Money20/20: what happens in Amsterdam…

If you’re going to Money20/20 in the States in October, someone is bound to remind you that what happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas.

Thankfully no such rules apply to Money20/20’s sister conference in the Netherlands, which took place earlier this month. In fact it’s absolutely fine to talk about the event.

Which is useful to know because that’s what we do in this blog.

As part of our work to remain at the cutting edge of financial services innovation, Iliad Solutions despatched three UK team members to the RAI Amsterdam exhibition centre during June 6-8.

Promoting gender equity in financial services

Among our Iliad amigos was Daisy Stout, Product Consultant, who’s been with the business for more than six years.

Her attendance at Money20/20 represents something of a virtuous circle in terms of ensuring greater gender equity at both Iliad and in the wider financial services sector.

To cut a long story short, we sent Daisy to the superb Women in Payments Symposium in April where she won tickets for Money20/20.

“It was an honour to represent women in payments and Iliad at this key regional conference and it’s great to see so many women speakers on an immense range of topics,” Daisy said, adding:

“Yes, there were sessions on inclusivity that looked at things like gender diversity in areas such as blockchain and crypto. But what I found most encouraging was that women were so well represented on the agenda. There were more than 500 speakers and roughly half of these were women.”

Daisy added that this sent a powerful message to the 20,000 delegates who were in Amsterdam to represent around 5,000 businesses.

Great news indeed.

A chance for deep learning about payments innovation

Our second delegate, Jill Pyper, Iliad’s Chief Operating Officer, also went to the Women in Payments Symposium in April.

Unfortunately for us, though, Jill didn’t manage to win her tickets to Amsterdam. Nonetheless, judging by the long list of post Money20/20 conversations with existing and new clients we’re now in the process of setting up, her attendance was a very worthwhile investment.

Additionally, thanks to Jill’s impressive abilities as a prolific networker and sharer of knowledge, colleagues who held the Iliad fort in her absence now almost feel like they attended in person, if they pretend that the mouthwatering barbecues and hilarious pedalo trips didn’t happen.

In all seriousness though, some of the key points of interest for Jill were the discussions about how fintechs and traditional players were working together, in addition to the challenges financial institutions faced in implementing ISO 20022.

“This is a topic very close to my heart, as Iliad’s t3 testing and certification platform is proven to speed up adoption of ISO 20022 messaging. So it was really informative to hear about the highs and lows experienced by our biggest financial institutions in this area,” she said, adding:

“It was also fascinating to learn about how businesses that would typically be rivals are now engaging in co-opetition (collaborative competition) as a way of thriving in what has been a challenging trading climate for some time.”

Be nice to each other: how networking strengthens the sector

Iliad’s final Money20/20 attendee was Kev Emery, our recently appointed Chief Commercial Officer. And what better way to onboard a new colleague than send them on an overseas trip in their first few days?

He certainly made the most of the opportunity, gaining himself a spot on stage on his first day, alongside David Bibby, a former colleague from Discover.

While we’d love to say Kev was holding court with his immense knowledge of payments, which he really does possess, he was instead taking part in a fintech version of Mr and Mrs, the classic quiz in which couples prove how well they know each other.

Impressively, our man got four out of four. We’re now very excited that his superhuman powers of recollection are going to come in handy at Iliad.

In terms of Kev’s big takeaway from Money20/20, the event was a prime opportunity to network with long-standing contacts.

“One of the wonderful things about this industry is that while people move between companies, they do tend to stick around. And that’s why events like Money20/20 are so important. It strengthens the sense of community within the sector and gets us working together to solve problems for our customers,” he said.

Kev spoke with Tim Goodfellow from FF News about payments innovation at Money20/20. Watch the video to hear more about ISO 20022, instant payments and the importance of building partnerships.

Did you attend Money20/20? If so, we’d love to hear what your highlights were.