Natalia Korotaeva and Daniel De La Fuente are user experience designers at George Labs. In a field where creativity and innovation are key, it helps to think outside the box, which led them to a breakthrough idea: exchanging insights with fellow designers. With a lot of #believeinyourself, they turned a simple concept into the world’s largest user experience gathering for financial sector designers.
Daniel is from Mexico and has been with Erste Group for 7 years, and Natalia, originally from Russia, has been part of the Erste family for 5 years. Both of them design new features for George, with the objective of making them both engaging and user-friendly.
© Marlena König
What was your #believeninyourself moment?
Natalia: Innovating George is part of our DNA and that means we need to constantly reinvent ourselves. In order to do that, we realised that we had to get out of our bubble. And since we often find inspiration by learning from others, we had a powerful idea: Why not create a space to share insights with other design professionals in the financial sector? By designers and for designers.
Daniel: With Erste Campus, we had the perfect venue at our hands. And as design experts, we were equipped to manage every aspect of organising a conference ourselves. With a lot of #believeninyourself, we pitched our idea of hosting an international design conference, with external designers participating, to our managers.
They were initially sceptical since organising an international event isn’t exactly part of the job description for a UX designer. But in the end, our managers believed in us and gave the green light.
What was the challenge?
Daniel: Well, sharing insights with others isn’t common practice, especially among competitors. In banking, we don’t really have a culture of sharing ideas as there are too many sensitive topics. With this in mind, our goal was to gather distinguished designers from the foremost 200 banks and fintechs worldwide. But the question was: are they even aware of George? What could possibly attract them to come to Vienna?
Natalia: And neither of us had any experience organising a conference of this scale. Finding the right speakers, selecting interesting topics for the talks and organising everything, from stickers to a DJ for the afterparty. We had never been on a stage before, moderating an event in front of an audience. And on top of that, we still had to do our day-to-day jobs.
© Marlena König
How did you overcome the challenges?
Daniel: We personally reached out to the big players in the financial sector and told them about George and our idea. It was a moment of great pride for us when we secured commitments of attendance from leading financial institutions like BBVA, Revolut and Nordea, the largest bank in Scandinavia.
Natalia: Our whole design team was hands-on from the start – building the website, organizing the livestream, managing visuals, and more. We also had amazing support from other teams across Erste and George, which made a huge difference. It’s incredible to work in a company where you can always count on people to step in and help when you need it!
How did you overcome the challenges?
Daniel: We personally reached out to the big players in the financial sector and told them about George and our idea. It was a moment of great pride for us when we secured commitments of attendance from leading financial institutions like BBVA, Revolut and Nordea, the largest bank in Scandinavia.
Natalia: Our whole design team was hands-on from the start – building the website, organizing the livestream, managing visuals, and more. We also had amazing support from other teams across Erste and George, which made a huge difference. It’s incredible to work in a company where you can always count on people to step in and help when you need it!
How did the first conference go?
Daniel: We talked with hundreds of people to make this event a success and were acutely aware of the pressure that something might go wrong. But we also were incredibly thrilled with the volume of registrations and with how many people were willing to present their ideas on stage.
The moment we stepped in front of the audience and were enveloped by the positive energy, everything flowed just naturally. Watching designers from traditional banks and fintechs, big companies and small agencies come together was truly inspiring — it felt like one big community, all facing the same challenges.
Natalia: We achieved remarkable results. The event was a total sell-out, and there were over 100 people on the waitlist! With more than 310 attendees in person and more than 3,000 views online, the outcome went far beyond our initial expectations. The feedback we received was fantastic. Our post-event survey scored an impressive 4.7 out of 5, which made us so happy and confirmed that bringing the most creative minds from the global financial sector to Vienna was absolutely the right choice.
And since then, management has green-lit the conference for the third time already.
What would you like to pass on to your colleagues?
Natalia: I have to say that none of this would have been possible without the trust of our managers. I’m very grateful that they believed in us, in this idea, and supported us through all the ups and downs.
Daniel: And if it means doing something you’ve never done before, take the chance and jump in at the deep end! I never imagined I could be a moderator, but I’m amazed at what we were capable of once we stepped out of our comfort zone. At the same time, I am proud that I had the chance to casually talk with the design leaders behind some of the most renowned financial products in the industry. This experience has been incredibly enriching, and it has brought us a wealth of inspiration for George.