Tipalti Hosts Its Second Illuminate Conference

Tipalti hosted its second Illuminate conference on September 13-15.

The hybrid event went live in San Francisco and London with leadership-focused workshops and lectures, happy hours, and an iconic keynote speaker—Moneyball icon Billy Beane.

Attendees engaged in breakout rooms listened to finance thought leaders on what’s next in the world of FinTech, and participated in workshops to learn how to elevate their finance functions.

Tipalti had a wonderful time collaborating with attendees, networking, and discussing the future of finance. In fact, we enjoyed the conference so much that we can’t help but share the key highlights here!

Chen Amit Lights the Stage

To commence Illuminate, Tipalti’s CEO and co-founder, Chen Amit, took to the Pearl San Francisco stage.

On a quest to reduce pain points in finance, Amit founded Tipalti to help simplify the complexities surrounding account payables. Tipalti gives purpose to the finance function through a digital experience.

As an insider on the finance grind, Amit has a working knowledge of how finance leaders are responsible for pushing a business forward with acute strategies. Executing a strong finance function is the baseline expectation of a finance leader. Finance leaders are stepping out of the back office and addressing core issues across the business.

One such customer is ImaginAb. This clinical network is changing the route of cancer research. They’re health pioneers and experts in cutting-edge technology. Broad, deep, and simple to use, ImaginAb leverages the Tipalti solution to simplify invoice processing and accounting. By eliminating manual tasks, ImaginAB continues to achieve the ultimate goal—being number one in cancer research.

Tipalti’s customer retention of 99% proves that automation, and a centralized workflow, are what companies need to accelerate finance.

Tips to Attract & Retain Global Creators

Tipalti’s GM of global payments, Paco Suro, unpacked the session and described the value of creator partners. They are what drives so many businesses—Roblox, Twitch, and Instagram, to name a few. Due to their high demand, businesses compete to attract the best creators to their platforms.

What is a creator economy? Good question! It’s a broad industry of medical providers, personalities, gamers, educators, and more. They’re brand ambassadors with infrastructure and access to tools to allow them to stream and post. They are pushing their passions into the public with tools.

Partners value brands that process payments quickly and efficiently. These brands leverage visibility by providing creators with an analytical view, giving them the confidence to know they’re getting paid what they deserve. Data is the oil of the 21st century, and analytics helps partners observe the revenue generated from their target audience.

The creator economy continues to introduce breakout niches. For amateur athletes, obtaining equality across the spectrum is out of range. OpenSponsorship builds awareness for amateur athletes to gain followers and exposure in a cutthroat industry. The athletes have an entrepreneurial attitude—OpenSponsorship gives them a white glove experience. With this top-tier partnership, they create a hypothesis, test, and revise the philosophy.

Women Setting the Stage in Finance

More work needs to be done to achieve gender equality in the workforce, and finance is no exception. Deloitte’s Women at Work released a global outlook report revealing that the leading reason women left their jobs this year was a lack of advancement opportunities. Currently, only 21% of board seats in the finance leadership space are female. Women also occupy only 19% of C-suite roles, with merely 5% of them being CEOs.

Whether you are just entering the workforce, returning after a hiatus, or changing professions, leadership development can start at any point in your career. Connections and networking help with seeking support in your development. To attain this, women establish relationships with coaches and mentors in finance to help them navigate their career paths.

Building career confidence is a tall order for women, and imposter syndrome is a common disposition. As unnecessary as the syndrome is, it can motivate female workers to prevail. To continue on the path to greatness, mentors and coaches help women understand their worth and help with instilling confidence in themselves.

Coaches and mentors strengthen the notion that making mistakes is normal, even among corporate executives. Failure is inevitable at work, and that doesn’t define your abilities. It’s not a loss; it’s a lesson learned.

Enlightening the Finance Team for the Future

Finance teams must scale efficiently as companies rapidly grow in a virtual landscape. Finance is uniquely connected with departments across the organization—they’re the oil that fuels the machine. They must pivot and transform much quicker in the digital age and power the right resources to achieve mission-critical success.

A finance team’s success starts with hiring. It doesn’t matter if the workplace is remote, hybrid, or in-person; finance leaders need a hiring strategy that safeguards retention and loyalty. Gartner notes that the finance hierarchy is stale; managers muddle too many employees and finance systems.

To gain a competitive advantage, finance leaders must plan for the next three-to-five years and adopt accessible technology that is solution-driven. They ensure projects are straightforward and goal-oriented so that employees can put their best foot forward. By having seamless workflows, team members can focus on rewarding projects and promoting business values.

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game

Billy Beane, the iconic Oakland A’s EVP of baseball operations—and former MLB baseball player—is the focus behind the film Moneyball. He delivered an unforgettable Moneyball philosophy to the 2022 Illuminate Conference by giving fastball approaches to accelerate business success.

With his ability to apply baseball methodology to running a business, Beane’s philosophies apply to any industry—finance, insurance, healthcare, and more. He describes the importance of using analytics to discover new resources and access a competitive edge.

Beane took a team that was worse than bad and applied modern strategies to lead them to hard-knock contenders in the MLB. This underdog story was achieved with a small payroll and a big slice of optimism. Safe to say, Beane knows a thing or two about overcoming adversity.

The Moneyball philosophy promotes an effective way to efficiently—and profitably—manage assets through talent and resources. He influences the way companies view their modern operations and how they can elevate opportunities through analytics and data. When using the Moneyball philosophy, businesses see big results.

There you have it—another insightful Illuminate Conference in the books. If you couldn’t attend Illuminate 2022, please take the time to catch up on these keynotes and workshops on demand.