MAG Insights

We all dream of that day in our professional careers when we hang up our hat and enjoy retirement by relaxing on a beach, partaking in an early morning tee time, spending time with our grandchildren, or taking up tennis lessons. For some, that might be sooner than we think. For others, maybe decades away still.

But when it comes time to pass that torch, do we feel we have prepared the next generation of payments leaders enough? IS there even a next generation waiting to fill our shoes? A common payments industry inside joke we all like to laugh at over cocktails at a MAG reception is that there just is no college course in payments. Nobody has a Bachelor’s Degree in Payments. We have all landed in this field from a melting pot of different experiences – and so it is our duty and responsibility to proactively and intentionally prepare those that will follow in our footsteps to ensure our mission stays the course, payments continues evolving and merchants one day have a more equitable seat at the table.

At the MAG’s 2022 Annual Conference and Tech Forum, we held the first-ever After Hours with Rising Payments Professionals event where over 30 participants new to the payments industry socialized and engaged in a first-of-its-kind speed networking event. Attendees rotated between five different stations:

• The Art of Mentorship – discussing tips for finding a mentor and how to approach a mentor relationship on an ongoing basis
• Let’s SOCIALize – discussing ways to strengthen your professional social media presence and communications tips
• Your Career: A Journey - not a Destination – the discussion centered around understanding 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? – payments is full of confusing acronyms and terms. This group let their guards down and freely talked about what they find confusing in payments!
• 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 can’t wait to do it again. MAG has established a Rising Payments Professionals Committee to build out the Next-Gen platform and determine different types of networking and social activities to give new payments leaders the tools they need to be successful. Some of those ideas include:

• Conference Networking Activities – such as the one held at the 2022 Annual Conference
• Off-site events
• Virtual sessions
• Conference Sessions – such as the Career Journey or Women in Payments sessions held in the past
• Mentorship program
• Education Development Path

Call to Action: Get involved! Are you interested in helping create networking events that support the growth of the next generation of payments leaders? Join the Rising Payments Professionals Committee by contacting Jennifer Mammele today!