events
deBanked Sets Record With Miami Event
March 26, 2022deBanked welcomed nearly 700 attendees in Miami this past Thursday, easily making it the largest deBanked CONNECT event in the company’s history. The record registrations put it on par with Broker Fair, the annual conference that takes place in New York City.
More than half of all attendees to deBanked CONNECT MIAMI were small business finance brokers.
The mantra heard around the show was that the industry is BACK!
deBanked conducted dozens of live interviews on the red carpet, including several with cast members of Equipping The Dream, the industry’s first reality TV show. All interviews will be made available on deBanked TV over the course of the week.
We’ll have the full photos and more available as soon as possible! Thank you to everyone who attended, spoke, and sponsored. And stay tuned for more news from deBanked. 😎
Welcome to deBanked CONNECT MIAMI
March 23, 2022
For those that are registered and in town for deBanked CONNECT MIAMI, allow me to welcome you. Here’s what’s going on:
March 23: Start connecting with other attendees via the event mobile app.
March 23 (10:00 AM): Golf at Miami Shores Country Club for those that registered in advance.
March 24 (1:00 PM): Check-in/sponsor showcase opens/event begins at the JW Marriott Marquis in Downtown Miami
March 24 (2:30 PM): Opening Remarks
March 24 (2:40 PM): Panels/speakers kick off
March 24 (6:00 PM): Cocktail reception begins and continues until 8pm
March 24 (8:30 PM+): Private & public after-parties not affiliated with the event
The March 24th full agenda can be viewed here.
What else is happening
- deBanked TV will be streaming LIVE from the event. Feel free to approach the crew to potentially be interviewed by deBanked TV host Johny Fernandez for the chance to be heard by everyone watching from home or their office. If you’re one of the people not here, goto debanked.com/tv in the afternoon of March 24th.
- Meet the cast of Equipping The Dream, the industry’s first reality show that follows four aspiring brokers at a week-long sales training. Episode 1 can be viewed HERE.
- Network in BOTH of the sponsor showcase rooms.
- Kosher food will be available. Just ask!
Got questions? Email events@debanked.com. Responses will be very slow on event day. You can also flag down a deBanked CONNECT team member in person.
deBanked CONNECT MIAMI is SOLD OUT
March 15, 2022
Update: The deBanked events team is now en route to the location.
Tickets to deBanked Connect Miami have officially sold out.
The incredible demand led to more registrations than any previous deBanked CONNECT event in history.
“People want to network in person, they want to learn about what’s going on in the business around them,” said deBanked president Sean Murray. “But this one has surpassed all of our expectations.”
The March 24th event at the JW Marriott Marquis will be deBanked’s 4th time in Miami since 2018. Attendees of the small-business finance-focused event can expect to connect with brokers, lenders, funders, venders, lead generators, collectors, lawyers, investors, software providers, and more.
Tickets and sponsorships are no longer available. If you are already registered and have questions, email events@debanked.com.
Meet The Aspiring Brokers Who Competed on Camera
March 10, 2022
The full cast of Equipping The Dream, the first b2b sales reality show, will reunite at deBanked CONNECT Miami on March 24th.
RJ Rochelle, Juan Carlos Marcano, Thomas Long, and Angela Thompson (above in order), all participated in a week long sales training last November that was captured on camera. They competed for a grand prize that was won in the season finale that aired just recently on March 3rd. Equipping The Dream is the defining b2b sales reality show. Now you can meet the brokers and the trainers that helped them in person!
Only a limited number of tickets to deBanked CONNECT Miami are left and sponsorships have already sold out. This will be deBanked’s 4th event in Miami since 2018.
All six episodes of Equipping the Dream are available on deBanked TV FREE.
Broker Fair Achieves Record Setting Ticket Sales to its 2021 Conference
December 1, 2021
Broker Fair has logged a significant achievement, record-setting ticket sales for its 2021 conference. Registrations for the December 6th event have surpassed every single deBanked event since inception. Only pre-show tickets for the night before can still be purchased on the website. No tickets will be available at the event itself.
“It’s 2021, so naturally we had tempered some of our expectations internally about registrations for this event,” said Broker Fair founder Sean Murray. “Somehow, we ended up breaking the record for most tickets sold ever. People really want to connect in person. The industry has spoken and we’re eager to see the turnout now.”
The event is being held at Convene at Brookfield Place in lower Manhattan. The agenda is online and attendees can take advantage of the newly launched Certified Small Business Finance Professional course available on site for the first time ever. It’s also possible to connect with fellow attendees ahead of time using the mobile app.
