The Payments Leader’s Guide to Events in 2025 

Arthur Bedel of Connecting the Dots in Payments is hosting a series of small, intimate dinners in major cities around the world. The dinners will bring payment leaders together to drive innovation and share insights into the latest industry trends and technology.

Sign up for emails regarding upcoming dinners here.

Payments are certainly at the heart of the gaming and betting industry. If you're a leader specializing in payment solutions, then gaming and betting events are sure to have sessions and speakers on this subject. Payments leaders would do well to target the show's networking sessions and fringe events.

Payments MAGnified is a conference by the Merchant Advisory Group with speaking sessions and a small show floor. The speaking sessions are organized in two tracks: a general track for business leaders and a Tech Forum track for more tech-related discussions.

Be sure to catch the VGS MAGnified panel, “From Closed Standards to Open Innovation: How Merchants Are Leading the Payments Revolution,” with VGS Sr. Director of Client Operations Travis Mottershead, Dwayne Gefferie, and payments leaders from global retail merchants. The panel will kick off the Tech Forum sessions on Tuesday, February 11th, from 10:50 to 11:35 a.m. ET.

For those in London or Europe, details on MAG's 2025 Payment Summit - London can be found here.

This annual gathering brings together women from the U.S. payments and fintech industry to connect, inspire, and champion gender parity. The event features keynotes, panels, and breakout sessions under the theme "Inspiration, Innovation, Inclusivity, Intention," offering mentorship, networking, and educational opportunities to empower women in their professional and personal growth. There will also be an awards ceremony to recognize individual accomplishments of women in the payments industry.

The American Bankers Payment Forum (ABPF) is an event designed to bring together professionals, experts, and organizations from the payments, banking, and financial sectors. This widely attended event primarily focuses on insights and strategies you need to stay ahead in the fiercely competitive payments space.

MRC Vegas has historically focused on merchant fraud and risk prevention, but since these topics are rooted in payments, MRC is a great event for payment professionals to attend.

GDC is a leading conference for game developers, offering technical sessions, networking opportunities, and showcase opportunities. The conference is game developer-focused, but that doesn't mean there aren't opportunities for payments leaders, especially as payment complexities and data security needs evolve and rules governing Google and Apple app store payments change.

MPE is one of the largest payment events in Europe, focusing on merchant payment trends and innovations. This event also features an awards ceremony, notably crowning top industry influencers, so expect to see 'LinkedIn celebrities' on the show floor!

This event focuses on advancements in payments, featuring educational sessions, networking opportunities, and insights into payments innovation and compliance trends.

A boutique gathering for senior payment professionals to share strategies, insights, and solutions across the payments ecosystem in an intimate and focused environment. This is a 2-day summit with keynotes, panels, and roundtable discussions, as well as pre-scheduled, intentionally matched 1:1 meetings between service providers and payments professionals.

This conference showcases Stripe's latest tools and APIs and includes sessions on business strategies to optimize payments and improve customer experience. Stripe makes major product announcements at this conference, which is also a great place for payment professionals to meet product leaders.

The Fintech Meetup focuses on innovation in the fintech ecosystem, bringing together financial services providers, fintech, and banking professionals in interest-matched 1:1 speed date-style meetings.

Organized by PayExpo and Clarion Events, this invite-only summit gathers senior leaders in the gaming payments sector to share insights, discuss regulatory updates, and network in an exclusive setting.

SubSummit focuses on subscription-based businesses, offering deep insights into customer retention, subscription innovation, recurring billing, monetization strategies, and marketing. This summit is attended by small-medium subscription-based businesses.

This exclusive, invite-only summit brings together payment leaders across North America for networking, insights, and strategic discussions about the future of payments.

NRF PROTECT is the leading event for retail loss prevention and cybersecurity, featuring expert-led sessions, technology demonstrations, and networking opportunities.

PaymentsEd provides a deep dive into payment operations and fraud prevention strategies, offering sessions led by industry experts and extensive networking opportunities.

This event is invite-only for merchant payments professionals, though interest can be expressed online here. PLS brings together European-based payments leaders to discuss market strategies, innovations, and regulatory updates in an intimate and collaborative environment. The event is not as robust as its London and US-based counterparts, but it follows the same valuable format as all of Clarion's summits—extremely targeted 1:1 pre-scheduled meetings between merchants and solution providers.

MAG's Payments Conference is the Fall counterpart to its MAGnified event in the Spring. It is designed to address operational challenges and opportunities in the payments ecosystem, with sessions on fraud prevention, payment orchestration, and compliance, typically through either a general or Tech Forum session track.

Money20/20 USA is the leading event for payments, fintech, and financial services professionals in North America - if not the world. It showcases cutting-edge innovations and provides a platform for meaningful networking and collaboration.

Learn more about the USA event in this detailed guide by VGS events guru and 4x Money20/20 USA attendee, Jennifer Marshall. And be sure to check out Money20/20 Asia, Money20/20 Europe, and the inaugural Money20/20 Middle East for more regional, down-sized variations of the USA that culminate in the big show in October.

AWS re:Invent is a comprehensive event that covers cloud innovations, payment technology advancements, and infrastructure solutions. It includes hands-on labs, keynotes, and networking opportunities tailored for developers and enterprise leaders.

As with any large tradeshow in Las Vegas, payments leaders looking to meet with consumer electronics executives and fellow payments leaders would do well to target after-hours events and payments-specific sessions.

Retail's Big Show, takes place over three days in New York City. It's where you'll find the world's most innovative and largest retailers as well as the companies who help them innovate.