Mark Your Calendars: The AFTAs, BST Awards and IMD Chicago

As summer winds down, we are gearing up for a busy fall. On Monday, Sept. 9, we will begin requesting nominations for the ninth annual American Financial Technology Awards (AFTAs). These awards honor, and are open exclusively to, end-users—that is, buy-side and sell-side firms, including hedge funds, asset managers, pension funds, broker-dealers and investment banks. 

There are 16 categories, the full list of which can be found here.

Sorry, vendors and consultants, you are not eligible to enter, but if you worked on a project with an end-user client, that client can be submitted. If they win, your contributions could be included in the write-up that will run in the January 2014 issue of Waters magazine.

As always, the judges are looking for detail and not a copy-and-paste write-in from the firm's website. What is unique about your IT project? What separates it from your competitors? Who was it looking to help? How did it make the firm more efficient? What's the return on investment? These submissions are confidential and will only be seen by the judging panel—so don't be shy with the details.

The call for entries will open on Monday, and will close on Friday, Oct. 25. If you have questions, call me (+1 646 490 3973) or send me an email (anthony.malakian@incisivemedia.com). You can also reach out to editor-in-chief Victor Anderson (victor.anderson@incisivemedia.com).

As for vendors serving the buy side, this is for you: The Buy-Side Technology Awards are currently open for entry, but for only a few more weeks. You can find more details here. Your last day to submit a nomination is Sept. 20, 2013.

Finally, I will be traveling next week to attend Inside Market Data's annual Chicago conference on Sept. 10. If you will be attending the event, please come up and say hello. If you can't attend but would like to meet up—perhaps to enjoy one of Chicago's excellent brews, as Pipeworks Brewing Company is one of my personal favorites—then send me an email.

While I'm there, I'm going to be most interested in hearing about the Chicago marketplace, including the exchange landscape, and since it's IMD Chicago, market data-related issues. I hope to see you there.