On May 8-9, 2018 we held the inaugural CardFlight Customer Conference in New York. In case you missed it, here’s a summary of everything we had lined up for our attendees over the two-day event.
We kicked things off on the evening of May 8th with a reception at the famous 230 Fifth rooftop bar, with 360° views of the New York City skyline. We continued the evening with The RIDE – an interactive bus tour of Manhattan, where we saw the sights, “came across” dancers and musicians on the street, and had a lot of good time.
On the morning of Wednesday, May 9th we got together for the main event: learning from leading industry experts. Our full day featured presentations and panel discussions about payments-everything, including:
- The fundamentals of Apple Pay by Craig Ross from Apple. Craig counted the ways in which Apple Pay improved payments for millions of people worldwide, and discussed what’s in plan going forward to make payments faster, smoother, and more integrated with the rest of our daily lives.
- Key trends affecting merchant acquirers by Emily Boese from First Annapolis. Emily discussed how the payment acceptance marketplace is evolving, and elaborated on how these changes affect merchant acquirers today. She also discussed the key ways in which these changes can be transformed by acquirers into opportunities that empower merchants.
- Selling next generation payment technology by Chris Bottom from Worldpay.Chris talked about the challenges and benefits of selling advanced payment acceptance solutions, from the value propositions and opportunities that draw merchants, through the challenges of sales enablement, to the reasons Worldpay chose to offer the product range they currently have.
- Present and future of payments by Amy Zirkle from Electronic Transactions Association. Amy talked about how payment technology began and how it evolved into what we know and love today. Amy reported on the state of the payments industry and its emerging trends, and how these trends are becoming opportunities for key industry players.
- Getting the most of SwipeSimple by Ryan Schneider from Integrity Payments, John Shipley from Clearent, and Suzanne Winkler from Beyond. Suzanne, John, and Ryan answered questions about what it takes to have a successful payment solution portfolio, what are keys to great sales enablement, and how to make the most of the SwipeSimple product suite in order to draw and retain merchant accounts.
- Best practices of a mobile portfolio conversion by Marybeth Eason from BB&T. Marybeth discussed the recent mobile portfolio conversion that she led at BB&T, and shared best practices, common pitfalls to avoid, and other advice from the successful process.
- The state of contactless payments by Michael Chall and Tom Sheridan from Visa. Michael and Tom provided insight about contactless payments and key trends from around the world. They discussed why the US is lagging behind other countries on contactless payments, and what’s the opportunity associated with driving contactless payments forward to full enablement.
- Challenges of mobile app development by Paul Tower from CardFlight. Paul told us why mobile application development can be more challenging than it seems and what are the benefits and opportunities of collaborating with the right partner to create, monitor, test, and improve the mobile apps that you depend on.
- And of course, CardFlight past, present, future, and product roadmap by Derek Webster, Peter Wagener, and Kyle Libra from CardFlight. Throughout the day we had presentations that shared everything you need to know about CardFlight, SwipeSimple, our existing products, and our product roadmap so our attendees could learn what to expect in 2018.
On the evening of May 9th we concluded the CardFlight Customer Conference with a dinner at the historic New York Yacht Club in midtown Manhattan. We celebrated the event finale over drinks and locally-sourced foods while learning about the history of sailing and the club.
We had a great time at the inaugural CardFlight Customer Conference, and we are already planning all the fun and learning that we will have next year for our second event. We can’t wait!
