What kind of a crazy… – Yeah, I know!
Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree, how green are your leaves! Despite the Covid 19 pandemic, the Christmas season is something traditional and also really nice. The girocard of all celebrations, so to speak. And even at Payment & Banking, Christmas is celebrated in one way or another. Traditionally, we go into the Christmas break and look back on the crazy year 2020. When Rolf & his friends sing “In the Christmas bakery. Are there many a treat. Between the flour and the milk, many a lump makes a huge mess!” it’s fitting for the whole year. It was chaotic, we made a lot of spills, but in the end we can say: somehow it all worked out and we are proud of what we achieved. Despite, or perhaps because of Covid-19, we have redesigned our newsletter. Every day, shortly before closing time, we deliver the news of the industry to your inbox. But that’s not all, we also have our own news section in the blog.
With the events this year it was such a thing, an emotional up and down! What works, what doesn’t, where it works, where it doesn’t…arrivederci, plannability! That said, we’re particularly proud of what ultimately came out of it. While with Payment Exchange 20 in January we were lucky enough to be able to hold one of the last events in the industry as a face-to-face event and give you a pressure fuelling from the payments sector, things looked a little different with the other events for reasons. But for us it was clear that cancellation was not an option. With the Banking Exchange, we launched the industry’s first all-digital conference in June 2020 with a setup and line-up that was unique in its form. With the theme “Oceans Exchange”, inspired by the gangster movie classic “Oceans Eleven”, we brought Las Vegas feeling into your living rooms. And as if that wasn’t enough, we were also able to carry out Transactions 20, albeit in a slimmed-down form, and are now looking forward to the big part in February.
The Payment & Banking Podcast has also grown this year. Our format “Ask me Anything”, which started last year, has now fully established itself and is already celebrating its 25th episode anniversary with really great guests. In this podcast, we ask well-known personalities from the industry all sorts of possible and impossible questions.
This year, we have also regularly published new infographics and increased the frequency of our articles. With many new and well-known guest authors from the industry.
Of course, all this does not happen without people. People who give us a lot of support in the foreground, but also in the background. We would like to thank these people again explicitly at this point!
- Ziska Thalhammer for so much support in design and visual concepts! Nobody prints more beautifully.
- Florian Treißour man in the news. Every day you see the result of his work. Thank you for your newsletter
- Marcus Hauer, the man of the most beautiful websites
- Malik Riaz Hai Naveed & Stephan Lamprecht – Social media is a science in itself!
- Maximilian Klein & Sebastian Zelada Ocampo – our podcasts have never been more listenable!
- Gent Design – has revived our infographics
- Straightvisions – keep our backend running
- Livestream Watch – we’d do a TV format with you too!
- Storytile – we know no one who can summarize so quickly and well
- Fredenhagen – the best location in the Frankfurt area
- Soho House Berlin – for so long by our side
- Satis & Fy – even without confetti cannon, the best people at the controls
Besides the many people who keep payment and banking running, it’s these wonderful companies that keep us afloat. Without you, almost as little would run here and that’s why our big thanks go to our loyal sponsors who make it all possible! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Merry Christmas from the entire Payment & Banking Team!
Payment & Banking goes on Christmas break. Until 04 January, we rest and celebrate, within reason, each our personal Christmas and float into a hopeful 2021. Because it will be better – Promise! Here are a few more personal words for you:
Nicole Nitsche
The world is upside down, yes – and has also turned our everyday lives upside down. The new normal- we have heard over and over again. Pffff…I want to go back to…! But seriously. I didn’t think we would come out of the year so well. Because indeed everything was different, but thanks to this great team, our great community and the best sponsors in the world, we broke new ground, took old things with us, thought new things, tried new things, got desperate…but just did it. We can be a little proud of that.
We pulled off all of our events, albeit a little differently, pushed our blog and many collaborations, are at #299 podcast episodes & #25 AMA issues in 2020.
2021 it’s more to come. I’m looking forward to that. But even more so for realness. Real conversations, real meetings, real people, real toasts…because I hope we stay true to our gin tradition in 2021.
Really for the very last time I toast “virtually” to all of you out there. Have a be “gin “lich Christmas and take care of yourselves! I will symbolically light my 2020 calendar, which was a real bad buy, on New Year’s Eve!
Maik Klotz
Twitter asked a few days ago: “Describe the year 2020 in one word”. Mine would be “weird.” It really has been kind of a weird year with ups and downs. As the year comes to a close, I will be celebrating Christmas with my loved ones and wish you just that: a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I think and hope 2021 will be good!
André Bajorat
Was a year without real networking – all the more important to have tools like payment & banking to be further in the exchange and get stimuli. Hope that in 2021 we can come back to real meetings and really discuss and network in addition to the virtual. The good thing in 2020 was that I probably got to spend more with my loved ones than I have in years. That too will resonate – fortunately positively.
Christina Cassala
Was everything really bad in 2020? I don’t think so, because suddenly things like solidarity, togetherness and consideration have become valuable again. This makes me optimistic and I hope that we will take this with us into 2021. In this spirit, I wish all readers, listeners and friends of Payment and Banking a merry Christmas in a small family circle without hours of traffic jams on the motorways, quiet, zoom-free holidays with candlelight and stollen and above all a healthy start to the coming year with sparklers on the terrace instead of firecrackers in busy squares.
Yulia Chavdarov
It was a year unlike any other. I miss the events and the networking. Let’s hope that we leave the pandemic with all its negative effects behind us quickly. Take good care of yourselves and stay healthy. I wish you a peaceful Christmas in a small circle. Come well into the new year, see you there, then soon again live and in color. Here’s to 2021!
The Payment & Banking Review and Outlook
Normally, we traditionally say goodbye with a joint Christmas podcast, in which the team reviews the year and ponders the most important topics of the year over mulled wine. This year, true to the motto, digital first, we have packed the whole thing into a video and the Pre-Event of the TRX20 We used the opportunity to get together in a small group and of course with distance, good wine and last but not least gratitude to have seen each other at least briefly again, to talk about some of the topics 2020 and to give a short outlook on the coming year.
Thanks to our great community
Dear readers, dear community, last but not least you deserve the most thanks, because what would all this effort and effort be without you – nothing. Thank you for your loyalty, the good exchange, the many constructive discussions, the criticism and the many praises, the pleasure of reading and listening.
Wishing you all a wonderful, reflective Christmas season, an inward down and enjoyment, joy, contentment and beautiful moments. Take care of each other, be considerate and stay healthy or as they say nowadays: stay negative!
All the best – your Payment & Banking Team
