ETA News - Electronic Transactions Association

Be Part of the Marketplace of the Future

The ETA Technology Committee invites you to participate in one of the payment industry's best events of the year. If you play in that all important space where the consumer performs financial transactions, from POS payments to mobile payments or electronic business services, you will want to be part of ETA's 2009 Marketplace of the Future technology showcase.

ETA’s Marketplace of the Future event debuted last year to rave reviews and a big crowd of several hundred leaders from across the payments industry. The event showcased a dozen payment and financial scenarios ranging from remote deposits to pay at table, wireless couponing and card-enabled vending. It was a great success with great support from leading payments industry vendors and their talented staff members.

To build on last year's marketplace success, ETA is making the 2009 MotF event a centerpiece of this year’s show with the event taking place at the center of the show floor during prime time on the show's last day.

With the goal of creating a dynamic and imaginative vision of the future with this showcase, ETA is sending invitations out to a very wide audience - to members of companies in the traditional electronic transaction space as well as to potential new entrants and partners. A good plan here is “Expect the unexpected”!

Help Demonstrate the Future of Payments
The presentation theme for 2009 is the future of payment and business transactions. Organized along a timeline, the event will feature a quick glance backwards at the history of electronic transactions and then carry the audience into the near term and even the distant future. It's possible at least one leading edge vendor will show up dressed in , say, a fashion way forward (space?) suit ( watch out Captain Kirk) carrying a solar-powered, payment-enabled Gucci mobile phone as a piece of jewelry. Or anything as way out and as engaging as that!

Of course, while fantasy suggests where we're going, the Technology Committee wants to focus on what's “REAL” coming up over the next two to three years. That leaves plenty of room for integrated mobile payments and couponing, NFC phones interacting with a rich RFID environment, smartphone-based applications running on iPhones, multi-application contactless cards and all the rest of the electronic transaction technologies the industry has been waiting for.

The future is multi-function, highly integrated and ridiculously portable. Come join the show and demonstrate what you have, what you are thinking of producing and even dreaming about!

How to Get Involved
Of course, your technology has to be demonstrable. Even if it's a mock-up it has to show us what's possible. The rest is all logistics. Be prepared to:

Bring it all to Las Vegas for the show on April 23, 2009
Bring the props that are absolutely key to your demonstration.
Bring engaging staff to perform the demo or skit, staff who know that this isn't about today's sales. This is all about priming the industry for the future and educating your future customers to what's possible
Prepare to address an audience of several hundred of the industry’s top professionals and dazzle us all with your cutting edge technology and forward thinking.

Here’s What ETA Will Do
ETA will provide the stage, the space for the sets, the overhead projection screens, the sound and video personnel, power and network hookups, television and sound systems – the works. ETA will set a high standard for the look and feel of the sets and will produce the backgrounds and basic props you need. Beyond that, it is up to you.

Accepting the Invitation
If you and your company are up to accepting this invitation, please complete the attached application . Please provide completecontact information and a description of what you have in mind. A script is not necessary, but do provide all the information necessary to explain the essentials of your technology demonstration.

What Happens Next
Members of the ETA Technology Committee will review each application carefully. The evaluation team will be looking for proposals that fit the timeline theme, that affect the future businesses of the attendees and that have "wow factor". Companies with similar proposals will be judged on the aforementioned criteria along with the completeness and timely return of the application.

Consider Collaboration
The 2008 MotF event was over-subscribed. We expect demand to "get on stage" will be even higher this year. ETA definitely wants to have as many vendors showcased as possible so please consider reaching out to vendors in adjacent areas. Or entirely new ones. Consider that even a little "competition" for the sake of show business will be a very good thing for the attendees, ETA membership and the MotF.

You can download an application here . All applications are due no later than January 15. The selections will be made public (with a press release!) February 1, 2009.

The 2009 MotF event is going to be exciting, entertaining, educational and, with your help, excellent. The ETA Technology Committee and the MotF sub-committee are looking forward to hearing from you.

Please submit your applications to .