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My Time at Europe’s Fintech Gathering in Amsterdam
by Jacob von Egidy, Founder of
July 29, 2022
After a long covid break, Money20/20 in 2022 was my first big conference after quite a while. It claims to be the biggest FinTech event in Europe with over 6,000 attendees. I was able to score a ticket thanks to All in Tech providing me with a complimentary ticket. Having a colleague and a friend by my side, I arrived in Amsterdam by train, which was perfectly on time unlike my previous experience in Germany. We then took the metro and arrived at the trade fair within just 15 minutes.
My First Impressions
You enter the conference through a tunnel below a huge yellow ‘M’ sign while loud basses celebrate your arrival. First, I was a bit overwhelmed by the masses of people, but they soon spread out over four large exhibition halls. I guess you need at least 10 minutes from one side to the other. There were two big and a few smaller stages and you could always choose between a couple of simultaneous speeches at any time. Of course, there were quite a few star speakers such as Stripe founder John Collisson and N26 founder Valentin Stalf. I didn’t expect anything else. Generally, my impression was that most of the program was panels and only very few keynotes. The two main topics of the conference seemed to be payment and crypto. This was also what most of the exhibitors were selling. What I was missing was more on sustainability. It’s 2022 and ESG is, without doubt, the topic of the future, so I was a bit disappointed how few the industry is still caring about it.
I wasn’t attending many panels, because what matters at such an event is the people you meet.'
How I Networked as an Introvert
However, if I am honest, I wasn’t attending many panels, because what matters at such an event is the people you meet. So how was networking at Money20/20? They made it quite easy to connect with others with their app which was mostly running smoothly. Editing my profile was quite tricky as first, as the wifi connection wasn’t very good, but soon enough I managed to overcome any issues! Anyway, approaching new people via the app still worked out well. As an introvert, I enjoy this feature much more than pure networking at the coffee shop. So most of my meetings happened via the app while my extroverted friend got to know most of her connections somewhere between the more than two dozen food and coffee stands. In particular, I liked the automatic location matching: you propose a time in the app and if the other one confirms it, you meet at an automatically assigned table in the networking lounge. During the two evenings, you could choose between a few official parties, a street fest, and many invite-only events organized by some of the sponsors. Heavy networking, so I fell into bed very tired.
''For FinTech in Europe, and payment and crypto, in particular, Money20/20 is probably the place to be.''
The Ambience
A good conference also lives from the aura and ambiance. Everything looked very modern and chic, there was free food (which was ok I would say), cocktails, coffee, smoothies, shakes, etc. everywhere. Still, the mood didn’t feel ecstatic, rather sometimes it appeared a bit empty with all the huge halls and many people intently staring at their emails and laptops. Maybe the reason is the upcoming recession and drought the startup world is going through, currently. However, for FinTech in Europe, and payment and crypto, in particular, Money20/20 is probably the place to be and meet your peers once a year.
Until next time!
– Jakob
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