Volume 1, Issue 6
Al Gore to Tackle "The Future" at IP2013
It Takes A Global Mind 
Al Gore, Vice President turned entrepreneur, Apple Board member, and Nobel Peace Prize winner, has something on his mind. Well, actually on his Global Mind. It's a concept that he's been toying with for the last eight years or so, as he contemplated the answer to a simple question: What drives global change? His new book "The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change" answers that question and we should listen because the once VP has been working closely, over the last decade, with two of the most transformative companies in the world - Apple and Google.  

Gore will be joined by Gary Flood, President MasterCard Global Products and Solutions, who is tasked with enabling the conversation between the former VP and a group of five amazing payments innovators including Roger Hochschild, President and COO of Discover, Jeff Jordan, Partner at Andreessen Horowitz and former CEO of eBay, Michael Joseph, Director of Mobile Money at Vodafone, Karl Metha, CEO of Visa PlaySpan and White House Technology Fellow, and Troy Woods, President and COO of TSYS.

We believe that nowhere is the potential for the Global Mind to transform, disrupt, and create greater than in the payments and commerce. It's the industry behind every single exchange of value everywhere in the world between people and businesses, and people and people. It's pervasive; It's critical; and it's massive - $4 trillion in volume in 2012. Click here for the entire panel brief and to learn more about what happens when technology connects people and information in ways that makes us, well, global - and pretty much inseparable.
Put on your thinking caps, really.

Five big problems ... fifteen teams to tackle them.

From Consumer Privacy and Mobile Commerce to Catastrophic Failure and Systemic Risk to The New Point of Sale, do you have what it takes to move the industry forward?

Trust us, Fermat's Last Theorem looks easy compared to solving the five toughest problems in payments. Join a ThinkAThon Team today!
MPD CEO Karen Webster has never been shy about her opinions, and when it comes to The Innovation Project 2013, not much has changed. Here Webster shares her top 10 reasons for why you don't want to miss this two-day adventure into the payments ecosystem. From "Shark Tank" simulations to mind-blowing panels, see what she's most looking forward to during the IP2013 program!

 10. Because I hear March in Boston is the best month of the year.

9. Because I've always wanted to see B.J. Novak up close and personal, and he is the 2013 Innovator Awards Dinner emcee on March 21.

8. Because being able to witness the payments version of "Shark Tank" with Russell Simmons and 10 new innovators alone is worth the price of admission.

7. Because Seth (Chief Ninja) from LevelUp is driving the "Guess Who's Coming To The POS?" panel and I can only imagine how wild that conversation is going to be!

6. Because I want Eric Ries to sign my dog-eared copy of The Lean Startup (or better yet, buy a new copy).

5. Because I hear Al Gore's Global Mind panel featuring six captains of the global payments industry is going to be, well, mind-blowing.

4. Because I want to be one of the ThinkAThon teams that actually helps solve one of the 5 biggest problems in payments.

3. Because I hear that PayPal is going to be debuting some really cool POS experiences and I want to be one of the first in the industry to see it.

2. Because 40 of the hottest "next gen" innovators are going to strut their stuff and show us what innovation in payments is really all about at the Innovator Expo.

1. Because just about everyone I know who's doing interesting and innovating stuff in payments is going.

(So you should probably get on the list.)