MAG Insights

Thank you to the record-setting number of attendees who joined us at our first-ever Payments MAGnified at the Hyatt Regency Dallas!

Demand for MAG conference content and networking remains consistently strong as evidenced by the growing number of new and returning payments professionals.  With over 1,000 attendees, Payments MAGnified 24 saw the largest audience in the history of MAG’s February conferences.

In addition to general sessions such as the opening keynote Less Smoke, More Fire: How Solo Brands Managed High Expectations to Drive Revenue and Deliver a Great Experience, this event also incorporated previous attendee feedback and introduced new session formats including case studies and small group discussions that offered deep dives into a variety of industry hot topics.

“Content of the conference was my favorite of previous MAG events I've attended…”
~ Payments MAGnified 24 Attendee

Case studies, such as Payments Orchestration: How Wawa is Optimizing Commerce in a Complex World and Unlocking Access for the Underserved Consumer, shared examples of how these merchant companies are navigating specific payments concerns.

The Small Group Discussions, including topics such as New Fraudster Strategies and Refunds and Returns, among many others, allowed merchants and sponsors to collaboratively discuss real-life experiences and solutions.

“The new small discussions format was amazing and more of these would be wonderful.”
~ Payments MAGnified 24 Attendee

Tech Forum

We are excited to experience the continued growth of the Tech Forum! We had close to 500 Tech Forum merchants and sponsors join us to dive deeper into Payments Technology.

Tech Forum kicked off with a session on Payment Evolution: A Retailer's Path to Modernization, and from there we hosted sessions on Payment Token Success: Identifying the Drivers of Lift, Payments in Cloud Computing, Not Your Grandma's 3DS, and many more. Tech Forum hosted a total of 12 sessions throughout the two-day conference with the help of 20 industry experts.

In addition to the sessions mentioned above, the previous merchant-only PayTech and Business/Tech Special Interest Groups (SIG) were merged into the Technology SIG. This new SIG was well received and allowed merchant technologists in the payments industry to connect and discuss challenges and solutions in a more intimate setting.

Payments MAGnified saw the return of attendee favorites including:

• Innovation Stage where sponsors demonstrated their products and services available to meet merchant needs;
• SIGs and Snacks saw nearly 150 merchant attendees gather to discuss a wide variety of topics;
• Rising Payments Professionals (RPP) where our growing community of new-to-payments professionals shared lunch while networking among their industry peers.

Finally, we are proud that with attendee participation we have almost tripled survey engagement! This not only helps the MAG with feedback so we can continually improve and meet the needs of our merchant community, but also, by  donating $1 for each completed survey, we positively impacted the Dallas community with our $1,000 donation to Hope Supply Co. – thank you!

As always, we want to thank our Payments MAGnified sponsors and the great speakers for their partnership in delivering a terrific agenda for our attendees.

Recordings of the general sessions from the conference will be posted on the  MAG Learning Center and available for viewing in the coming weeks. Keep an eye on your inbox for an email announcement once session recordings are available.  MAG login credentials are required to access and view the content. Please contact the MAG if you need assistance with access.

The MAG looks forward to continuing to provide relevant educational content and share the future of payments technology at MAG Payments Conference, September 16-19, in Orlando, FL. We hope to see you there!