Friday, March 13, 2009

Merchant Risk Council Conference

Just returned from Vegas where I attended the MRC conference. For those of you unfamiliar the MRC is an organization that brings together ecommerce merchants, card brands, alternative payment providers, payment service providers and other peripheral technology providers to network and educate. Of course, this was Vegas, so the rest of what went on I cannot discuss. The sessions provided adequate content but the real serious discussions were happenning in the hallways and byways. One of the interesting challenges is that very often the merchant side is represented by newbies who need 101 level orientation and so a significant amount of time and energy during sessions has to be spent on the very basics. Another issue that is always present is the hesitancy associated with revealing too much to competitors. Lastly, there is the fear of saying something that might alienate one of the Big Brothers in the room by digging into one of those many slippery slope issues that are so prevelent in this realm. If you were at the MRC and have any thoughts to share about what you picked up (hopefully nothing that antibiotics cannot cure) or perhaps topics that were missing, please let me know.

p.s. It was great that numerous people came up to me at the conference and commented that they have read and enjoyed the blog!