Make your next conference experience count.

April 6, 2015 Lynn Larson

Plan ahead to get the most out of conference networking and educational opportunities. Everyone, including road warrior exhibitors, can benefit from some extra forethought. Motivated attendees can gain something from every conference no matter what the agenda.

Why are You Going?

Answer this question before you even register. Identify your greatest job challenges and/or areas of interest. Plan to attend the sessions that will likely benefit you the most. Review the conference program in advance, if available. If the reason you are going is “my boss told me I have to go,” this leads to the next point.

What are Your Employer’s Expectations?

Be clear about this before you go to avoid disappointing your management team when you return. Will you need to provide:

a summary of your conference experience?
possible solutions for a problem or new initiative?
exhibitor information and any related materials?
business cards from certain organizations?

Also, what are their expectations about your connectivity to the office while away? Ideally, since they are paying for you to attend, they will encourage you to not be distracted by email.

Plan for Effective Networking

Sometimes it can be awkward to mingle and network, especially when you do not know anyone, so have some questions ready. Keep your job challenges and interests in mind. Conversation starters include:

Do you have a solution for _____?
Do you know anyone who could help with ____?
What did you think of the keynote speaker?
Did you attend ______ session? I really liked the tip about _______. Have you tried that?

Resist the urge to keep your phone in hand. For all the good mobile devices have done, they are a crutch when it comes to networking.

“We know that people are less open in conversations if the other conversant puts a cell phone on the table. Even if it’s turned off. The sign is enough to close the mind…”

— Douglas Rushkoff

Unplug from what is happening in the office; get energized at a conference.

A Conference is What You Make of It

As attendees, we cannot control the conference agenda, speakers, venue, food, etc., but we can control our response to these elements, even when something is not ideal for us. Each attendee has the opportunity to:

acquire actionable tips
gain new industry knowledge
share expertise to help others
be inspired
make meaningful professional connections

Take full advantage while there. After all, how often can we do all these things within the span of a few days in the office?

If a certain round of breakout sessions does not include anything directly related to your goals, consider other options. Attend a session on a topic you know nothing about to learn something new. Go have coffee with a new connection. Visit exhibit booths if applicable. As a last resort, use that hour to catch up on email, so you can focus on the conference the rest of the day.

Two Tips from Others

From Scott Belsky, 5 Tips for Making the Most of a Conference: Distill every talk down to one key takeaway. After each presentation, ask yourself what struck you, what did you learn? What is worth additional consideration upon your return to real life?

From Bill Lampton, Ph.D., Top 10 Tips for Attending a Conference: Become an active participant, asking questions and making comments. The topics will take on new life for you.

Nothing beats preparation, but also be flexible once you are onsite. You might be presented with a great opportunity that was not in your original plans. I’m looking forward to attending the NAPCP conference next week in San Antonio. It will be the first time since 2003 that I simply attend, versus work at, the conference. I hope to see you there!

About the Author

Blog post author Lynn Larson, CPCP, is the founder of Recharged Education. With more than 15 years of Commercial Card experience, her mission is to make industry education readily accessible to all. Learn more…

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Where does card acceptance litigation take us?

March 25, 2015 Lynn Larson

Industry litigation is like a roundabout that we cannot exit. Rulings followed by appeals, followed by more of the same. Last month, U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis ruled that American Express violated antitrust laws by prohibiting merchants from steering customers toward other payment methods, including other card brands. American Express vowed to appeal. I tried to visualize a merchant steering me for any purpose. Imagine…

Merchant: Ma’am, don’t buy television X. We don’t make much money on that one. We get better margins on television Y.
Me: But I like the features of television X and have been satisfied with this brand in the past.
Merchant: But your choice does not make me happy!

The lawsuit involving American Express is, of course, much more complicated and serious, but, overall, I do not think the industry gains much from litigation or government intervention. It seems attorneys are the only beneficiary. Instead of pouring millions of dollars (and time) into litigation, everyone could benefit from more education about card acceptance. Perhaps this would open the door to compromises by all parties or maybe I am just dreaming. As one business person remarked to me, there is a trend of people wanting to socialize the losses, but privatize the gains.

A Bloomberg article about the American Express case reported that, according to the government, card acceptance fees total about $50 billion a year in the United States. Okay, so this is one cost (among hundreds) of doing business; merchants do have some choices.

Maybe brick-and-mortar retailers should consider a surcharge on cash payments since this requires keeping a cash drawer, making change for customers, counting nightly, protecting from theft, and making deposits. Or how about a surcharge on check payments? Risks with consumer checks include insufficient funds and forgeries. In the business-to-business (B2B) realm, checks represent the highest process cost and increased days sales outstanding (DSO) for merchants.

What We Can Do

I know litigation will never end and my opinions will not influence giant corporations or politicians who have initiated, or plan to initiate, a lawsuit or government bill. However, I do hope that those who read this will ensure they are doing their part to maximize the value of card payments, not only for themselves, but also for their business partners in the card process.

