There is no reason to kick yourself over missing payments conferences that have already faded into the rearview mirror this year, because there are plenty left to attend in the next six months.

Two of the biggest conferences of the year remain, namely Money20/20 and the Association of Financial Professionals annual gathering. Industry consultant Peter Tapling, who leads PTap Advisory in Chicago, compares them to a “prom,” where you’re packed in a room of interesting people, and have to work to meet the right ones. 

Industry heavyweight Money 20/20 focuses on financial services generally and has a full schedule of events already set for the conference taking place between Oct. 27 and 30 at its usual location in Las Vegas. The theme this year is “Human X Machine,” which the conference website says speaks to how “humans and our increasingly intelligent machine counterparts are combining to create a whole new world.” 

Specific payments issues on the agenda at Money20/20 include: borderless payments and exploring why money isn’t as global as people are; the advent of instant payments and how faster networks are spurring applications; and how the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Rule 1033 open banking effort will make payments less painful.

The Association for Financial Professionals conference is taking place in Nashville, also in October, between the 20th and the 23rd. While that conference is less industry specific, it has a “hub” for payments topics, including sessions on fraud and technology.

The smaller, regional conferences put on by associations are sometimes easier for attendees to travel to, and navigate once they’re there. Of the regional acquirers’ association conferences that take place annually across the country, there are still two in the offing: The Midwest Acquirers Association conference is this month in Chicago and the Western States Acquirers Association conference is scheduled for September in Las Vegas. (The Northeast Acquirers Association conference took place in Albany, New York in April and the Southeast Acquirers Association conference took place last month in New Orleans.)

Hot topics expected to be percolating in the corridors of the Midwest conference include artificial intelligence; the Visa-Mastercard litigation settlement; and high-risk payments processing, said Rod Katzfey, who is president of the MWAA. 

How AI is being incorporated into the industry, and how individuals can use it in their businesses has been a major conversation piece all year, Katzfey said. “Every show I’ve been to this year, that’s a big conversation,” he said in an interview last week.

The recently rejected Visa-Mastercard injunctive settlement will also be a topic on peoples’ minds, Katzfey predicted, because everyone wants to understand how the power will shift in relationships with the networks under revised rules. “People are trying to figure out: Are merchants going to get more control?” he said. They’re also wondering what any resolution will mean for independent software vendors and agents in the field.

The subject of high-risk payments, including those that often result in chargebacks or friendly fraud, are an issue of interest too, Katzfey said. Some cannabis payments, digital commerce and just about anything that qualifies as a card-not-present transaction, including restaurant sales, are seen as more problematic as more consumers contest their payments, Katzfey said. “Banks are starting to see higher chargebacks,” he explained. “It’s causing some angst among some of these providers.”

Attendance for the Midwest conference is tracking ahead of last year, when the MWAA hosted 1,050 people in Schaumburg, a suburb of Chicago. With the conference moving back to downtown Chicago this year, Katzfey expects attendance to be higher. “We’re excited to be back downtown this year,” he said, estimating there will be about 140 booths in the exhibit hall.

A pair of Federal Reserve conferences that revolve around payments are also yet to occur this year. Also in the Windy City is the annual Chicago Payments Symposium hosted by the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank. That conference, which has been happening for more than two decades, is scheduled for Oct. 9 and 10 this year. 

The symposium bills itself as a gathering where “thought leaders explore fast-moving changes, trends and innovations in the payments ecosystem.” The Chicago Fed spokesperson said there are no program details available yet. Nonetheless, Tapling cites the event as one of his annual favorites, even though it’s less scripted.

“They give conversations broad latitude, and because it’s the Fed, the level of the speakers they can attract is very high,” he said. There are top executives who attend as well and occasionally a significant announcement is made at the event, he said.

The Philadelphia Fed will be holding its annual fintech conference the same month, touching on topics of importance to payments too. That affair will take place two weeks later on Oct. 22 and 23. The event is co-hosted by the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, the University of Cambridge and the Brookings Institution. 

While the organizers of that conference also haven’t released a program, past conferences have focused on AI, digital cash, central bank digital currencies, stablecoins and buy now, pay later strategies, among other topics, according to the website.

There will be dueling fintech events the fourth week of October, with DC Fintech Week in Washington taking place at Georgetown University Law Center running from Oct. 21 to 24. That forum brings technologists, regulators, lawmakers and entrepreneurs, among others, to discuss timely industry issues, from cybersecurity to cryptocurrencies, as well as the national policies that may be applied.

As for trending topics, Tapling also pointed to AI. “Clearly, there has been a ton of attention on generative AI,” he said. He underscored the “generative” aspect, noting that it suggests that content, of some sort, is being created. As for how that pertains to payments, it’s not clear yet. “Relative to payments, what does that mean?” Tapling asked. “I don’t think we’ve cracked the code on that.” 

Tapling also noted that the subject of payment scams is surfacing frequently this year. These are the types of fraud during which crooks persuade victims to hand over money, often electronically as more money moves digitally.

There is also the The Digital Commerce Event in Atlanta, between Aug. 13 and 15, with scheduled speakers from the Federal Reserve, payments pioneer PayPal, card company Discover Financial and the buy now, pay later company Affirm.

As for conferences that have already taken place this year, Nacha’s annual Faster Smarter Payments conference in Miami drew more people than last year, a spokesperson for the organization said. The crowd expanded about 5% to 2,200, with 265 speakers. 

