MPE2020: Europe’s largest Merchant Payments Conference, set to be the best yet
Back for its 13th year MPE2020 (Merchant Payment Ecosystems) in Berlin (18-20 Feb 2020) is set to be the biggest ever, with over 1,500 founders, startup enthusiasts, corporates, angel investors, VCs, and media gathering from across Europe.
The three-day Conference is not only a great opportunity for networking but also serves a meeting point for corporations and investors who are aiming to build international connections. The 3 day event will include fireside chats with internationally successful founders, great networking opportunities (with a dedicated networking app), workshops, and an glamorous evening Gala Awards where 15 finalists – selected from about 1,000 nominees will be in with the chance to win
Ahead of the event, we reached out to Natalie Ivanis, MPE’s head of media and communications to find out more about what’s in store at this year’s MPE conference.
How would you describe MPE to someone who hasn’t attended before? What makes the event so unique?
13th annual Merchant Payments Ecosystem (MPE) conference and exhibition in Berlin is the Biggest European meeting place for Merchants & payment professionals. The conference was first held 13 years ago as ‘European Card Acquiring Forum’, then re-named in 2011 to MPE (Merchant Payments Ecosystem) conference – to better reflect the new ways people pay and the rise of alternative payment methods. Since its inception, the MPE conference has made noteworthy progress and became the largest event on Merchants’ payments in Europe.
MPE is renowned mainly for its high-caliber networking at its core putting together the whole merchant payments value chain and the agenda covering all aspects of payment acceptance, latest regional and pan-European trends; in-depth industry analysis and specific case studies.
This year we are especially excited as we have a record-breaking number of attendees, including 300+ merchants and 450+ acquiring banks & PSPs. Over 140 influential speakers will appear in high-quality sessions, running in 4 concurrent streams. The Start-up Challenge Track & Innovation Corner competition will introduce the most innovative startups in merchant payments. This year we also have 70+ sponsors and exhibitors will be showcasing cutting-edge payments & POS solutions.
We are also very excited about the prestigious MPE2020 Awards Gala Dinner & Ceremony which will be a part of MPE 2nd conference day. It is the only European Awards celebrating excellence in merchant payments acceptance and card acquiring.
You will have over 140 top industry speakers on stage this year. What is your selection process?
Our Agenda topics and speaker panel are carefully selected by the MPE team in cooperation with the MPE Advisory Board that is carefully built from top experts in CNP, POS and merchant payment acceptance areas.
MPE is renowned for its high-caliber networking at its core putting together the whole merchant payments value chain and the agenda covering all aspects of payment acceptance, latest regional and pan-European trends; in-depth industry analysis and specific case studies.
Selecting the speakers therefore was also a careful process, befitting of the great work we have achieved so far and the high standards our community has come to expect.
What will be the key subject on the agenda this year?
The change of the Merchant Payments Ecosystem in the past decade was extreme and will only get faster. New shopping habits of digitally enabled customers created multiple challenges for merchants and payment providers. It’s very important for payments providers to understand the needs of merchants to deliver unified customer-focused payment experience.
To accomplish this, the voice of merchants will be heard loud and clear this year.
MPE2020 welcomes the record number of 300 merchants coming from over 150 Global brands like Booking.com, Adidas, HUGO BOSS, EasyJet, Expedia.com, BMW, Spotify, Porsche, Gett, Sweet Inn, The New York Times, Booking.com, IKEA, Omio, etc., and many more.
We expect that most of our speakers will provide unique insights on “How the current payments landscape challenges both merchants and payment providers?” and “How to thrive in the new era of payments?”.
Further on, among the key topics to be discussed at MPE 2020 program are the future of card acquiring, merchant payments, PSD2, Open Banking payments, new business models and technologies like AI, ML, biometrics and other supporting commerce and payments.
PSD2 & SCA implementation seems to be a major talking point this year. Which speakers should we look out for on this subject?
At MPE 2020 conference, Berlin, delegates will learn from different industry stakeholders on
– what needs to happen to make the SCA transition a success after October 16? and
– if there is a need for coordinated oversight of the card & merchant payments industry in Europe.
Regulation and PSD 2 topics are included in almost every session of the conference program. As an example, we could mention the “LEADERS discussion” introducing the status quo of PSD2/SCA implementation which is a part of 1st conference day, with exceptional speaker panel featuring Charles Damen, SVP Payment Strategy, WorldPay, Axel Schaefer, Advisor – Payments, IKEA Group, Nilixa Devlukia, Founder, Payments Solved, Nicolas Adolph, Chairman, EPSM (European Payment Service Providers for Merchants) and Ralf Gladis, Founder & CEO, Computop
Any scoops you can share with us on the confirmed speakers for MPE 2020?
MPE speaker panel features over 140 influential speakers from every corner of the merchant payments ecosystem. From established incumbent payment providers to innovative start-ups, merchants, regulators to independent industry observers. It’s quite difficult to pick the most interesting speakers as they are considered to be the industry influencers.
