Getting Ready for “All Things Prepaid” @Prepaidexpo
In less than 2 weeks, GCP’s own Ed Shulkin and Deb Merkin will attend the Prepaid industry's biggest event. They’ll take in host keynotes, sponsors & exhibitions, and info sessions about the latest products and solutions in prepaid technologies and we’ll report the highlights back to you on this blog. Here are some helpful Prepaid Expo links: -
Download the agenda -
Check out the executive sessions -
Prepaid Keynotes -
What’s in store Check back next week to check out our Prepaid Expo round up.
You Spoke – We Listened! Download the 2011 Gift Card Usage White Paper
GCP serves many kinds of incentive and gift card programs, including corporate health & wellness programs, workplace safety programs, employee motivation and recognition, benefits and sales incentives, and customer loyalty and rewards programs. This white paper is the result of a comprehensive survey and includes gift card usage success stories offered by HR professionals, sales managers, healthcare administrators, non-profit organization managers, and more. You will find this report full of innovative ways to incent and reward your employees, partners, customers, and volunteers to incentivize and build loyalty.
Click here to visit GCP’s 2011 Gift Card Usage Whitepaper page to download
IMA 12th Annual Summit Roundup
There were many workshops, panels and info-sessions at this year’s IMA Summit. GCP’s Deb Merkin moderated the highly attended panel discussion: Challenges of Moving Bulk eCerts/mCerts Through the Distribution Pipeline. There was an overarching theme that carried throughout the discussion amongst panelists and attendees; there is a clear need for technology based gift card industry standards. Starting with what they are called, there are many terms used – “let’s standardize” was the consensus. IMA will survey leaders in our industry to cull common terms and help create standards. Another standard isn’t quite as simple to create: a common technology platform or industry technology standards for eCerts/mCerts. Some companies have a legacy system or a middleware provider with technology that isn’t compatible with the technology running a loyalty program’s platform (just one example). This issue affects retailers’ willingness to adopt eCerts/mCerts in the B2B marketplace, therefore meeting or not meeting the wishes of B2B customers and the consumers demanding technology based gift cards. The goal is common amongst all parties; we want to make it simpler for retailers to adopt technology based gift cards and for customers in the B2B market to purchase eCerts and mCerts in bulk. Plainly stated…standardization will be a win-win for our industry.