Asia-Pacific Region is the largest and fastest growing market for smart technologies in the world. The upcoming event CARTES in Asia 2011 will act as a meeting place for users from the retail, banking, telecom, government, transport and security sectors to meet and discuss with providers of innovative technologies and services from around the world. Michael Weatherseed the security business unit director from the organiser Comexposium talks to Retail in Asia about the event’s background, topics and featured exhibitors.
RIA: What does CARTES stand for?
Michael Weatherseed (MW): "CARTES" is the French word for "cards". Our event covers smart cards, smart technologies and digital security. The first memory card with an integrated circuit – what would become the smart card – was created in France in 1974 by the company Innovatron. The CARTES event in Paris was launched in 1986 with a handful of exhibitors and a high level conference on payment and e-money. Twenty five years later the CARTES event in Paris is the global rendezvous for professionals in the smart technologies sector. CARTES in Asia was launched last year to provide a focus on the huge and dynamic Asia-Pacific market.
RIA: What is your main theme for this year’s CARTES in Asia? Why and how did you decide on this theme?
MW: The main theme is that the Asia-Pacific Region is the largest and fastest growing market for smart technologies in the world. CARTES in Asia acts as a meeting place for users from the retail, banking, telecom, government, transport and security sectors to meet and discuss with providers of innovative technologies and services from around the world.
RIA: How many exhibitors and visitors are you expecting to be attending?
MW: We are expecting about 120 exhibiting companies from Asia and around the globe as well as 3,500 professional visitors from across Asia-Pacific.
RIA: What type of exhibitors will be featuring their product at this year’s conference?
MW: Our exhibitors include all types of specialists and experts in the industry. For example, smart card manufacturers such as such as Gemalto, Giesecke & Devrient and Watchdata will showcase their latest products, and specialists of terminals, readers and secure payment solutions such as VeriFone and Inside Secure will exhibit new technology in their areas. For credit card companies, we have American Express to join us in the exhibition and microprocessor manufacturers such as ST Microelectronics are also on our stellar exhibitor list.
RIA: How does CARTES help exhibitors from the smart card and digital security industry to reach their target audience?
MW: We the organisers create an event – an exhibition which promotes innovative products and services from around the world and a high-level conference programme that examines the issues and opportunities for smart technologies in the Asia-Pacific region. We then promote this event and its content to professionals from across the region – they will come from the retail, banking, transport, government and security sectors. These visitors are the potential purchasers, specifiers and users of the technologies proposed by the exhibitors.
RIA: What are some of the comments that your exhibitors said about last year’s conference?
MW: We have got very positive feedback from our exhibitors. They think CARTES in Asia is a "must-attend" event for any company serious about doing business in security, smart technology or RFID in the Asia market. Some of them even point out that the quality of attending delegates, and knowledge of speakers during the conference provided many opportunities for business.
We have a video with comments from several exhibitors on our website.
RIA: What are your top tips for ensuring exhibitors provide a good experience for the event attendees?
MW: It’s essentially common sense – Make your booth decoration attractive, informative but concise.
RIA: What type of guidance do you give exhibitors to help increase the standard of their exhibits?
MW: To ensure that they will meet the right people, we provide several tools to exhibitors to supplement the extensive visitor promotional activities we undertake. For example, an e-invitation tool, which enables exhibitors to personalise an invitation to their clients and prospects, is provided. And exhibitors can also publish their press releases on new products on the CARTES in Asia web-site before the event. They can use our press agency to communicate their latest news to a targeted group of journalists across the Region. We are available to offer individual advice, but on the whole exhibiting companies know what makes their products and services special and know how to promote them effectively.
RIA: What are the special features and topics in this year’s CARTES in Asia?
MW: We start on the afternoon of Tuesday, 29 March with the Asian Card Summit where six top executives from key industry players will present and discuss the outlook for the Asian card and payment sector. This will be followed by the presentation of the Asian SESAMES Award Ceremony – an award, designated by industry experts, that recognises the most innovative smart technology application in the region.
We then have four conference tracks happening on 30 and 31 March covering the topics of cards & payments, mobile banking, identification systems and convergence. Issues such as contactless technologies, security of mobile transactions and machine-2-machine applications will be addressed.
RIA: What level of audience are you expecting? And what are the attractions for the visitors?
MW: The majority of visitors are at the level of CEO, VP, Divisional Director or project Director. In 2010 over 70 percent were involved in the purchasing decision and over 60 percent came to the event with a specific purchasing project in mind.
RIA: What are the top trends in digital security and smart technologies in the Asia-Pacific market?
MW:The Asia-Pacific region is the fastest growing market for smart technologies in the world and already represents over 40 percent of the total. Many sectors are developing rapidly. Here are some of the top trends:
- Reducing payment fraud through the introduction of EMV bank card technology
- The strong growth in the use of mobile payment and of contactless technologies
- The introduction of more secure, biometric based, passports and identity cards
- The development of multi-application smart cards , that will cover for example, payment, transport, loyalty programmes, secured access to buildings and certainly in the future based on the user’s mobile telephone
RIA: With so much technology available for retailers now days, how can a retailer know what technology and partner will work for them?
MW: An exhibition provides the opportunity to see the range of technologies available and talk with the providers! A retailer will then be able to make a "short list" of technological options which he will then discuss with the relevant suppliers in detail matching his individual needs, circumstances and budgets against the different solutions on offer.
Michael Weatherseed is the security business unit director of Comexposium.
CARTES in Asia is a regional Exhibition for the Asia-Pacific market and a high-level congress covering digital security and smart technologies. Organised by Comexposium, CARTES in Asia 2011 is the second edition of the event. It will be held from 29 to 31 March at Asia World Expo, Hong Kong.