MPE team has been regularly interviewing its speaker panel to share their insights and suggestions on challenges merchant payment professionals face nowadays.
Omnichannel integration is among the key topics on the MPE Agenda in 2020 and at the same time an overwhelming task for both merchants and payment providers. We asked a few of the MPE2020 speakers to share their insights on what payment providers are doing to help merchants to achieve frictionless shopping experience. These are some of our favourites:
How should the payment companies change their business models to adapt to the new era of instant & mobile-driven payments in 2020?
According to Jeremy Nicholds, CEO of Judopay who will speak about the psychology of mobile payments at MPE2020:
“If you’re looking to build a case for technology investment, explore your business growth goals and how this new payment technology can support these plans.“
The important question for incumbent players is whether to substitute or adapt their legacy systems to cope with the new market standards & technologies?
Ruca Sousa Marques, CEO of Switch, who will cover the Interoperability in the Payments Industry in his speech at MPE2020 said:
“There’s value in existing legacy systems—they’re still performing valuable actions! What’s needed though, is to decouple traditional monolithic architectures into microservices setups, ones that allow for interoperability between internal/external systems, thus accelerating integrations with 3rd party vendors for quicker go-to-market strategies. For this matter, a middleware is necessary to orchestrate communications through standardized data structures, avoiding any updates in back-office systems every time a new application is connected. In his presentation, he’ll propose a new model for adapting legacy infrastructures to new market standards (e.g. Mobile, PSD2, 3DS v2.0, APMs, Omnichannel), capitalizing on existing systems and preparing incumbent companies for the challenges ahead”
Another interesting perspective, we would like to share here, are the findings from our report ‘What Influences Merchant Payments Ecosystem Influencers in 2019/2020?’ released a few months ago.
The report aimed to provide guidance on what companies and channels to follow and how to stay up to date with industry news and trends at least according to MPE speakers. Interestingly,
We found out that Social Media is the number 1 source of daily intelligence for most MPE speakers & moderators. I think this quote of Ghela Boschovich (regularly ranked among TOP 100 Fintech/Regtech influencers) sums it up perfectly:
”By following certain publications, and payment influencers on twitter, I have a daily curated list of articles. and news alerts specific to my interests. But the delightful thing about twitter is that it also provides intel about niche topics, and I can follow – and participate – in conversations about what’s going on in payments.”
There’s a lot happening on stage, but what about backstage? Any real deals?
There are a lot of success stories that began at previous MPE conferences; from partnerships to JV, M&A deals, start-ups founding, etc. One of the success stories that will be presented at MPE2020 on stage is Enterpay & VR Payment GmbH. It started back in 2017 when Jarkko Anttiroiko of Enterpay presented his startup pitch at MPE and Claudia Johannes, VR Payment GmbH picked it up. Another great success story is how a large German Bank and Finnish Fintech startup collaborated to bring a very innovative b2b online payment solution to the German market. A story of merchants who initiated the venture; it’s about product design and ‘ready-to-market’ process. A real story from the Merchant Payments Ecosystem conference and what effect it has on the payments industry. We look forward to telling more success stories which will undoubtedly form at MPE2020.
Who are the main partners to organize MPE 2020?
MPE 2020 SPONSORS & EXHIBITORS: Over 70 companies will be in Berlin to showcase cutting-edge payments & POS solutions. MPE exhibition area will provide the opportunity to meet the major innovators in the merchant payments ecosystem, compare the different options on offer and start long-lasting business relationships. Platinum sponsors of the MPE 2020 conference are Mastercard, Planet, Barclaycard, and BS PAY ONE. You can see the whole list of sponsors https://www.merchantpaymentsecosystem.com/sponsors#mpe-sponsors-exhibitors
So can you sum up why people should be in Berlin this February?
MPE 2020 is Europe’s Leading Event for Merchant Payments professionals. This is a must-attend event if you are looking to learn and discuss upcoming industry trends, expand your network and bolster your success in merchant payments in 2020.
Key numbers and facts about MPE2020:
– Record-breaking Number of attendees 1200+, including 300+ merchants and 450+ acquiring banks & PSPs
– 140+ influential speakers will appear in high-quality sessions, running in 4 concurrent streams
– DAY 0 dedicated to merchant participants ONLY
– Start-up Challenge Track & Innovation Corner competition will introduce most innovative startups in merchant payments.
– Presitgous MPE2020 Awards Gala Dinner & Ceremony will be a part of MPE 2nd conference day. I tis the Only European Awards celebrating excellence in merchant payments acceptance and card acquiring.
– 70+ sponsors and exhibitors will be showcasing cutting-edge payments & POS solutions.
MPE 2020 (Merchant Payments Ecosystem), conference & exhibition
Date& Venue: February 18-20, 2020, InterContinental Hotel, Berlin, Germany
REGISTER NOW with our code: MPE2020_Sovereign to get 10% off on
conference tickets at https://www.merchantpaymentsecosystem.com
