Vidoop headed out to the Big Apple last week for Finovate 2008, and after seven minutes of presentation, eleven media interviews, 50+ partner and customer meetings, 12 hours of round-trip flying and 5,000 miles of total travel, Mitch Savage and I are back home in Portland.

Finovate marked the launch of our expanded Vidoop Secure login authentication platform. In addition to the ImageShield, we presented Multi-factor Authentication via phone as a complement to the ImageShield or as a standalone strong authentication solution. It gives financial institutions the option of very simple MFA or a comprehensive solution. Making the phone a token makes a lot of sense; the audience got it.

We’re big fans of the Finovate conference. We presented back in the spring this year so we had a sense of what to expect in NYC. Presenters receive almost instant feedback on their presentations, and we were really pleased with what we heard.

The biggest buzz came when Mitch commented on the idea of presenting sponsored images in the ImageShield. What’s fantastic about the idea is the images don’t look or feel like advertising to the user. However, it’s an innovate, eyeballs-to-brand opportunity for advertisers. Financial institutions that have a medium to large number of logins can generate significant revenue using sponsored images. The idea of turning a cost center into a profit center is an idea everyone can love.

We also received great comments from the press. Banking blog Banktasktic’s two reviewers both gave Vidoop five stars (out of five, of course!) Among the comments were, “Your bank or credit union NEEDS to look into this,” and, “Ready for mobile - the demo was on a iPhone. Looks great even on the phone. I liked the verifying techniques they implemented. Super userful.”

Be sure to catch Mitch’s brief video interview with Banktastik. It includes great info for anyone wanting to know more about how Vidoop is going to help banks, credit unions and other financial institutions be more secure and user-friendly at the same time.