The organisers of Cards and Payments Africa 2013 have declared the conference and exhibition a success, although they admit improvements can be made for next year.
Held at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, the event featured Mobile Money World Africa 2013, Retail World Africa 2013, Future Bank and Information Security World Africa 2013.
Speaking to HumanIPO on Tuesday afternoon, the final day of the exhibition which featured cards, payments, biometric and mobile money solution providers from around Africa and beyond, Bianca Allen, marketing manager at terrapin, said: “The conference has been amazing and the numbers really good. We have had very good feedback.”
Megan Last, business development manager at terrapin, said: “With the exhibition everyone is quite happy. They have met the right people, but it hasn’t been great for traffic.
“But the exhibitors have said they generated some great business leads. They are not interested in having a graduate come over to their stand take their sweets and move on. To know we are targeting the right titles and people for our target audience is good.”
Kate Jansen, head of online marketing at South African e-commerce site Zando.co.uk, attended for both days.
She said: “I thought this one was much better than the previous ones I have been to.
“The market has caught up a little bit. When I spoke about Groupon two years ago people looked at me like I was speaking a different language.
“All bricks and mortar businesses will have an online site within two years and I think we will have a big waterfall in terms of mobile.”
Regarding improvements for next year, Allen said the mobile application, only recently launched, will be better developed and marketed.
The application features the conference schedule, a Twitter and news feed as well as a device which allows visitors to set up meeting with potential clients and contact before they arrive at the event.
Allen added: “We have just implemented an app. We haven’t been able to market it properly. Next year it should be much better.”
