A Technology Day, hosted by VMC with the participation of some of Britain’s leading providers of technology in the world of hospitality, has been hailed as a complete success.

The event, held at the City offices of Merrill Lynch on 28 April, was conceived with the objective of ‘providing an intimate environment in which invited delegates, consisting of both existing and prospective customers, could investigate the potential of cashless payment in an un-hurried way, with one-to-one access to some of the industry’s leading experts.’

VMC’s Kim Pennington explained: ‘the accepted wisdom in the industry is that exhibitions are the ideal forum in which to meet customers and demonstrate new products’, she said. ‘However, these days people seem to have less time to attend such events. Instead, we chose to pilot a new idea, namely taking our event into the heart of the City to make access much easier and less time consuming.’

The concept was a hit with delegates, many of whom e-mailed thanks to VMC for ‘a very useful day.’ ‘We had an excellent turn out from people with a genuine interest in Cashless Payment Systems and we’ve been thrilled by the feedback’, Kim said. ‘The event was extremely well attended and visitors took full advantage of the opportunity to sample technology ‘hands on’.’

i-movo, the company that bills itself as ‘the world’s only secure digital voucher system using existing payment technology deployed across multiple retailers and used daily by multiple brands’, was one of the companies in attendance and CEO David Tymm echoed Kim Pennington’s sentiments. ‘The quality of visitors was second to none’, he said. ‘They were forward thinking, creative and eager to investigate how technology could help in driving their businesses forward. This market appears decided that an open-minded, positive attitude to change is the best antidote to prevailing economic conditions.’

Another highlight was the Deli Xpress customer self-ordering system from Xpress Ordering. Visitors took advantage of the unique opportunity to see for themselves what could be achieved by Deli X-Press when it is deployed with VMC’s Metro cashless payment system; an integrated solution developed for BP and demonstrated here for the first time.

‘The event generated a number of solid leads for us’, said X-Press’ Co-Founder and Sales Director Nigel Allan. ‘It was a privilege to showcase and discuss systems that have a proven track record of success and can demonstrate a powerful ‘return on investment’ case, with potential customers who were knowledgeable and eager to find out more. The result was quality debate that led to some significant opportunities.’

In addition to ‘end user’ delegates, the event was attended by VMC’s trading partners and by key consultants from the catering and vending industries. ‘We would have been happy to see the event simply as a means of stockpiling goodwill during the economic downturn’, Kim Pennington said, ‘but we outstripped that objective with some very positive leads.’

VMC and partners are now planning a second event for later this year.