Real-time payments received significant attention at the Nacha conference, given the launch of FedNow last July. On one panel, Mark Gould, chief payments executive for Federal Reserve Financial Services, sparred with his counterpart, David Watson, CEO of The Clearing House. In another discussion, Visa and Jack Henry executives talked about the rising payments volume they’re seeing on FedNow.

Fraud was also a major point of discussion at the Nacha conference, with company representatives and enforcement officials warning about increased threats, from check fraud to imposter schemes.

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Looking ahead to next year, Nacha’s conference is already scheduled for April 27 to 30 at the New Orleans Morial Convention Center.

The good news for 2024 is that payments professionals have a slew of substantive conference events to choose from. The curse is that it will be hard to pick just a few, especially if budgets are tight.

Of course, there’s always Money20/20, which hasn’t even taken place yet this year. That October conference in Las Vegas offers a vast sea of speakers, booths and events, but its sheer size may leave payments professionals feeling like the event is less on point. And while the conference rolls out top speakers, like Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra at last year’s event, the agenda is packed with a string of C-suite presentations that can feel like an endless loop of ads.

In 2024, there will be plenty of payments-specific conferences to choose from, even some that drill down into sub-categories of payments. Here’s an overview of the 2024 conferences the Payments Dive staff and their contacts found most compelling, though it’s by no means an exhaustive list.

Keep in mind that journalists typically don’t pay registration fees so we may have a different calculus than industry professionals with respect to cost factors. Also, we limit our review here to those events taking place in the U.S., even though there are appealing options elsewhere in the world.

Having attended the Nacha Smarter Faster Payments conference in 2023, that’s one we’d point to as featuring timely topics and providing purely payments-focused information. Last year, presentations covered everything from real-time payments to buy now, pay later to business-to-business payments fraud. Its speakers typically include a balanced mix of influential federal officials, company executives, regulators and consultants. That conference convenes in Miami on May 6.

Speaking of federal officials, the Federal Reserve banks also host symposiums and other events that zero in on payments. The Chicago Fed’s Payments Symposium typically picks a theme and builds its forum around it. For instance, this year’s symposium, “Accelerating Innovation and Inclusion in Payment Networks,” focused on instant payments, digital currencies and cybersecurity, among other topics. The bank hasn’t presented a theme for next year yet, a spokesperson said.

The Philadelphia Fed hosts a fintech conference every year that’s also highly relevant to payments, with an exploration of how new technologies and startup enterprises are changing the payments landscape. Like the Chicago Symposium, that event has typically taken place in autumn.

Similar to the Nacha conference, but with more of a banking perspective, is The Clearing House’s annual conference, which this year is occurring in November. That confab considers the state of payments as a part of the broader banking market and the current economy, with a heavy dose of regulatory and policy-making talk. Recent banter has centered on real-time payments in the wake of the Fed’s recent launch of a new instant payments system called FedNow.

Payments professionals particularly interested in real-time payments may want to attend meetings offered by the Faster Payments Council. With one get-together in spring and another in the fall, that organization’s gatherings touch on cross-border payments, checkout technology and open banking, among other themes related to faster payments. The next meeting in Orlando begins on March 27, but to join in you must be a member.

Big associations host many of the most valuable payments conferences. The Electronic Transactions Association’s Transact conference, beginning April 17 in Las Vegas, features mainly payments processing executives as speakers. This year, they included NMI CEO Vijay Sondhi, Fortis CEO Greg Cohen and Global Payments CEO Cameron Bready, just before he stepped into that top post.

The Innovative Payments Association will host its conference in Washington, D.C. on May 5. That trade organization focuses on the new technologies that payments players are providing and that consumers are encountering in daily commerce. In the past, its discussions have zeroed in on prepaid cards and digital wallets, among other subjects.

More specialized events include the Women in Payments Symposium in Washington, D.C., starting Feb. 28. It’s sponsored by the Global Association of Women in Payments and features female leaders in the industry offering perspectives on gender parity as well as diversity issues in payments. Of course, its agenda also delves into a range of other payments topics.

For an event focused on payments security, there is the Secure Technology Alliance’s Identity and Payments Summit, starting Feb. 26. The theme for next year’s conference in Tucson, Arizona is “Trust, Security and Privacy in a Hyperconnected World.” This year’s event featured Visa’s chief risk officer for North America as well as the Atlanta Fed’s head of payments product management. The STA also holds a fall payments forum beginning Nov. 7 in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Some trade associations in the industry, including acquirer and clearing organizations, also have regional chapter conferences. They’re particularly beneficial for regional networking as well as updates on local payments technology and strategies. For instance, the Northeast Acquirers Association has a conference beginning April 3 next year in Albany, New York, followed by additional events hosted later in the year in different places by the Midwest Acquirers Association, the Southeast Acquirers Association and the Western States Acquirers Association.

Automated clearinghouse associations across the country have their own local gatherings, including those hosted by the New England ACH Association, which meets beginning May 20 in Ledyard, Connecticut, as well as the Upper Midwest ACH Association.

We didn’t spot any universities digging into the payments space for conferences (email us if you see one), but Georgetown University Law Center’s DC Fintech Week, starting Nov. 6 this year, will likely again feature speakers from companies and trade groups operating in the payments sphere. It also attracts politicians and regulators influencing policy who give their views of issues related to the industry.

As far as conferences hosted by media organizations, Payments Dive doesn’t offer one, but some outlets do. American Banker hosts a payments conference annually in May with next year’s conference taking place beginning May 6 in Hollywood, Florida. Its Payments Forum draws professionals from a variety of industries that touch payments. Also, The Economist this year is sponsoring the CPI Global B2B Payments Summit starting Oct. 17 in New York, though it’s not clear if it will take place next year as well.