Thunderbirds are go - CIC/CMA in one weeks time!
First of all, please accept my apologies for such a short and, well there's no denying it, shameless piece of self-promotion. By self promotion I mean prominently featuring the Contactless Intelligence Conference and Contactless and Mobile Awards in London next week on the 28th and 29th April. Apparently, I have not embraced the opportunity that this weekly editorial column gives me, to relay to you how great this year’s two day event is going to be. And that’s coming straight from people around our office. So, let me remedy the situation right now and give you, the reader, some highlights for the upcoming Contactless Intelligence event. This - and the fact that you can meet all of us in person - should give you plenty of reasons to book a ticket in the next couple of days.
Oh, and what’s with the Thunderbird headline? You will have have to read on to find out more….
First off, during the conference we will be hearing from one of the most impressive partnerships of the last few years, namely Visa Europe and Transport for London. They will be kicking off the conference with some exclusive and high level insights into the metropolitan transport payment scheme that we now know to have changed the scope of contactless infrastructures worldwide. A partnership that many are trying to duplicate in other regions of the world with varying degrees of success.
We are not going to let Transport totally off the hook after the keynotes as we will be hearing more from First Group, Digimobee, Tfl, Nottingham City Council, ITSO and Infineon on the subject. Certainly in the UK, we have witnessed a major uptake in the usage of contactless technology in the transport sector over the last few years. From ITSO smart card solutions to mobile barcode technology to the acceptance of bank issued contactless payment cards. But how do transport operators make their decisions on the solutions to adopt, with such a diverse range of options now available? We’ll be hearing from some of the solutions in use in the UK today, look abroad for European success stories and discuss the possible ways forward.
We are also going to be looking at the topic of Unattended and the role it is playing in the contactless market. After all, contactless has long been considered by the unattended sector as a way of moving away from cash, but there have been a significant number of barriers to overcome. What issues will the unattended market face compared to retail and transit? To help us in this discussion we have representatives from the parking and vending industries such as VINCI Park and Nayax as well as Coca-Cola, the BPA, the AVA and Verifone Europe.
Now onto a session that I personally pushed for; the subject of charity or humanitarian aid within the contactless industry. Over the past few months we have seen a considerable increase in the use of contactless technology being used in the third sector; from enabling donation payments to delivering aid, which (we are told) is set to rise in the future. Contactless technology provides an ideal mix of convenience, speed and security, with the added bonuses of removing cash from the equation. How does the provision of contactless cards and readers into the field after a natural disaster (flooding, landslides, storms, gales etc) ensure aid reaches the right people? How can organisations engage with the public to encourage more donations to charitable causes? And how can this new technology save charitable organisations and government departments money when collecting and distributing this essential aid to those who urgently require it? We have some speakers that really know what they are talking about; Transaxiom, Cancer Research and Oxfam.
Finally, we have a review of mobile technologies being used in the retail environment and helping us with this will be Samsung, Proxama, Ecrebo, Norwich BID and Mobilize Solutions. Questions will be asked such as; what impact has Apple Pay really had on the market? What uptake have other “mobile wallets” experienced? Has BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) delivered the targeted marketing experience hoped for? Are consumers still concerned about security? Have our high streets really become more “Digital”? I look forward to hearing what the real answers will be.
Now, to relay this part of the pitch (I mean editorial) back to the headline of Thunderbirds are go! This was a TV show that many of you in the UK may remember from your childhood, a TV show that has been updated this year to reflect a 21st century TV audience. In other words same great content but with an expanded and much slickers format. We feel that we have done the same with our event. Let me introduce you to our second day that incorporates two great technical forums (both free of charge!); the Open Standards Forum and the Mobile ID Forum.
First up is the Open Standards Forum. The topic of Open Standards is part of most technology debates across the entire value chain of mobile and contactless implementations. And the discussions about standards are getting more and more heated. Initiatives such as FIDO and OSPT are developing open, scalable and interoperable specs to increase the speed of technology adoption without the ties to a proprietary solution and the license fees that go with it. For decades, proprietary systems have been successfully implemented throughout multiple markets and in all regions on the world. In recent years, however, the tech industry is getting organized in various forms, such as associations, alliances and working groups. The motivation behind it: Establishing open standards to make secure technology implementations smoother, cheaper and flexible. Hence the term “Open Standards”.
In the course of the Forum, delegates get an introduction from Alliances that have set the bar for the future, namely the FIDO Alliance and the OSPT Alliance. In the course of the morning tech companies such as Deutsche Telekom, Samsung Semiconductor, Giesecke & Devrient and Infineon Technologies will expand on the ins and outs of the CIPURSE standard while implementers such as ATM Barcelona and EMoney Group will explain how projects can be rolled out using open infrastructures. To shake things up a bit, we have also invited companies that have done just fine without jumping on the open standards wagon, such as the Smart Ticketing Alliance and Cubic’s much praised TfL implementation.
And the same time, in the next room, the Mobile ID Forum (run by the Silicon Trust Program - a government ID platform that was set up all the way back in 2000 and has been running strong since) will be taking place. With most government ID schemes based on contactless cards, this Forum is looking at the next step: Mobile ID. The Forum is focussing on the growing trend of Mobile ID and secure mobile devices. It is going to evaluate the feasibility of implementations where secure ID attributes and credentials are either stored on the mobile or where the mobile device acts as a secure reader for a token, such as a contactless smart card.
With two application scenarios in focus, payment and government ID, the experts in this forum will debate to what extent the public sector can benefit from private sector experiences. How important is the acceptance of the contactless card form factor before moving to mobile? What business cases have proven successful in the private sector and should be an inspiration the public sector? Key speakers from the European Commission, the German Ministry of the Interior, the Estonian Government Trust Centre and from Visa Europe, Airside Mobile and ecec share their insights into the up and coming challenges of Mobile ID.
So there you have it. Same team, same excitement, excellent content but a new format for todays audience! Just like Thunderbirds. (F.A.B.)
Until next week.
Steve Atkins
Contactless Intelligence
PS - I hope there are some readers out there who remember the Thunderbirds TV show - otherwise I am going to look really stupid…
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