Last Event

The Board of the MWAA closed its 6th Annual MWAA Conference at the Renaissance St. Louis Grand & Suites Hotel in downtown St. Louis, Missouri on Friday morning, July 25, 2008. The Conference ran from Wednesday morning, July 23 through Friday morning.

This conference hosted 425 of the Midwest’s best electronic industry professionals in a two and a half day festival of professional education and networking. The agenda included training, educational presentations, keynote addresses, breakout sessions and plenty of time for deal-making and recreation.

We featured a number of great speakers, including Emmy-Award Winning Sportscaster Greg Gumbel who delivered the opening keynote address.

To encourage merchant level salespersons (MLS) to attend we offered a low advance registration fee of $100 as well as a $50 rebate card to every MLS who registered in advance and came to the show.

This year we will inaugurated our MWAA Passport program. MLS carried the MWAA Passport to each session and received stamps. Each MLS who received the required number of stamps was entered in the Great Passport Give-away with outstanding prizes such as a four-day vacation, free laptop computers, digital cameras and many others.

Please check back with us for a Photo Gallery of pictures from the Conference. The Photo Gallery will be available by Friday, August 15.

Here are highlights of this most recent Conference:

Field Guide Seminar – “The ABC’s of Starting and Growing an ISO” Six leading experts in the ISO industry shared tips, techniques and winning strategies for accelerating growth in a successful ISO start-up. For a complete overview of the seminar, click Seminars

Opening Keynote Address – Featuring Emmy-Award Winning Sportscaster Greg Gumbel on the topic “Making the Effort” We were honored to have Mr. Gumbel share these lessons gleaned from sports, the Olympic Games, business and life.

Opening Reception in the Exhibit Hall

Duelling Pianos sponsored by EMS - EMS hosted the party of the year! Two outstanding singer/pianists rocked the house and encouraged you to "Howl at the Moon". Fine food, open bar and the songs we all sang along to - all in the famous Crystal Ballroom at the top of the hotel. Special thanks to EMS for sponsoring this one-of-a-kind event. Also, special thanks to MWAA Board Member Juan Ortiz for a completely uninhibited type of singing most of us only do alone in the shower! Did anyone get pictures??

Charity Poker Tournament hosted by UBC - A perennial favorite for those who went "all in" for a good cause.

Address by Tony Abruzzio of Global Payments

Industry Update by Paul Martaus An industry favorite speaker who called it like he saw it.

Breakout Sessions
            FTC Updates and Merchant Fraud
            How to Recruit, Train and Support Quality MLS’s
            Contract Negotiation
            Why Merchants are Buying Today – Making the Sale

Address by Discover

Presentation of the 2008 MWAA Lifetime Achievement Award - see Lifetime Achievement Award at left.

Closing Keynote Address – Kim Fitzsimmons of First Data on the topic “The Face of the Acquiring Market” Ms. Fitzsimmons shared her insights on how Acquiring has changed and where it stands today.

Closing Reception

Special Thursday Evening Entertainment at McGurk's