Global payments technology company Visa and a select group of creative and digital technology students are exploring the future of payment technology in a first-of-its kind workshop being held in Auckland today and tomorrow.
The workshop – at Auckland’s Media Design School – is part of a global Visa programme to provide opportunities to creative and digital technology students to challenge and envision the future of payment devices and methods.
MDS AdSchool is the first tertiary provider in the country to be selected to participate in the Visa workshop along with 10 secondary school students from across Auckland. The workshop aims to challenge the 50 students to imagine new ways New Zealanders could be paying for products and services in 12 months’ time and in five years’ time and will see them develop prototypes over the two days.
Visa has offered $5000 to the team that comes up with the best concept or insights, $2500 to the runners up and $1000 to the third-placed team.
“New Zealanders are among the world’s earliest adopters of new technology,” said Caroline Ada, Visa country manager for New Zealand and South Pacific.
“Visa operates in a rapidly changing environment,” she says. “With over six million Visa payWave transactions occurring in New Zealand each month and mobile payments coming to the market, contactless payments are happening now.
“We must keep asking what’s next, and it’s important we hear from the next generation of thinkers and creators about what payments could look like in the future.”
MDS AdSchool CD Kate Humphries says the Media Design School is thrilled to be partnering with one of the world’s most instantly recognisable brands on a live working brief.
“As a school, we’ve always been at the forefront of anticipating the needs of the digital and creative sectors,” she said. “This workshop provides our students with an opportunity to work with a diverse range of people, not only from Visa, but with other students from across a range of digital disciplines, to create a prototype which could potentially change the future global payments landscape.”
Similar Visa workshops have been conducted with leading media, creative and digital technology institutions in New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Singapore and Sydney.
Key themes which have emerged from the workshops include payment methods becoming an extension of self, such as shaking hands to complete a transaction, as well as insights around security, design and technology to evolve payments in the digital world.
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