Where Innovation will meet Merchant Market Need, Says Organisers

LONDON: 5th November, 2013 – Today, Birdback, a payment and customer loyalty specialist, in conjunction with Vendorcom Europe’s leading Cards & Payments Community, announced the launch of its ‘Hack the High Street’ event, to be held at the Rainmaker’s Loft, London on the weekend of 9th/10th November.

The event, sponsored by American Express, is designed to encourage innovation, and will see brands such as Marks & Spencer, Kingfisher Group and Harris & Hoole present development teams ranging from early stage technology start-ups to established payments companies, top entrepreneurial and developer talent with a real business challenge – 24 hours to ‘hack’ together a secure payments solution to be judged by a panel of retail experts at midday on the Sunday.

Announcing the event, Nicolai Watzenig,CEO of  Birdback, said “Traditional retailers have been through massive changes in recent years and with the convergence of mobile, payments, loyalty and other technologies it’s truly an exciting time to innovate and build next generation solutions for high street retail. The bigger the problem the bigger the opportunity!”

Consumer Payments sit right at the heart of the national economic infrastructure and innovation which enables easier, more effective, interactive and secure ways for merchants to take payments from consumers, whilst ensuring an enhanced customer experience, is essential to successful economic growth.
Explaining Vendorcom’s participation in the event Chairman Paul Rodgers commented: “This gives an opportunity to connect merchants directly with some of the most technical and dynamic technical innovators, in a way that will solve merchant centric challenges in payments rather than just imposing payments technology on them.”

The results of the Hackathon will be announced at 3pm on Sunday 10th and published shortly afterwards. With over 100 participants already registered, remaining spaces are limited.
To register for the event please visit: https://birdback.com/hack/.