‘The Art of the Unexpected’ | Versapay Homecoming Brings FinTech Innovation to Bentonville

Bentonville, Arkansas, became a focal point for fintech collaboration in January 2024 as the city hosted the inaugural Versapay Homecoming. The event marked Miami-based Versapay’s first in-person corporate summit, inviting employees to learn, discuss, network, explore, and collaborate at more than 20 exciting venues around Bentonville. With employees distributed across the U.S. and Canada, Versapay specializes in solutions that help growing businesses drive efficiency across their accounts receivable process. Versapay’s Homecoming event unfolded over four days, with each day’s theme cultivating a sense of unity and innovation set against the inspiring cultural, culinary, and artistic backdrop of Bentonville. Visit Bentonville has fully embraced a new era of meetings—defined by engagement and meaningful experiences—with its “Unconventional Conventions” approach. The team worked closely with organizers to customize an itinerary for the Homecoming event. As Versapay employees arrived, organizers set a tone of surprises around every corner by scheduling welcome dinners at six different Bentonville venues, then randomly assigning each team member a location when they checked in. The official kickoff was held the following morning at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. An inspiring keynote address by the company’s CEO Carey O’Connor Kolaja was followed by exploration of the museum and its exhibits. From there, the event’s itinerary was designed to promote collaboration while making the most of the sights, sounds, and spaces of Bentonville. At a “Seller’s Summit” at the art-infused 21c Museum Hotel, an “Operator’s Summit” in an aircraft-filled space at Thaden Field, and a “Builder’s Summit” at Onyx Coffee Lab, participants engaged in thought-provoking sessions tailored to their roles and interests. Another memorable gathering during Versapay Homecoming was held at The Ledger, Bentonville’s 230,000-square-foot coworking and event space that is the world’s first bikeable building, with six stories of exterior ramps that lead to the roof. The week’s events concluded with an awards gala and reception at the Momentary. One aspect of Versapay Homecoming that company leaders applauded was the event’s surprising affordability. “We just wrapped up our production budget,” said Katie Holden with Versapay. “We got a top-notch experience for an affordable price per employee. I really would challenge anyone: where else could we have gotten the experience we did?” In a blog post published on LinkedIn a few weeks after the event, Versapay CEO O’Connor Kolaja praised Bentonville for helping foster and sustain her team’s creative mindset. “Bentonville lived up to the recent hype,” she wrote, “providing a charming place with tons of history and art and an inviting culture out to prove you can be disruptive and welcoming—what we aspire to be at Versapay.” O’Connor Kolaja said participants were impressed by Bentonville’s venues where art, nature, and history converge. ” Bentonville is immersed in the art of the unexpected,” Kolaja continued. “Every corner, every surface is an opportunity to explore, and this is what led us to choose the town to inspire all of us at Versapay to think about what we do with a renewed creative lens. … Bentonville was the ideal backdrop to encourage design thinking and unlock new ideas because it’s a town that embraces radical beautification. We were inhabiting a place that allowed us to shake things up, move things around. We could choose the spaces and moments that resonated with each of us, to enable our best work.” At Visit Bentonville, that’s exactly the kind of visitor review we like to hear.