FinovateSpring 2011 is a wrap. It was an inspiring two days, with 64 demos, all with an interesting twist or two or three on the state-of-the-art.

In the end, seven were chosen by the audience as best of show, but it was a tight race. Most companies received a significant number of audience votes and piles of business cards in the networking sessions.

The FinovateSpring 2011 Best of Show winners (in alphabetic order):

• BancVue for its youth-oriented financial game system, MoneyIsland
• BankOns (company launch) for its mobile merchant-funded rewards system
• Dwolla for its alternative payment service (taking root in Iowa)
• oFlows for taking mobilizing the application process via iPad2
• Mitek Systems for Mobile Photo Billpay, doing for paper bills what it did for checks
• PayNearMe for enabling online bills and transfers to be paid with cash at a 7-11 store
• Wikinvest for SigFig, a service to help users understand investment costs & alternatives

Congratulations! And thanks to everyone who presented, sponsored, attended and followed the #finovate tweets.

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Notes on methodology:
1. Only audience members NOT associated with demoing companies were eligible to vote. Finovate employees did not vote.   
2. Attendees were encouraged to note their favorites as the day went on and choose 3 favorites from just the demos of that day. Ballots were turned in at the end of the last demo session each day. 
3. The exact written instructions given to attendees: “Please rate (the companies) on the basis of demo quality and potential impact of the innovation they demoed. Note: Ballots with more than three companies circled will not be counted.” 
4. The seven companies appearing on the highest percentage of submitted ballots were named Best of Show.