By Susan French, Global Head, Visa Developer Program.
After you launch a new product, the biggest thrill is having the opportunity to meet face-to-face with the people who will actually use it. This year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona gave me and the Visa Developer team the opportunity to do just that. We were honored to have 2,000 business and technology leaders apply to attend our first-ever Visa Developer Summit at MWC and had a wonderful (and enlightening!) time chatting with those of you who were able to attend.
It was also great to share the stage with other leaders in Digital Innovation – from large banks to independent technology partners who all recognize that payments innovation is approaching a new digital frontier. We all believe it’s never been a more exciting time to be in the digital payments and commerce business.
"There's a greater awareness now that this [developing new consumer services] isn't about doing it on your own anymore, but about openness and sharing" - Jonathan Vaux, Visa Europe
"APIs have become the connective tissue for how companies interact" - Mark Jamison, Visa Inc.
It was fantastic to see developers engage in our overall presentation and learn what Visa Developer is all about. Even better was seeing the wheels spinning as minds turned to thinking about how Visa APIs could enable innovative solutions for their customers and how the Visa Developer team could help them design, build, and deliver them.
Following an overview of Visa Developer, the highlight of the Summit was a panel discussion on digital innovation and the future. Our Summit panelists had very interesting thoughts to share about how they foment innovation at their companies. It was exciting to see how major companies are increasingly stacking up dedicated and experienced senior people to tackle the digital revolution.
We learned from Marco Casartelli, CEO of Vipera, that companies need to recognize the main drivers for consumers: connectivity, simplicity, and personalization. BBVA’s Chief Data Scientist, Marco Bressan, spoke about how data and analytics help shape personal customer experiences. Aaron Baker from Lloyds Bank talked about how to drive digital change at a large financial institution. Everyone reinforced the same message – the winners in the new digital age will be those companies and developers that position themselves as digital platforms.
"[open platforms] and data sharing are leading to a revolution in better customer experiences" - Marco Bressan, BBVA
"We are very driven by our customer needs and building a service" - Aaron Baker, Lloyds Bank
The best part of any Summit is answering questions from the developer audience and this one was no exception – everything from concerns about privacy in the digital age to general API education to details about specific Visa APIs to just how to get in touch with us. We heard your questions loud and clear and will be incorporating your thoughts into future updates to the Visa Developer Program. And to contact us, all you need to do is email us at developer@visa.com. We would love to hear from you!
We'll be seeing you at other events in the near future, so keep an eye out for information about them coming soon on our Community pages.
