Over 70 delegates from African and GCC countries spent two days in Dubai at a User Conference on 20th & 21st of March 2006 called "Meeting of Minds" organized by Network International at Royal Mirage Hotel, Dubai. This was Network International's first conference aimed towards building relationship, promote information sharing, business education, exchange lessons learnt and foster cooperation and coordination.

Mr Abdulla Qassem, Chairman, Network International, inaugurated the conference with the welcome speech outlining NI's strategies and its importance in third party processing. The event was attended by COO's, VP's, SVP's, Head of Cards and Head of Retail of the member banks. It gave an opportunity to our esteemed partners to discuss the Issuing and Acquiring business. It also provided delegates an opportunities to obtain considerable insights for capitalizing on growing business needs and customer expectations in this dynamic industry. The conference featured keynote speakers from Global Card Associations and renowned speakers from McKinsey & Company, Jeff Slawsky & Associates and Intuition International Limited. The key topics discussed were:

• Overview of Retail Industry
• EMV – Key Challenges & Benefits
• Contactless Technology
• Benefits of Outsourcing
• How to Manage Cards Business Effectively
• Breaking Trends and their Impact on the Payments Business
• EMV Migration
• The Bank Card Business : Today and Tomorrow

Mr Ram Chari, General Manager, Network International had announced the new initiatives taken by NI for client satisfaction. Client Feedback Survey was one of the new initiative in addition to formation of Client Delivery Cell. NI was also pleased to share the results of Client Feedback Survey with its valued clients during the conference. The transparency NI had maintained in sharing the results with its clients was highly appreciated.

The Network International User Conference concluded on March 21st with a commitment of continuous improvement in the quality of what Network International delivers to its clients.