Q & A on this year´s Digital Money Forum with Consult Hyperion´s Dave Birch

David Birch is a British consultant and author. He is one of the directors of Consult Hyperion, a consulting firm that advises governments and large companies on electronic identity & electronic money. Dave is also Chairman of the annual Digital Money Forum and Digital Identity Forum in London and the authors the related blogs. Financial World magazine, May 2007, called him "an expert, engaging and witty writer."

Each year, the best and the brightest experts in the world of electronic payments meet in London, England. Discussion and debate focuses on the real issues at the heart of all electronic money. While this is an annual event it can be a once in a lifetime chance to meet and mingle with the industry´s top professionals.

This year, along with Visa, my favorite digital payments company Webmoney Transfer is co-hosting the event. The forum will be two days, April 23rd and 24th and it´s being held in the swanky Guoman Hotel, Charing Cross, London. Organizer of the annual event is Consult Hyperion, which has over two decades of experience advising global organizations (the payment experts).

It is their 11th annual forum event and don´t miss the patriotic drinks reception to celebrate St. George´s Day happening at 5:00pm on Wednesday the 23rd. Here is my brief Q&A with Dave.

(Q) I´ve read, "...goal of the Forum is to encourage discussion and debate around the real issues at the heart of electronic money in all its forms." What do you see as this year´s central debate topic or most anticipated discussion?

Right now, a lot of the focus is on mobile. It seems pretty clear that both proximity and remote mobile payments will have transformational impact on a lot of businesses, but no-one is agreed on when or how. The timescales and business models will be a big part of the discussion this year.

(Q) Its very exciting to see, Webmoney is co-sponsoring the forum. Will they be offering discussions or events during the forum?

Yes, Webmoney will be presenting on day 2 and they will have staff at the event to answer questions and enquiries. Can I just say here how much I appreciate Visa Europe and Webmoney getting behind the Forum this year. It´s really important to have sponsors who share our goal of learning and these organisations have been great.

(Q) Wednesday, April 23, you are giving the introduction entitled, "The Paleo-Future of Money". Can you give me a peek into your presentation? What do you offer as "A look into the future of money that never was?"

I thought I´d use a couple of examples of how people used to think the future would look like to help broaden the discussion: the American Express ring that appeared on the Digital Money Blog will be one of the cases in point... digitaldebateblogs.typepad.com/digital_money/2007/11/future-imperfec.html

I see a fantastic expert panel-blogger line up for Thursday´s "Meet The Bloggers" including:

Scott Loftesness, Payments News, slj.us

Chris Skinner, Balatro, The FinanSer, The Financial Services Club

Aneace Haddad, Welcome RT, Aneace´s Blog

Colin Henderson, Bankwatch

Q) What do bloggers bring to the payment discussion?

Well, I thought that one of the most significant changes in the environment since the Forum began is the rise of the blogger, because (in the complex world of reputation and connectivity) it means much better quality information is flowing around. I don´t care what almost everyone in the world (including many journalists!) think about payment issues, but I do care what news items Scott picks out, I do care what issue Chris highlights, I do care about Colin´s reflections and Aneace´s observations. I don´t have any real agenda for the session -- I just thought people would enjoying meeting these guys and chatting with them. I´ve arranged for one of the U.K.s internet pioneers, Steve Bowbrick (who was involved in the first internet café in London many years ago), to moderate the discussion.

(Q) Is SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) a big topic of interest this year?

This is really a catch up session: for our corporate clients, SEPA means spending a lot of money so I decided to have a session focusing on it this year.

(Q) What are some of the largest changes in the payment industry over last year?

If you mean retail payments, I´d have to say that I think the "disconnected debit" product provides a window into new business models. I´ve also been looking at the relationship between identity (eg, REAL ID) and payments, which I think has some surprises for us.

(Q) Thursday´s expert panel you are moderating, is all about "Mobile Payments - Emerging Ecosystems" The expert panel includes:

Colin Swain, Barclays (Barclaycard´s Head of R&D)

Anne Caffrey, RBS

Oliver Kelly, Vodafone

Dominic Peachey, FSA

I think a lot of the people coming this year will want to quiz these practitioners on how the relationship between banks and operators is evolving and changing so I made it the last session in case it runs over a little.

(Q) I see Diane Coyle is speaking Thursday, April 24th on "Mobile Money in Developing Markets". Mobile payments are growing rapidly, in your opinion are mobile payments experiencing faster growth in developing countries or places like London?

I asked Diane to speak because she has studied the transformational impact of mobile payments on developing markets and that will help us, the technology guys, to design the next generation of mobile payment systems even better by understanding that kind of context. But the focus isn´t contactless and NFC, like it is in London.

(Q) Do you hear anything more about Singapore´s proposed digital money (Selt)?

My understanding is that it is on hold at the moment, but I´ll see what I can find out next time I go there in a couple of months.

The Digital Money Forum is a not-for-profit event. Any surplus funds generated are donated to local charities. Information on this can be found on the Consult Hyperion web site after the event. I´d like to thank Dave for taking time to answer my questions and wish him the best of luck at this year´s event.

DGC Magazine