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Digital Money Forum<br />
Consult Hyperion’s<br />
Da ve Bi r c h<br />
Q & A o n t h i s y e A r’s<br />
DigitAl Mo n e y Fo r u M<br />
by Mark Herpel<br />
David Birch is a British consultant and author.<br />
He is one of the directors of Consult Hyperion,<br />
a consulting firm that advises governments and<br />
large companies on electronic identity & electronic<br />
money. Dave is also Chairman of the annual<br />
Digital Money Forum and Digital Identity Forum<br />
in London and the authors the related blogs.<br />
Financial World magazine, May 2007, called him<br />
“an expert, engaging and witty writer.”<br />
Each year, the best and the brightest experts in<br />
the world of electronic payments meet in London,<br />
England. Discussion and debate focuses on the<br />
real issues at the heart of all electronic money.<br />
While this is an annual event it can be a once<br />
in a lifetime chance to meet and mingle with the<br />
industry’s top professionals.<br />
This year, along with Visa, my favorite digital payments<br />
company <strong>Webmoney</strong> <strong>Transfer</strong> is co-hosting<br />
the event. The forum will be two days, April 23rd<br />
and 24th and it’s being held in the swanky Guoman<br />
Hotel, Charing Cross, London. Organizer of<br />
the annual event is Consult Hyperion, which has<br />
over two decades of experience advising global<br />
organizations (the payment experts).<br />
It is their 11th annual forum event and don’t miss<br />
the patriotic drinks reception to celebrate St.<br />
George’s Day happening at 5:00pm on Wednesday<br />
the 23rd. Here is my brief Q&A with Dave.<br />
(Q) I’ve read, “...goal of the Forum is to<br />
encourage discussion and debate around the<br />
real issues at the heart of electronic money<br />
in all its<br />
forms.” What do<br />
you see as this year’s<br />
central debate topic or most<br />
anticipated discussion?<br />
Right now, a lot of the focus is on mobile. It seems<br />
pretty clear that both proximity and remote mobile<br />
payments will have transformational impact on a<br />
lot of businesses, but no-one is agreed on when<br />
or how. The timescales and business models will<br />
be a big part of the discussion this year.<br />
(Q) Its very exciting to see, <strong>Webmoney</strong> is cosponsoring<br />
the forum. Will they be offering<br />
discussions or events during the forum?<br />
Yes, <strong>Webmoney</strong> will be presenting on day 2 and<br />
they will have staff at the event to answer questions<br />
and enquiries. Can I just say here how much<br />
I appreciate Visa Europe and <strong>Webmoney</strong> getting<br />
behind the Forum this year. It’s really important<br />
to have sponsors who share our goal of learning<br />
and these organisations have been great.<br />
(Q) Wednesday, April 23, you are giving the<br />
introduction entitled, “The Paleo-Future of<br />
Money”. Can you give me a peek into your<br />
presentation? What do you offer as “A look<br />
into the future of money that never was?”<br />
I thought I’d use a couple of examples of how<br />
people used to think the future would look like<br />
to help broaden the discussion: the American<br />
Express ring that appeared on the Digital<br />
Money Blog will be one of the cases in point...<br />
digitaldebateblogs.typepad.com/digital_money/2007/11/<br />
future-imperfec.html
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