2014 Winter Mobile Payments Conference Event Exceeds Attendees' Expectations

Industry Thought Leaders Deliver No-Holds Barred Presentations, Actionable Information

Mobile Marketing & Technology recently reported that the 2014 Winter Mobile Payments Conference (MPC) hosted more than 260 attendees at the Miami Beach Convention Center last month. Attendees enjoyed four days of engaging keynote presentations from leaders in the payment processing space as well as interactive panel discussions and training.

The panel discussions included some eyebrow-raising comments from speakers such as Karl Weaver, formerly of Gemalto and founder of Newport Technologies, who uttered perhaps the most controversial remark about the realities of NFC (near field communication). “The MNOs [mobile network operators] are putting security second, and profit first,” he stated matter-of-factly.

Weaver added that he is firmly behind NFC and believes the technology will win out in regards to mobile payments. He cited NFC’s widespread use in portions of Asia that show the technology is not just a niche. In the United States,he stated that Isis (a joint venture between AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon) can become widespread if it can work with the banks. He also warned that banks need to wake up in regards to NFC mobile payments. “The banks need to reinvent their business model and work with transit systems and MNOs [to make NFC work for them].”

Executives speaking at the MPC tackled various topics related to mobile payments (and acceptance) and where they stand at the start of 2014. Amol Deshmukh, vice president of mobile financial services for Gemalto, gave worldwide examples of mobile payment’s success but warned companies against taking a one-size-fits-all approach.

“What works in many foreign countries doesn’t work in the U.S. You can’t change user behavior overnight,” he says. “It will take time for late adopters to adjust.”

Another noteworthy remark from Deshmukh was that consumers don’t have aclear view of which mobile services to use because there are so many of them to choose from.

Brian Hamilton, senior vice president for Capital One’s national small business digital and mobile platforms also made a noteworthy remark. “We won’t have a true mobile wallet until identification and insurance cards are made digital. For now, I’m still going to need to carry a physical wallet,” he said.

In addition to presentations on commercial and international payments, many presentations also addressed the very timely topics of payment and network security. Dean Seifert, SVP of Product Strategy at Vantiv summarized these hot issues,saying, “One of the keys to resolving the security challenges that come with mobile payment is to stay away from payment systems that require credentials from the device [i.e. smartphones, tablets, etc.], and instead keep the credentials encrypted in secure cloud data centers.”

The date and theme for next year’s event has not yet been finalized. Those interested in attending the next Mobile Payments Conference and getting educated on the latest training, trends, and tips the industry has to offer for moreinformation, visit http://mobilepaymentconference.com,

About Mobile Marketing & Technology
Mobile Marketing and Technology is an online publication and community dedicatedto educating Marketing, Sales, IT Professionals and Executives about the latest mobile phone technologies for marketing and communication. Mobile Payments Conference is the industry’s leading mobile commerce event, which attracts an executive level audience from all parts of the mobile commerce ecosystem. 2014 marks the sixth Mobile Payments Conference that Mobile Marketing & Technology will produce.