The Southeast Acquirers Association will return to New Orleans to host "Transaction Cardi Gras" from April 20 to 22, 2015. The New Orleans Marriott will be the launch pad for ISO and merchant level salesperson education, networking and sightseeing during this popular annual conference.
Making an appearance will be keynote speaker Mac Fulfer, who during 22 years of practicing law developed expert face-reading skills, which aided in jury selection. Fulfer will share insights on this fascinating topic and be available throughout the event. In addition, women payment professionals are invited to join the Women's Network in Electronic Transactions networking event being held in conjunction with the conference.
The SEAA, in partnership with the Electronic Transactions Association, will be offering Certified Payments Professional training at the conference. "Any registered SEAA participant can sit in on the first ETA CPP prep course for free on Monday, April 20," said Dee Karawadra, SEAA board member and founder of Impact PaySystem. "If they also register to take the CPP exam, they get access to the other three CPP prep courses for free," which represents a savings of about $600.
Also new at the conference will be the #WhoDat2015 innovation competition. Nearly $8,000 in cash and prizes will be awarded for products deemed most innovative. In addition to cash, the first place winner will receive complimentary exhibit space in the Payments NextZone at ETA's Transact16 event.
Networking on the exhibit floor has been expanded to seven hours, which should give attendees and vendors ample time to interact. "We will have plenty of educational breakout sessions covering everything from EMV to bitcoin," said Karawadra. "One of the more exciting things is how to evaluate your portfolio and how to build a portfolio that's worth a decent value."
To track all the activities scheduled, SEAA will offer a downloadable app with push notifications alerting attendees when sessions are about to start. For more information about the SEAA conference, to register and to apply for #WhoDat2015, visit www.southeastacquirers.com.
Now in its second year, the Global Acquiring Conference (formerly the International Acquiring Forum) will be held May 5 to 7 in London's Millennium Gloucester Hotel. While there, attendees can rub elbows with top officials from Interpol and European agencies, as well as payments industry thought leaders representing over 22 countries. These executives will address the critical issues acquirers face when entering global markets today.
"We will be presenting a series of keynote speakers, as well as panel discussions," said Thomas Layman, Chief Executive Officer of San Mateo, Calif.-based consultancy Global Vision Group and co-founder of GAC. "We've got a fireside chat of movers and shakers, industry leaders. There are different formats that we're using throughout the two-day conference and scheduled breaks for networking."
Payments consultant and GAC co-founder Linda Perry emphasized the importance of networking and education at this conference, as there will be no exhibitors. "This is a place to be educated by a group of speakers that you will never see again," she said.
Session topics will include how to manage global acquiring margins and costs, strategies for advancing commercial product acceptance, the role of cryptocurrency in payments, developments in online and mobile commerce, and the regulatory influences and threat impacts that could ultimately shape payments in the future. Executives from Ingenico Group, Moneris Solutions, U.S. Bank, PayPal Inc., Visa Inc., Discover Financial Services and Bitcoin Foundation will be among the presenters.
"My perspective is to walk away with the ability to have seen and shared issues, challenges and opportunities from a global perspective," Layman said. "There are things that happen in different markets that can be leveraged and utilized in other markets, and being able to share some of those experiences raises the water level for everybody."
This is especially true when dealing with international clients in regions where resources may be less accessible. "If you're in Cypress, for example, where do you go to learn about the acquiring business?" Layman said. "There wasn't a lot there. That was another motivation that got me energized about this, to provide at least a forum where CEOs and top level people could come, meet, network and learn. That's basically what we're trying to do." To learn more about the GAC, visit www.globalacquiringconference.com.
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