It's September, It Must Be the Start of the Conference Season

There are so many great conferences and events throughout the year that prioritising them and deciding which ones to attend becomes a critical task for any analyst as it would be impossible to attend them all. However, no matter how well we prioritise, come September, every year most of us find ourselves travelling a lot for a few months, as the conference season kicks off in earnest. This year is no exception - you will be able find at least some Celent analysts in most of the flagship industry events around the world, from BAI Retail Delivery in the US to multiple EFMA conferences in Europe, and from SIBOS (in Japan this year!) to AFP. Many of us will also be speaking, chairing or moderating panel discussions. For example, here are some of the key events on my agenda for the next couple of months:

• EFMA Payments World, which combines two major events at the same time: Mobile and Advanced Payments and Cards and Payments conferences - September 25-26, Paris. I will be chairing Day 1 of the Mobile Payments event, which is also where our Oliver Wyman colleagues will be presenting the findings from the Alternative Payments study conducted jointly with EFMA across Europe. I attended the Cards and Payments event last year and as I wrote in a blog afterwards, it was one of the most interesting conferences in recent years. If you haven't registered yet, I would encourage you to consider signing up.
• BAI Retail Payments Delivery - October 9-11, Washington DC. This is one event every year where all of Celent's Banking analysts attend and spend most of our time meeting clients, prospects and industry experts. Drop us or your account manager a line if you would like to meet with us there, as our diaries are filling up fast.
• Money2020 - October 22-24, Las Vegas. It's a new event on the calendar, but considering the list of speakers and companies attending, it promises to be exciting few days.
• ATM, Debit and Prepaid Forum - October 23-25, Phoenix, AZ. Another "must-go" on the events calendar; I will be moderating a panel discussion on merchant-funded rewards with senior executives from Affinity Solutions, Cardlytics, FreeMonee Network and Linkable Networks on the panel.
• CARTES - November 6-8, Paris. Ian Hermon from Thales and I will be presenting at the Mobile track of Day 1 on "Who will Win in the Era of Mobile Payments?"

It will be busy few months for us all. Again, if you plan to attend any of these events and would like to meet, do let us know. Hope to see you there!