WSAA 2022 Conference Sessions & Speakers
Wednesday Educational Series - September 7th
9:00 am – 9:45 am
Journey of an ISO with ETA
Bart and Jaron, two seasoned ETA certified payments professionals, will share their experiences in the payments industry and provide helpful dos and don’ts that will help you grow your payments portfolio while expanding payments industry knowledge and experience. This session will take you through the evolution of a payments professional, plus provide guidance on how to avoid the many pitfalls that can be encountered along the way.
10:00 am – 10:45 am
Payments Acceptance: Back to the Basics with MAC
Navigating the payments industry can feel like being little Ralphie in A Christmas Story pouring over his secret decoder ring to uncover the hidden message about drinking Ovaltine. Industry experts at the helm of MAC will explain payments terms and roles, even if you haven’t received your secret decoder ring just yet. The alphabet soup of payments will be demystified with a little help from our friends at MAC.
11:00 am – 11:45 am
Digging Out of the Hole Created by Selling on Price
Merchant portfolios are under constant assault and pressure. Legions of agents repeatedly call on the same small businesses, undercutting each other in an attempt to make a quick buck, with little to no concern about differentiating their offers or merchant satisfaction and retention. It’s a price and margin compression recipe for disaster! Learn what payments leaders are doing to dig out of the hole selling on price has created by taking a fresh approach to solving real business needs their merchants face day-in and day-out. Their goal is to capitalize on a higher margin, more profitable and sustainable business model, while strengthening the value of their merchant portfolios.
11:45 am – 12:15 pm
Lunch Break
Boxed lunches provided for Wednesday Educational Session attendees.
12:15 pm – 1:00 pm
Finding Your Footing on the Shifting Sands of Cash Discounting, Surcharging & Dual Pricing
The sands continue to shift in the market as small and mid-size businesses pass card acceptance fees on to consumers. This session will cover the current state of consumer checkout fees, card brand rules and enforcement actions, compliance issues and best practices to create stellar consumer checkout experiences that SMBs are finding more affordable.
1:15 pm – 2:00 pm
Following the 4Es to Maximize Learning
In this close-out session, the 4Es framework (Education, Enablement, Enforcement and Evolution) will help you maximize what you’ve learned during our Wednesday Educational Series—today and beyond. Understanding and applying the 4Es will set a foundation for retaining new information, putting it into practice and using a proven methodology for solving challenges others deem too complex.
3:00 pm – 5:00 pm
What Does Your Voice Say About You? with Wnet
Your speaking voice is essential to share your message whether on the phone, one-on-one or in a presentation. Learn ways in which your voice impacts your work and ways in which you have more control over it than you realize. Whether you are an experienced speaker or a novice, gain greater vocal variation, power and authenticity to increase the impact of your communication.
Thursday Conference Schedule - September 8th
9:00 am – 9:15 am
Conference Kick-Off: Welcome & Opening Comments
#WSAA2022 Begins!
9:15 am – 10:00 am
Executive Insights: The Ins and Outs of Private Equity
Private equity provides capital and expert guidance for entrepreneurs wanting to rapidly grow business. So how do you know when you’re ready? What should you look for in a PE partner and what do they want from you? How do they help or hinder? And what is it like being owned after charting your own course? Learn from this blockbuster group of payments industry leaders about their unique private equity journeys in what’s sure to be a lively, interesting and informative session.
10:15 am – 11:00 am
Connecting the Dots for Cross-Border Commerce
New payment platforms, cryptocurrencies, wallets and alternative payment models are changing global commerce. While a global solution can require a complex patchwork of partners, this panel session will break down the partner/solution-decision process and offer strategies for deploying the best cross-border model for your company. Most importantly, you will learn the questions that should be asked to build the best cross-border commerce strategy for your business.
1:00 pm – 1:45 pm
The Ebbs & Flows of Cryptocurrency: Which Way is the Tide Turning?
