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product innovation. Judges rated the 4. Partner: "Build strategic alliances to reach desired outcomes."
finalists on originality, revenue op- 5. Get the right people in the right positions: "Continually train and re-
portunity, presentation quality and cruit. Culture and chemistry matter. Know everyone's strengths and
impact to the market. Womply won weaknesses."
the first-place TestTrack2017 Innova-
tion Award, which included a $1,000 Never stop learning
cash prize and complimentary exhib-
it space at Transact 17, the Electronic The SEAA's focus on education was reflected in seminars, panel discussions
Transactions Association's annual and breakout sessions that covered a variety of topics, including chargeback
conference to be held in May 2017 in management, portfolio valuation, residual reporting, customer engagement,
Las Vegas. "It was an honor to com- alternative finance, and value-added products and services.
pete with such prestigious and tech-
nologically advanced companies as In a presentation titled Adapting to Change and Capitalizing on the Future of
POPcodes, OneSource, ControlScan Payments, payment veteran and ETA immediate past president Greg Cohen
and Protocol," Davis said. urged the audience to "get vertical" by specializing in specific industry sectors.
"In the evolving payments industry, the 'ask' is different than ever before," he
Following is a list of TestTrack2017 said. "Instead of asking for help accepting payments, merchants are asking for
winners: help in growing their businesses." Cohen recommended working with small to
1st Place: Womply midsize business owners, a category he described as highly fragmented, where
people are generally loyal to suppliers and there is still money to be made. He
2nd Place: POPcodes Inc. additionally suggested thinking deep, not broad. "Software wins," he added.
3rd Place: OneSource "Hardware is only as good as the software that runs on it."
4th Place: ControlScan Far-reaching breakout sessions
5th Place: Protocol Nexus Breakout sessions covered numerous aspects of payment technologies, business
NASCAR focus, agility models and industry initiatives, including the following:
• Chargeback Management, Benjamin Grossman, Pinpoint Intelligence
Keynote speaker Matt Clark, Chief
Marketing Officer at Charlotte-based
Allegiance Merchant Services, re-
galed the audience with his experi-
ence as a former NASCAR analyst at
Fox News. Clark noted similarities
between payments industry stake-
holders and high-performance pit
crew teams. "We stack pennies and
operate on small tight margins, and
pit crew teams measure their work
in seconds," Clark said. "There are
five different lug nuts in a tire. Cars
must withstand high temperatures,
G-loads and stress, and without tight
lug nuts, we lose the opportunity for
winning."
Continuing his lug nut metaphor,
Clark cited the following five lug nuts
of success:
1. Never stop learning: "Take the
time to read. Some of the great-
est, most successful people are
readers. They consume material,
meditate and develop them-
selves."
2. Plan: "Know the track condi-
tions and pay attention to de-
tail."
3. Analyze the numbers: "Know
all the components in an 11-sec-
ond pit stop."
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