Reflecting Acquiring-Industry Changes, the ETA Rebrands Its Annual Conference as ‘Transact’

For more than 20 years the Electronic Transactions Association’s conference has been known as the “ETA Annual Meeting & Expo.” But next spring the merchant-acquiring industry’s biggest gathering will be known as “Transact 14: Powered by ETA.”

The rebranding around the “Transact” name, according to ETA chief executive Jason Oxman, reflects the acquiring industry’s evolution beyond simply supplying credit and debit card acceptance to merchants. “We saw a really incredible change in the perception of our industry,” Oxman tells Digital Transactions News. “It’s payment plus location, couponing, loyalty, security. It truly has gone beyond a payment to much more than that…therefore we want our show to reflect that. ‘Transact’ is where payments technology and commerce all come together.”

The Washington, D.C.-based ETA held its first conference in 1990, and the 2014 meeting’s rebranding comes at a time of rapid changes in payment-industry confabs. For example, November’s Money2020 conference in Las Vegas, which covered a broad range of payments issues beyond the acquiring sector, attracted about 4,000 people in just its second year—huge for a payments conference. The conference sponsor’s Web site says the November 2014 show is aiming for 4,500 attendees. Money2020’s chairman and CEO is Anil Aggarwal, who headed processor TxVia Inc. before Google Inc. bought the company last year to support its Google Wallet.

Aggarwal also founded the Network Branded Prepaid Card Association in 2005 and in 2006 launched what became a big prepaid card conference, the Prepaid Expo, which he later sold to conference operator IIR USA. For 2014, IIR rebranded Prepaid Expo, whose attendance has been declining, as the “All Payments Expo” to reflect expanded content beyond the prepaid niche.

Meanwhile, four regional associations of independent sales organizations and other acquiring-industry companies have built loyal attendee bases over the past decade for their annual conferences. Many attendees say these regional meetings offer more pure ISO-oriented content and involve less travel than the ETA conference, which is held in the spring and alternates every other year between Las Vegas and another city.

While some in the acquiring industry think Money2020 could siphon attendees from Transact, Oxman says the newcomer hasn’t hurt the ETA’s show so far and he doesn’t expect it will in the future. The ETA’s April 30-May 2, 2013 conference in New Orleans attracted a record 3,000-plus attendees, up about 10% from 2,750 in 2012, according to Oxman. He expects attendance at 2014’s Transact at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas to hit about 4,000 because of recent “attention” on the acquiring industry and also because Las Vegas years tend to have somewhat higher attendance.

“Money2020 is a good event for discussing what consumers are going to be doing in the next decade,” Oxman says. “It’s a great future-looking event. What Transact is about is doing business today.” He adds: “Our events are six months apart. If I’m in the business now, am I going to wait until November 2014 to go to my next event?”

Oxman says that 95% of a 50,000-square-foot exhibit hall in the Mandalay that the ETA booked for the April 8-10 show is already sold out and that the association is looking for more booth space. Three “star” keynote speakers will come from a major card network, technology company and financial institution, he says. A spokesperson says the ETA has not raised attendee pricing and that some pre-show events have been folded into the show so that a registration will cover three full days.

Regarding the regional acquirer conferences, Oxman says they complement rather than compete with the ETA’s show. The ETA, in fact, helps develop their content. Oxman says the regional shows are especially attractive to small ISOs and agents that can’t afford leave their businesses for the better part of a week for a conference that may be across the country. “I’m a big fan of the regional acquirer shows, I think they’re great events,” he says.

The ETA’s annual meeting is critical to the non-profit’s finances. The conference generates revenue “in the low-single-digit millions” and accounts for about two-thirds of the ETA’s budget, Oxman says.