At Finovate, I noticed some recurring trends from not only the presenting companies, but many attendees as well. In this time of uncertainty, it’s definitely exciting to see companies that are eager to make a difference and succeed even when times are tough. Here are three themes that continually popped up at Finovate.

1. Control your money

Ok, personal finance management software was *almost* done to death at Finovate… But that tells you that being able to take control of your own finances is something front of mind right now. Whether companies like Mint, Quicken Online and Wesabe catches on, we’ll have to see, but it’s clear the need is there. Is it really surprising that people don’t want to put all their trust in banks right now?

2. Power of community

SmartHippo was not the only community-oriented site at Finovate! The whole idea of being able to collaborate with other consumers for the purpose of collectively saving money or to learn more about managing money was big. WeSeed uses a community to help you learn about the stock market. Inner8 brought a community feel to matching you with the best stocks (call them match.com for investing, as they said), and FiServ, has an online app called MyMoney that uses an existing community–Facebook– to help Gen Yers manage their money on a site they already spend a lot of time on!

3. New technology making banking more efficient

Finally, it’s no surprise that using new technology to make banking more efficient was evident at Finovate. Like any industry, mobile was a hot trend: mFoundry launched it’s white label iPhone app that allows iPhone users do all their personal banking on the go. (Personally, I would use this all the time). Vidoop had some interesting techniques to keep your passwords and personal info safe (For example, after entering your username, the site would call you and you hit the # key). CheckFree now allows you to deposit checks via scanner (finally!) and CreditKarma showed off its new tool which allows you to preview your credit score, and how certain factors would affect it.

So that would be my key takeaways from the show. A good show all around and inspiring for start ups in the financial industry.

While I’m still new at all this, I would love your comments on the show, or my observations. Leave ‘em below!