The Power of Presence: Why Financial Conferences Are Key to Your Brand’s Success in 2025
Exiting the holidays and entering a new year can only mean one thing: trade show season. It’s time to trade in your stocking stuffers for booth swag, dust off the business cards, and prepare for meeting with your peers. Attending industry events is an invaluable way to expand your relationships and generate new business opportunities, as well as gain knowledge on the emerging trends and technologies shaping financial technology. 2024 was packed with industry events, networking opportunities and trade shows, and this year will be no different. As you kick off your 2025 travel, it’s important to brush up on the top industry events and keep in mind how to maximize your investment.
Network with Your Peers
Perhaps the greatest benefit of industry events is the opportunity to connect with your peers and network, building relationships and expanding your industry connections. Conferences are one of the rare places where the top fintech experts – from clients, media, influencers, prospects, partners and more – are collaborating and connecting with one another. Some conferences, like Fintech Meetup, offer “speed dating”-esque opportunities to connect with colleagues and prospects in-person, while others, like Jack Henry Connect, offer a more focused set of attendees based on shared relationships or interests.
Showcase Your Solutions
Conferences offer an opportunity to boost your brand awareness – whether by displaying at a booth, speaking at a session, or attending mixers of your peers. More events are even featuring demo competitions – like Finovate’s famous seven-minute demo competition and Bank Automation Summit’s demo challenge.
If you’re considering demoing at Finovate Fall, we’ve got you covered. Several of our clients showcase at the event each year, and WMA’s CEO William Mills is a seasoned attendee and correspondent for the event. We can offer specific guidance and best practices for maximizing the ROI of this opportunity and others throughout the year.
Attend Educational Sessions
Listening to keynote speakers, participating in workshops, or sitting in panel discussions are excellent opportunities to gain valuable insights and tools to help your business thrive. While listening to a podcast or watching a webinar may offer a quick snapshot on the latest news, conferences offer a curated selection of the top voices and leaders to teach you about the latest industry trends and cutting-edge technologies that are impacting our industry. Events can be a self-assessment as well, encouraging you to compare your competitive edge to your competitors and other technology providers.
Year-round Strategic Engagement
Every conference offers a different opportunity – for instance, large-scale user conferences can serve as a chance to showcase how you engage with your tech partner whereas mega-shows, such as Money20/20, are about networking, with a touch of serendipity for meeting new prospects and peers in between sessions. Meeting with your PR and marketing team is critically important to ensuring your company is being strategic about your travel investment and promoting it to your audiences, before, during and after the event.
Conferences are a significant investment, so make it worth your while by strategically planning your 2025 travel. Download our comprehensive 2025 Financial Trade Show and Conference Directory to explore the top banking, credit union, payments, fintech and mortgage events, sorted by date and industry segment. We can’t wait to see you on the road.
As a note: Conferences bring together industry experts, media, influencers, potential clients, partners, and even competitors under one roof. This creates an excellent opportunity for networking, building relationships, and expanding your professional network of industry contacts.