The Electronic Transactions Association chose the center of technology innovation for its 25th anniversary celebration. Transact 15 will be held at San Francisco's Moscone Center from March 31 to April 2, 2015. And according to the ETA, with 250,000 square feet of exhibit space, this will be the largest venue in the event's history.
"It's interesting to think back 25 years ago when ETA was founded by a group of small ISOs that saw the need for a trade association representing the acquiring side of the payments industry, which at the time did not exist," said Jason Oxman, ETA Chief Executive Officer. "Fast forward 25 years, and we are still the only acquiring side trade association."
The ETA now has more than 500 member companies, including San Francisco Bay Area based technology powerhouses like Apple Inc., Google Inc., Intel Corp. and PayPal Inc., among others. Leaders from Intel, Visa, Inc., Merchant Customer Exchange and Alipay's U.S. operations will keynote at Transact 15.
"Intel is new at the show this year," Oxman said. "Having a technology company like Intel demonstrating the future of commerce at the point-of-sale and online is very exciting for us, and it's crucial for ISOs." Many of this year's Payments Next Zone and Mobile Pay Zone exhibitors will be San Francisco Bay Area startups with a promising future in payments.
The new Biometric Security Zone will showcase biometric authentication, from fingerprint to iris technologies, and a virtual currency showcase has been added as well. "We have a number of great digital currency companies that are members of ETA," Oxman said. "On the show floor companies like BitPay, Circle, BitNet and Coinbase will focus on how to provide digital currency acceptance capability to merchants."
The ETA also partnered with all four regional acquirers associations to offer discounts to attend Transact 15 and earn credits toward the Certified Payments Professional credential. "We wanted to make it affordable to all of the smaller agents and small businesses who participate in the regional events to attend Transact 15," Oxman noted.
Of interest to ISOs and merchant level salespeople will be the EMV Boot Camp Sessions covering everything from U.S. migration to lessons learned in markets where smart card technology has been implemented. The Retail Technology Pavilion will host Retail Solutions 2.0 session discussions on relevant issues and opportunities in retail spaces today. "We have close to 60 different education sessions and six conference tracks," Oxman explained. "One slight change to the schedule this year is all of the networking events will be on the show floor because we want to make the Moscone Center the hub of all that we do there at the show," which means all formal gatherings will be held in the exhibit area.
"We know that this is a place where payments industry business gets done and that is our goal in putting on this show for the 4,000 who are expected to attend," Oxman said. "We want people to learn about new technology, to make new business connections, to strike deals, to find new products and services to sell to their merchant customers." For more information about Transact 15, visit www.electran.org. 
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