MAG Insights

Wow! It’s hard to believe 2024 is already here. This last year saw a lot of exciting changes in the payments industry, and it’s likely to be another busy year ahead. Planning a successful strategy requires all areas of the organization to work together towards common goals, and the MAG team is no different. I am impressed at how our diverse staff continues to align their individual objectives in a way that adds combined value to our members and sponsors. Here’s a preview of some of the things you will see from the MAG in 2024.

MAG on Tour:

• We’ll be accelerating our international expansion in several ways, making the MAG’s vision of bringing positive change to the payments industry a global effort. We are in the process of planning our inaugural meet-up in Australia, scheduled for this spring. We will be returning to Europe for an event this summer designed to strengthen the global merchant voice and foster collaboration, provide payments education opportunities, and build relationships across merchants. We are also excited to be hosting our 3^rd annual MAG APAC Summit again in the fall. Stay tuned for more information on these events as they unfold.
• Our Growth and Engagement team is also working to schedule more regional events across the U.S. in 2024. The goal of these events is to expand the reach and effectiveness of the MAG’s vision while providing members and sponsors with enhanced networking opportunities to connect and build on their local networks.

Enhanced Educational Opportunities:

• We will be expanding our on-demand educational opportunities with the launch of microlearning modules on critical topics like tokenization, real-time payments, and emerging payments technology. Course availability will be announced as each module is published. Stay tuned!
• Also in 2024, we’ll be offering all of our 200-level courses free of charge to MAG merchant members. Education is a cornerstone of the MAG, and including these courses as part of merchants’ annual dues will allow more of you to take advantage of these highly-rated eLearning courses.
• You will also notice a slight change with our live webinars in 2024. Historically, our webinars were held on Wednesdays, with up to two live events each month. In 2024, we’re revamping our webinar schedule to take place on the third Tuesday of every month, excluding February and September. A consistent schedule should make planning easier for our members while reducing the number of webinars will allow us to focus on the topics most important to the industry.

Conference Rebrand and Restructure:

• MAG has held two U.S. conferences every year since its inception, although if you saw the conference listed on any event schedule, you wouldn’t have seen MAG or Payments anywhere in the event title. To fix that going forward, the MAG conferences will be known by new names, both of which highlight the organization and the field we represent. Our February conference is now Payments MAGnified, and our September event will be renamed to MAG Payments Conference.
• Along with rebranding, we’ll differentiate each event through content. Payments MAGnified will include enhanced networking opportunities, such as the return of SIGs and Snacks and Exhibit-Only hours. We will also be introducing small discussion groups open to all attendees and case studies designed to deep-dive into solving specific industry problems. In support of our international expansion, we’ll also be introducing a merchant-only International SIG this February. The MAG Payments Conference in September will retain its status as the MAG’s flagship gathering rooted in topical relevance and featuring insights from prominent payment industry keynote speakers.
• You may notice Tech Forum is no longer mentioned in the title of our conferences. Rest assured, Tech Forum is still a major focus in our conferences, and in 2024 we will dive deeper into the technology of payments while continuing to connect merchant IT professionals and their business partners with technology sponsors through technology-focused educational sessions and engaging networking events.

There’s a lot more work going on behind the scenes, although the items highlighted above give you a taste of what we are working on for 2024. I couldn’t be prouder of the work the MAG team does in service of our members and sponsors. We look forward to hearing what you’re working on for the coming year, and how the MAG can help you be successful.