The Smart Card Alliance and the NFC Forum will co-host an event focused on near field communication in the spring 2012, the two organizations announced.
The NFC conference will focus on the state of the technology, NFC devices and add-ons, ecosystem development, use cases for both payment and non-payment NFC-enabled applications, implementation, and North America and international markets for NFC.
In the United States NFC is gaining a lot of momentum with recent product and joint venture announcements from industry-leading handset manufacturers, financial service providers, and mobile network operators. Google is launching its Wallet this summer in select markets and ISIS, the conglomerate of AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, will be rolling out NFC in select markets in 2012.
These announcements represent steps toward establishing a nationwide infrastructure for NFC-enabled mobile payments and retail applications in the United States. Also helping are the over 150,000 merchants with installed NFC-compatible POS terminals that are eager to give consumers the option of receiving offers and paying for purchases with just a tap of their NFC phone.
“The development of NFC-based applications and services has gone through dramatic change in the last few months, and 2012 is going to be the year when many new business partnerships, technologies and applications will hit the market,”
“We are launching this new conference in response to the industry’s demand for more education and networking opportunities around NFC,” said Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance. “We are looking forward to building a conference agenda that explores the many exciting NFC-enabled applications that enrich consumers’ lives, including payments, coupons, loyalty, ticketing, IT network and building access, identity and health care.”
This show will replace the Smart Card Alliance Annual Conference which has traditionally been held in the spring, Vanderhoof says. ![[end]](/resources/bullet/secureidnews-4.gif)
