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Money2020 and the fast- and money management; retail 3.0 – the mobile-enabled
commerce experience; checkout and payment innovations;
changing payments world sharing, giving and gifting; and borrowing.
The Launchpad360° sessions resembled reality television's
By Peggy Bekavac Olson Shark Tank, giving startups six minutes in front of venture
Strategic Marketing capitalists to "pitch their wares" in an attempt to seek
funding and a few moments of notoriety. Matt Harris,
he Money2020 conference held in Las Vegas in Managing Director of Bain Capital Ventures and moderator
October 2013 hosted a new ecosystem at the con- of the Launchpad360° sessions, tweeted during the event,
vergence of payments, financial services, retail, "Money2020 is the Hunger Games of payments."
T mobile, marketing, data, technology and more.
The event highlighted profound changes underway that A mix of newbie startups and industry stalwarts exhibited
will greatly affect how consumers and businesses manage, in the tradeshow area. More than 100 traditional exhibit
spend and borrow money. booths and 70-plus vendor kiosks vied for attendee
attention. Predictably, smartphone and tablet mobile
The five-day conference, only in its second year, drew solutions were in abundance.
4,200 attendees, including 300 chief executive officers Golden nuggets of learning
from more than 1,500 companies and 60 countries. The
Aria Resort & Casino offered top-notch meeting and Here are some insights I extracted from the conference:
convention facilities, along with superb hotel, dining
and entertainment amenities, that fostered a stimulating • Payment processing is rapidly changing from its
learning and networking environment. own ecosystem to become part of a larger shopper-
experience.
Keynotes were delivered by familiar and predictable • Nontraditional players of all types and sizes are
titans, as well as new-guard technology companies. rapidly forging interconnectivity with POS solutions.
Conference sessions covered a wide range of topics • Creative entrepreneurs – using connected devices, the
categorized into various informational tracks, including cloud and big data – are devising new business models
aligning ecosystems; research and market-centric views; that directly reach merchants.
the entrepreneurial edge; empowered consumers; banking

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