Companies including Sony, BP, Ahold and TNT Express are among the top global organisations providing speakers at the premier European IDTechEx conference, RFID Europe 2007, which is being held at Churchill College, Cambridge in the UK from 18-19 September.
Organiser IDTechEx promises the event will see some important new product announcements, while many speakers will describe recent “unusual” applications. Among speakers discussing RFID’s use in the air industry will be Manchester Airport Group, which is using the technology for people management and retailing, while global air trade association IATA is successfully rolling out the technology on baggage for security and efficiency. There will also be presentations from key RFID personnel representing Hong Kong International Airport and Air France/KLM.
With Wi-Fi RFID, where tags give location data based on signals from pre-existing Wi-Fi emitters, due for a major UK roll-out by City Link this year, the international carrier will discuss the project. TNT Express, meanwhile, will look at the rapid adoption of RFID in the postal and logistics sectors. Examining RFID’s use in the military sphere will be Lockheed Martin’s Savi Technology.
Another vibrant sector for RFID is healthcare, where compliance monitoring of drugs via “smart” packs can ensure the right medication in the right dose reaches the right patient, simultaneously helping reduce the major counterfeiting problems experienced that have plagued drug manufacturers for many years. Speaking on its own electronic compliance initiative will be Jos Geboers, co-director of Holland's ECCT.
Companies including Toppan Printing, ICI (US/UK), Meco (Netherlands), Domino Printing Sciences and Germany’s Mühlbauer will be among those examining RFID’s manufacturing and systems integration implications, while Italy’s Montalba Technology will describe a number of recent active RFID projects. On the same theme, IDTechEx will appraise “the booming market” for active RFID in mobile phones, and Ireland’s Cration will announce the launch of a “breakthrough” silicon chip that it says “senses many parameters without being prohibitively expensive”.
Other conference highlights will include an update form Marks and Spencer on its tagging of food and clothing items and a session focussed on the burgeoning smart card sector, with speakers form transportation schemes, cellphone companies, the government and “many more”.
To register for RFID Europe 2007 visit: www.idtechex.com/rfideurope or contact Corinne Jennings at c.jennings@idtechex.com T: +44 (0)1223 813703
For an ideal networking opportunity delegates can also attend an optional RFID gala dinner at 16th century St John’s College, Cambridge on the evening of September 18
