he best things in life are free. Or are they? Paul Martaus and Brett Mansdorf, industry veterans with decades of experience in the acquiring and ISO businesses, are offering a free payments forum for MLS professionals through the Institute for Payment Professionals (IPP). Martaus and Mansdorf created IPP in 2003, and they've been traveling the country with the forum for about five months.

You'd think that because the events are free, IPP's forums would be packed, with standing room only. But according to the two principals, they're having a dickens of a time filling the meeting rooms. "People don't believe this is really free," Martaus said. And Mansdorf added, "They think we're trying to sell them something. That's not what this is about." I presented at the IPP forum held April 7, 2004 in Washington, D.C. There were several people in attendance, and the group was spirited. People didn't even take much time for lunch-they were busy querying presenters about specifics of the trade, even as they munched on sandwiches and cookies.

My presentation covered Check 21, which will create substantial new opportunities for selling into the merchant community over time. Additional sessions covered topics such as risk management, prospecting, merchant retention and hardware updates.

Vendors were also at the meeting. Both Hypercom Corp. and VeriFone, Inc., for example, presented on hardware, but there were no heavy sales pitches. Paul Sabella of Columbia, Md.-based Nextdayfunding Merchant Services, brought several sales people to the Washington D.C. forum; he said they really benefited from the insights the presenters offered, and that he came away from the event with useful information, too.

"I've been in the card business since 1990," Sabella said. "I understand a lot of the historical background stuff, but some of these newer folks don't. I felt the forum was very useful in helping them to understand the bigger picture." IPP has scheduled four additional forums between May and September 2004:

• San Francisco, May 19
• Atlanta, June 30
• Chicago, August 11
• Houston, September 22

For more information about IPP, visit www.i4pp.org.