Networking, Data, and Innovation Dominate Money 20/20

It was not only a focus to sell, showcase, network, and collaborate that drove thousands of attendees to this year’s Money 20/20 in Las Vegas on Monday, it was also the desire to share what kind of innovation everyone has been up to.

“It’s great to be back, in person, in Vegas,” said Scarlett Sieber, Chief Strategy and Growth Officer for Money 20/20. After last year’s pandemic-induced cancellation, Sieber spoke about how her and her team have been working to make this the best show yet. “We’ve been researching, strategizing, and imagining what a refreshed Money 20/20 would feel like, and it’s great to see it alive.”

The event was mostly dominated by payments services, who all seemed to be competing with each other rather than networking, largely offering the same services with different branding. Coming in at a far second was cryptocurrency, and their effort to share the impact that their industry has had on all aspects of finance. In the speaking sessions throughout the day, almost every panel at least touched on the legitimization of cryptocurrency in the finance world.

In her first time at the event, Brittany Desposito, Senior Business Development Representative at Appian, an enterprise and workflow application building software, spoke about what her company gets out of sponsoring an event like Money 2020. “We get to learn lots of industry trends [while] trying to figure out what we can market more to fintech companies, and what they are looking for, and what challenges they’re facing,” said Despositio.

“This is a great place to sort of get a pulse of what’s going on, see the various interesting players, and what their [new] solutions are”, said Ani Narayan, a Product Lead at Modern Treasury, a payments operations platform. Narayan stressed the positive impact in-person meetings have on companies like his, giving his company the chance to add clients to their book of business that they would never have been able to prior. “It’s a great opportunity to meet people, potential customers, partners, that you could be working with or potentially could work with, so it’s just a great place to bring the entire community together.”

“It’s our first time here, and what we found out is that [Money 20/20] is a real business spot for every party in the industry,” said Erick Padilla, Head of Growth at DAPP, a company who claims to be building the most advanced payment “railway” in Mexico. Padilla spoke about what the value of a show like Money 20/20 can truly be worth to a company like his. “We can meet some of the people that we haven’t had a chance to meet before because we’ve been in different parts of the world, and now we get this opportunity to meet in person, to get to the decision makers we have been looking for.”

When asked about his company’s intention to return to an event of this size, Padilla not only said he would return, but that he would upgrade his ticket to make more of a presence at the event. “We’re going to get a booth next time,” said Padilla.

The show will continue on Tuesday, as companies will be able to have one last chance to possibly make the connection they came to Las Vegas hoping for.