he Turnberry Isle Resort and Club in Aventura, Fla., the site of Electronic Transactions Association's (ETA) 2004 Strategic Leadership and Networking Forum (SLNF), offers a lot of fun and games.

With the exception of a ritualistic golf tournament (let's face it: Golfing can be as critical to a business deal as the sales pitch), the event was an all-business affair. And judging from participants' comments, it was also a true success.

The unique format, which combined equal parts of high-level strategy sessions with opportunities to do business, received rave reviews from attendees.

Like many ETA conferences, the hallways were filled with people talking to one another, but the well-designed opening reception and the continually available networking room were also hugely popular with participants.

ETA reports that attendees rated the educational sessions the highest of any ETA event. However, from the conversations taking place, it's obvious that they still value the networking opportunities the most.

"We're delighted with the results of this year's meeting," said ETA Executive Director Carla Balakgie. "The quality of content, the nature of the networking and the profile of attendees solidified SLNF as the industry's premiere executive conference.

"Based on the overwhelmingly positive feedback from the 385 attendees, we can say that SLNF met and exceeded its goal of providing executive-level education and business building in an intimate setting. We have already begun planning for next year."

This gathering of the largest ISOs, processors and vendors included top-notch presentations focused on antitrust issues and financing.

Lloyd Constantine, Managing Partner of Constantine & Partners, a commercial litigation firm, discussed his views on legal challenges to Visa and MasterCard (i.e. the so-called Wal-Mart suit and the federal government's antitrust suit) and warned that additional litigation is a good bet (see "Supreme Court Decides Against Visa, MasterCard in Six-year Antitrust Suit," on page 58 of this issue).

Constantine served as lead counsel on the legal team representing the retailers in the Wal-Mart suit. As a former Assistant Attorney General in New York, he also led a group of states that sued Visa and MasterCard over a planned joint debit card offering, known as Entre. Constantine won that suit, too.

Financial institution perspectives on the future of debit and credit included presentations by Citibank, JP Morgan Chase & Co., KeyBank, First National of Omaha and Bank of America.

Representatives of these banks conceded what many in the industry have also complained about: that banks have lost touch with merchants. Now, they say, the banks have awakened to the problem. Only time will tell, of course.

Bankers and ISOs alike repeatedly voiced concerns such as "Who owns the merchants?" and "How much portability is a good thing?"

It's clear that the card Associations, banks and processors are examining their ISO relationships under the glare of the USA PATRIOT Act, increased fraud and judicial scrutiny. Whether this proves to be good or bad for merchant level salespeople (MLSs) is an open debate that will continue into the foreseeable future.

One of the hot topics discussed outside of the presentations was, "Are we getting the training to MLSs who need it?" This question was posed by and to ISOs, vendors and association representatives during many of the networking breaks and meetings.

The overall impression is that there are numerous venues and opportunities for training now available in the marketplace and that the trade associations, both ETA and the regional acquirers' groups, are filling the void that existed until the past few years.

However, many sales organizations are hesitant to send "their reps" to these events because of the industry's competitive recruiting environment. How do ISOs send their downstream sales agents to training events without having them solicited by other sales organizations?

This seems to be a major quandary that has stymied several management teams and program committees. Apparently, very few companies have the kind of confidence in their programs to willingly send agents to regional training events.

The Green Sheet will continue working with all of the regional meetings and training programs to get the word out to MLSs. Our belief is that MLSs will take it upon themselves to seek out the available training and education as long as the locations and price-points meet their needs.

However, we would like to hear from our readers, a majority of whom are MLSs, on what you need or want in order to participate in the regional meetings. Write to julie@greensheet.com and tell us:

• Which training topics you are looking for
• What registration price range you need in order to attend a meeting
• How far you are willing/able to travel
• If an overnight stay is a plus or a minus in evaluating your attendance at a meeting.