Another Successful MPC Digital Commerce Event in the Books!
by Tom McCole
Marla Ellerman, MPC’s founder and CEO, hosted her 10th annual fintech convocation in Atlanta this week. The MPC expo event provided world-class session speakers from Intel, PayPal, Goldenore, U.S. Bank, Pax, Finexio, JP Morgan, Truist Bank, Atlanta Federal Reserve, Discover, WorldPay, Nuvei, Wellesley Hills Financial, Payrillium, Kount, Fullsteam, ePaymints, Georgia Fintech Academy, Netevia, B4B Payments, and many others. The sessions and panels covered a plethora of topics including emerging AI technologies, new regulatory mandates, identity fraud and cybersecurity, open banking, digital lending options, instant payments, fintech investment opportunities, and retail crypto acceptance. Other significant areas of interest were merchant data mining, alternative payment acceptance, i.e. contactless payments on phones, tablets and kiosks, and creating positive customer experiences during checkout.
MPC brought over 400 attendees from different countries including France, Poland, Uruguay, India, and Canada. The attendees came together from multiple payment disciplines to both learn and share their varied knowledge and experiences in new payment technologies. Unlike massive national conference/tradeshows like the National Retail or Restaurant shows where your energy is exhausted by traveling miles for exhibits and presentations, MPC offers a more intimate venue where attendees can interact and share more effectively. The peer networking and partnership opportunities within this venue and format are immeasurable.
The keynote presentation entitled Fighting the Evolution of Fraud with Data and Technology was delivered by Casey Zenner, VP of Global Sales for Kount, and the Goldenore presentation on AI data mining by Sylwia Hans, President Business Relations and Michael Sheely VP of Business Development led off the conference events. The U.S. Investment Climate panel hosted by Peter Gordon, Founder and Managing Partner of Atlantic Fintech Advisors was of particular interest to the gathered emerging Fintech leaders. The expert panel included Joe Proto, Investor and Chairman of Finexio, Larry Berlin, Founder and Co-CEO of Blue Point Advisory Services. And what Atlanta fintech investment panel would be complete with OB Rawls, Partner and Executive Director of Wellesley Hills Financial.
The clear takeaways from MPC were that technology changes and disruption will affect the entire payment landscape for the foreseeable future. The challenges facing the industry to manage are substantial. AI, real-time payments, open banking, self-service technologies, crypto payments, effective data mining, and securing these multifarious transactions are paramount for our mutual success.
Let’s look forward to meeting these challenges and sharing our professional triumphs at next year’s event!