As a merchant myself, I declared my love of card acceptance last month and offered advice to suppliers. We cannot forget that card payments have streamlined the store checkout process and created a booming eCommerce industry. In the B2B payments world, cards have also driven efficiency. Review the benefits of cards for end-users and suppliers, including some best practices for both. For worse or for better, we all need each other—buyers, suppliers, and providers of types—to make the card industry work.

Which road are we going down? Who benefits from all the litigation? We might find ourselves at a dead end. — Which road are we going down? Who benefits from all the litigation? We might find ourselves at a dead end.

“I was never ruined but twice—once when I lost a lawsuit, once when I won one.”

— Voltaire

Case Involving American Express

Reportedly, the government’s goal in this case (U.S. v. American Express Co., 1:10-cv-04496, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York) is to force American Express to eliminate restrictive rules.

American Express has said that merchants encouraging the use other cards would harm competition and not benefit customers. Some experts do not disagree, but say that most merchants will not steer customers even if allowed to do so. They will not take the time to train sales staff/cashiers on this issue. Nor do they want to slow the checkout process and potentially lose customers. Such thinking is supposed to make American Express feel better?

As PaymentsSource reported, Judge Garaufis designated March 21 as the date by which American Express must reach an agreement with Justice officials to avoid Garaufis imposing his own solution. We are waiting to see what happens now that the deadline has passed.

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Do misperceptions impede card program growth?

March 17, 2015 Lynn Larson

How good are we at assessing Commercial Card risk? Broadly speaking, research shows we hold numerous risk misperceptions. Consider the study in which people rated a 12.86% mortality as more dangerous than 24.14%. Huh? This stems from research by Kimihiko Yamagishi Ph.D. in 1997. People tended to rate a disease that kills 1,286 people out of every 10,000 as more dangerous than one that kills 24.14%. Our minds can play tricks on us, impacting all types of decisions, including on the job.

Risk Psychology

In The Organized Mind, author Daniel Levitin commented on Yamagishi’s study outcome, observing, “In the first case, people focused on the number of people, likely imagining that many people in hospital beds. With a percentage, our brains tend to treat it as an abstract statistic with no human beings attached.”

Could we benefit from a mind metamorphosis? Do we always see what is in front of us or is our vision focused on one thing?

In a January 2013 article published by The Pump Handle, author Sara Gorman explored the work of psychologist Paul Slovic, who championed the psychological approach to risk perception theory. She shared, “Early research on risk perception assumed that people assess risk in a rational manner, weighing information before making a decision... Subsequent research has demonstrated that providing more information alone will not assuage people’s irrational fears and sometimes outlandish ideas about what is truly risky.” Further, “People tend to be intolerant of risks that they perceive as being uncontrollable, having catastrophic potential, having fatal consequences, or bearing an inequitable distribution of risks and benefits.”

Contributing Factors

Last October, Robert Leahy Ph.D. wrote the article, How Panic Spreads With Fears of Ebola, including 11 factors that contribute to misperceptions of risk. I noticed some similarities to our industry. Here are two examples from Leahy; read the complete article for more:

Recency

The more recent a negative event, the more likely we think it will happen again—and soon. Recurring media coverage of card fraud and related data breaches tend to cause knee-jerk reactions. Management might use such news to rationalize additional card restrictions without first considering the facts or internal impact.

Invisibility is Threatening

Our threat-detection system treats an invisible threat as a greater risk. If you can’t see it, you think you can’t prevent it. You can’t necessarily see card fraud coming, but you can assess your card programs for control gaps. Do a risk analysis. Most organizations who experience internal fraud and card misuse lack appropriate controls and/or enforcement.

Leahy concludes by suggesting, “When you are listening to the news, think about the fact that there are 325 million people without Ebola here.” Use the same advice on the job. Thousands of organizations use Commercial Cards without major incidents. Industry research (e.g., studies by RPMG Research) has consistently shown good news. The majority of organizations suffer no direct losses from P-Card fraud, internal or external.

Need help garnering program buy-in? Visit the related webpage.

“Thoughtless risks are destructive, of course, but perhaps even more wasteful is thoughtless caution, which prompts inaction and promotes failure to seize opportunity.”

— Gary Ryan Blair

A Lighter Touch

Risk psychology/perception theory is serious, but interesting, stuff that helps explain some organizations’ aversion to Commercial Cards. However, I also appreciate the unencumbered thinking of children, which can often teach us a thing or two as well. Take an example from hilarious homework answers from kids. In response to the math homework question of “find the difference between 8 and 6,” one child wrote that eight is all curly, six is not. Based on how the question was phrased, this is not incorrect. While the teacher was looking for 2 as the answer, the child saw something else. It reminded me that problem-solving, including assessing risk, is not a one-dimensional exercise.

How Does a Child See It?

Does this call for a mathematical calculation or artistic critique? Perception is in the eye of the beholder.