“We’ve got so many great sponsors this year,” said Murray. “I expect a lot of dealmaking to happen in the showcase room.”
Networking, Data, and Innovation Dominate Money 20/20
October 26, 2021
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.
Virtual Fintech Meet-ups Transition Back to In-Person
June 25, 2021
In one week, there were two fintech meetups. One was a virtual network-o-thon, a chat roulette-like elevator pitching practice extravaganza put on by Money 2020 founder Anil Aggarwal. The other event was a Twitter meetup happy hour with an open bar on the roof of a building on Madison Ave, hosted by “This week in fintech” newsletter writer and Google Pay developer Nik Milanovic.
A greater contrast of the old and the new could not have been achieved by surrounding dinosaur bones with NYC pigeons. Aggarwal’s Fintech Meetup Event was entirely online and attended primarily by professionals looking to sell their financial platforms, services, and network. It was seemingly the last virtual event of the pandemic era. Calling in from living rooms across the world, attendees paid hundreds of dollars for the opportunity to be guided by an automatic 15 minute conversation time limit.
Meanwhile, Milanovic’s meetup on the roof was attended by younger community members looking to hang out with friends and meet industry peers for a free drink after work. The tech people outnumbered the ‘fin’ representatives three to one, deBanked assessed.
The bar was packed and stocked with wine, Montauk IPAs, and Fat Tire beer. Standing room only and hard to move from one side of the roof to the other, the young networking crowd pushed elbows in.
Milanovic was the topic of conversation in many of the cliques forming that night. Most of the guests were readers of his newsletter and followed his work in the fintech space. After it was over, it was revealed that New York was just the first of many in-person locales Milanovic planned to host similar events, like Chicago July 15th, and LA Aug 5th.
Similarly, Aggarwal is also thinking big. His eyes are currently set on Las Vegas.
“We launched Fintech Meetup as a meetings-centric virtual event because the pandemic made it impossible to hold a comprehensive and inclusive in-person event this Spring,” Aggarwal said in a statement. “Going forward, however, our primary focus is on end-to-end tech-enabled in-person events that also include all of the traditional aspects of events–from sessions and speakers to sponsors and exhibitors.”
That next in-person event will take place in Las Vegas in March 2022.
SEAA: 1,000+ Attendees In Atlanta Next year, Thanks deBanked
June 8, 2021
1,000 people registered at the Southeast Acquirers Association 20th-anniversary conference Bonita Springs Florida: a smash hit in part due to the hybrid presentation model and deBanked’s video coverage, the executive board members of SEAA said. Treasurer John McCormick said next year in Atlanta would be even bigger, following a hybrid in-person venue with recordings and live streams that would pack over 1,000 participants in the show.
“To have our biggest show on the West Coast of Florida was really gratifying,” he said. “We registered over 1,000 and were just shy of that number with check-ins. I think we’ll [surpass that] next year in Atlanta, which will be a great celebration for our board and advisory committee.”
McCormick helped co-found the organization along with Audrey Blackmon and Judy Foster in 2001. In March, he talked with deBanked, describing the difficult choice to go back in person full capacity, a decision that turned into a major win. Derek Vowels, director of partner solutions at Aliaswire and SEAA board member, thanked Cypress Planning Group for the venue support and deBanked for helping produce the in-person and online hybrid model.
Everyone rose to the occasion, Vowels told Green Sheet, thanking Sean Murray, deBanked chief editor, publisher, and deBanked reporter Johny Fernandez, who conducted live interviews at the conference. “Attendees can view every breakout session, presentation, and popular CBD panel on the app and web portal for the rest of the calendar year,” he said. “Going forward, hybrid events that combine face-to-face meetings with recordings will be the norm.”
Alongside live streaming from the show floor on May 25th from 9 am to after 6 pm, Sean and Johny pored through interviews with industry experts.
Sam Schapiro, leader of funding application platform Fundomate, talked with Johny about the resilience of the human species, American small businesses, and funding slowdown.
Shawn Smith, the CEO of Dedicated Commercial Recovery, met with Sean to talk about the new post-covid environment in the B2B space and Florida golf.
Aviv Baron, the founder of Direct Payment Group, talked with Sean about changes in merchant spending, payment processing, cannabis, and drop shipping trends in the past year.
And automated accounts receivable fintech CEO Garima Shah talked with Johny about her firm Biller Genie, and the world opening for business after a year of covid.
deBanked is looking forward to the new year as covid restrictions lift and events come back in person.
