 5 short years since the CMA initiated Open Banking in the UK, over 6 million people have made use of available services - so while it is still in its infancy, the drive behind open banking is clear and is already beginning to progress into the wider scope of open finance.

In this fast evolving landscape customers will benefit from sharing their data across multiple sectors, from utilities to property and healthcare.

This next step to open ‘X’ will shape the open future. In another 5 years, personal data mobility will be visible across verticals, so businesses need to strategise now to be ahead of the curve.

On 7-8 November an extraordinary group of innovators will gather at the OpenX Congress, the world’s first cross-sector data event. Offering businesses, and governments, a first look at the strategic and commercial benefits that will become available with the advent of personal data mobility, customer-centric API data ecosystems, and cross-sector data mobility.

Michael Jackson, Board member, Luminor Bank is a digital visionary on how this open future will evolve. While Nigel Verdon, CEO & Co-Founder, Railsr, is leading the way on embedded finance to power experiences rather than linear products and isolated services. He’s working closely with England rugby legend Will Carling, OBE, who sees the possibilities this offers for the future of fan engagement in sport and beyond.

These three powerhouses will discuss data insights and partnerships and how these can create new opportunities for thousands of businesses across the UK - showing them how to improve how they work with existing clients, and secure a relationship with the next generation of customers.

Continuing the focus on personal data mobility and engagement; Eleni Sharp at the BBC presents a ground breaking case study on the new services they will offer their audience. Exploring a single user data store and empowering people to make better use of their own data.

While Catherine Brien, Chief Data Officer of The Guardian, will outline the three years of preparation they have already undertaken just to be ready to start planning their audience and business strategy for the next 5 and 10 years. A vision of how digital media will evolve.

Taken together - along with many more exceptional speakers - these are fascinating insights into how different sectors are mobilising for the emerging data economy. Each bound by common data sets (finance, transaction) concerns (data ethics, consent) and challenges (standards, interoperability).

But perhaps the biggest scene setter for OpenX will be the opening keynote from John Bruce, CEO & Co-Founder of Inrupt. Presenting Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s vision for the future of the web. Early projects bringing Web3 to life today. Changes that will impact everyone and every sector.

Organiser Open Future World’s Marie Walker said, “Researching OpenX over the last year was an eye-opening experience. Cross-sector ecosystems will revolutionise our lives and it is exciting to see and learn from the first movers. It’s important to share this work which is why - in keeping with our freemium approach - there are free virtual tickets available for this event to include as many future-forward innovators as we can.”

Content partner and data mobility champion Liz Brandt of Ctrl-Shift adds “Data underpins our digital lives, feeds AI, shapes how businesses engage customers, and underpins our ability to transact. The personal data landscape is now shifting at pace. After years of pressure in response to surveillance capitalism, data breaches, a consumer perceived inequity when sharing their data and tech giants locking data away stifling innovation, the political pressure is now manifesting in the shape of new regulations. We’re seeing the shifts in the data and value flows in the digital economy.

“No business dependent on digital – and which aren’t in today and tomorrow's world – can be said to have a robust strategy without understanding those shifts and what it means for them.”

The Congress will also crown the winner of the world’s first OpenX Hackathon. Free and open to professional, and student, teams this will take place on 24-28th October using NayaOne’s sandbox of open banking APIs and numerous sources of cross-sector data. “This is a fantastic opportunity to imagine new user journeys combining finance data and data from two other non-finance sectors. I’m excited to see what smart and innovative ideas entrants come up with to improve everyday lives.” said judge and Hackathon partner Tim Johnson of data sharing ecosystem specialists Raidiam.

As the quote goes ‘the future is already here, just unevenly distributed’. OpenX Congress - both in-person and virtually is the place to be when open x leaders meet for the first time.