MAG Insights

Thank you to all who joined us at our record-setting MAG 2022 Annual Conference & Tech Forum in Dallas, Texas!

Attendance soared past 1000 for the first time in MAG’s history underscoring the clear desire for the merchant community to come together to learn, engage, and nurture those key relationships that help move the payments industry forward.

Our robust program offered a variety of general sessions on each day of the conference on topics such as The Future of Payment Acceptance, Omnichannel – How Merchants are Driving the Customer Experience and Improving the Payments Landscape. These were in addition to 22 breakout options for the Annual Conference audience and 16 Tech Forum breakout sessions focused exclusively on key technology topics ranging from Edge Computing to Going Global: Accepting Payments Around the World.

Tech Forum

More than 600 attendees joined us for our in-person Tech Forum.  This was a fantastic turnout, and it was great to see so many familiar faces.

The Tech Forum started off day one with an education session on Payment Orchestration and the kickoff session How Tech and Business Work to Create Customer Experience panel.

In addition to our numerous sessions, we also had great dialogue during the merchant-only Business/Tech Special Interest Group (SIG) that was held on the second day of the conference and separate from the other conference SIGs.  With both business and technology represented, the conversation covered a number of topics from both perspectives.

As we look ahead to the MAG 2023 Mid-Year Conference and Tech Forum in February, we want to thank our Annual Conference and Tech Forum sponsors as well as the lineup of great speakers for their partnership in delivering content that is top-of-mind for today’s payments professionals.  The MAG looks forward to continuing to provide relevant educational content and share the future of payments technology.

Videos of select sessions from the conference have been posted onto the MAG Learning Center and are available for viewing.  Use your MAG login credentials to access and view the videos.  Please contact the MAG if you need assistance with access.

Rising Payments Professionals

MAG also held its first-ever After Hours with Rising Payments Professionals event where over 30 participants new to the payments industry socialized and participated in a first-of-its-kind speed networking event.

Attendees rotated between five different stations:

• The Art of Mentorship – Payments veterans provided tips for finding a mentor and how to approach a mentor relationship on an ongoing basis
• Let’s SOCIALize – Attendees discussed ways to strengthen their professional social media presence and offered communications tips
• Your Career: A Journey - not a Destination –Rising payments professionals explored an understanding of others' career paths, opportunities available within the payments industry, and how MAG’s education programs can help to support professional development
• What does that mean again? – Experienced professionals cleared the confusion on the payments industry's confusing acronyms and terms
• Payments Trivia – This is where the energy spiked! Attendees battled against each other in a payments trivia showdown – and the winner of each round walked away with a free Merchant Payments 200-series eLearning course!

So many attendees told us how much they loved it and cannot wait to do it again. Stay tuned for future Rising Payments Professionals events!

Merchant Solutions

Not only were merchants able stay abreast of industry trends through our forward-thinking sessions, but they were also able to discuss solutions to their specific needs with our numerous sponsors by spending time in our largest exhibit hall to-date.  Exhibitors were ready and able to meet with merchant members to problem-solve or share the next wave of innovative payment products and services.

MAG Conference Hits the Mark

Direct quotes from our survey results from attendees highlight that the MAG is the leading conference to attend in the payments industry:

“Best of the best across payments”

“I was very impressed as this was the first in-person MAG conference I attended.”

“Great conference – very insightful!”

So, are you ready for our upcoming 2023 Mid-Year Conference and Tech Forum in San Antonio, Texas? Clearly, you do not want to miss out!  Stay tuned for registration information in the coming weeks.