Cryptocurrency is a widespread topic of discussion in the media, as well as within the payments industry today. Given its recent volatility, what is crypto's future? What role will cryptocurrency, including stablecoins, eventually play in payments? Will one or a small number of cryptocurrencies emerge as clear leaders anytime soon? What role will the traditional payment companies and ISOs play? An experienced panel of cryptocurrency specialists will discuss their experiences and expectations, answer these important questions and more.
2:00 pm – 2:45 pm
Fintech: From Margins to Mainstream - Secure, Contactless & Self-Serve
Technological advancements continue to alter payments. Labor costs and pandemic shifts are pushing more transactions to kiosks and tokenized solutions, plus the gig economy and remote workers are further altering consumer behavior. This panels session will explore shifting demands and new offerings through the lens of cost impacts and security and routing options, with specific focus on unattended access kiosks, EMV & network tokenization and Android / Apple Tap to Pay smartphone acceptance.
3:00 pm – 3:45 pm
Executive Insights: The Future of Payments from Those Who Know
This powerhouse panel of industry leaders, notably all women, will discuss the recent past (COVID-19), the present (Bear Market & Great Resignation) and the future (Software-Led Payments & Embedded Finance).
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Conference Keynote: Rise Up. Blast Through. Unleashing SuperYou!
Lourds Lane, global humanitarian and visionary writer and composer of the Broadway-bound SuperYou Musical, will deliver an uplifting and empowering music-infused talk about turning adversity into opportunity, remembering your worth and how small steps can lead to greatness. Lourds' debut production of SuperYou Musical was slated to open in NYC May 2020 but was shut down twice due to the pandemic.
So, Lourds and her team embarked on a bold, outside-the-box journey that garnered international press, a movie, millions of views of their brand globally and sold-out standing-ovation concerts at Carnegie Hall, without the show ever opening to in-person audiences. 
Lourds reminds us that we are all creators, innovators and more powerful than we know, sharing her thoughts about differentiating yourself and your brand by being purpose-driven and taking bold, inspired actions.
Lourds Lane, global humanitarian and visionary writer and composer of the Broadway-bound SuperYou Musical, will deliver an uplifting and empowering music-infused talk about turning adversity into opportunity, remembering your worth and how small steps can lead to greatness. Lourds' debut production of SuperYou Musical was slated to open in NYC May 2020 but was shut down twice due to the pandemic.
So, Lourds and her team embarked on a bold, outside-the-box journey that garnered international press, a movie, millions of views of their brand globally and sold-out standing-ovation concerts at Carnegie Hall, without the show ever opening to in-person audiences.
Lourds reminds us that we are all creators, innovators and more powerful than we know, sharing her thoughts
about differentiating yourself and your brand by being purpose-driven and taking bold, inspired actions.
About Lourds Lane
Lourds Lane, a Filipino-American, classically trained on piano and violin at age three and Harvard honors grad, wrote the book, music, lyrics, co-arrangements/orchestrations, and originates the role of "Rise," the electric violin-playing superhero misfit of the Broadway-bound musical, SuperYou. A concert production of the show, called "Songs from Lourds Lane's SuperYou Musical" was celebrated for two sold-out nights at Carnegie Hall this past July 2022. As the visionary and heart behind the SuperYou social good mission, Lourds teaches global youth and adults to connect to their most empowered superhero selves through The SuperYou FUNdation, an educational arts and music-based non-profit she founded.
Lourds is a 2018 Actor’s Equity Association Paul Robeson Award finalist for dedication to the betterment of humankind; a winner of the 2019 Ideagen Global Leadership award; a two-time Fred Ebb musical theatre award finalist (2012 and 2018); a celebrated speaker at TEDWomen, TEDYouth, the United Nations and Forbes Women inspiring their global audiences with empowering music-infused talks; and the creator of a female indie rock musician community in New York City called "The Medusa Festival" when she was lead singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist of her own critically acclaimed nationally touring rock band.
Follow Lourds: @lourdslane