NEW YORK, April 29, 2008–All the major business stakeholders in the NFC mobile payments ecosystem are gathering at CTST 2008–The Americas Conference to address the best ways to bring this convenient form of payment to consumers. CTST 2008, the largest payment, security and identification conference in the Americas, will be held May 12th through 15th at the Orange County Convention Center West, in Orlando, Fla.

International industry leaders presenting during the Mobile and NFC Track are: 3G Americas, Aite Group, Authentec, Bay Area Rapid Transit District, Booz Allen Hamilton, Cassis International, Cellular South, Citibank, FireThorn, First Annapolis Consulting, First Data, Gemalto, Giesecke & Devrient, Infineon Technologies, Inside Contactless, Motorola, Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, NXP Semiconductors, Sprint Nextel, StoLPaN, Venyon, ViVOtech and Vodafone.

“A recent report hit the mark, saying that while contactless payments are paving the way for mobile phones to become a consumer’s electronic wallet, there’s still a real need for all of the major stakeholders to work together to provide a cohesive solution,” said Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance, citing the April 2008 Javelin Strategy and Research report, Contactless Strategy & Forecast. “We’re providing an open forum to make this happen. All of these primary players are coming together to address the business issues, outcomes of pilots, and possible solutions that will have consumers paying with their mobile phones in the very near future.”

Sessions in the NFC and Mobile track cover NFC technology and business models, mobile technology, and wireless devices and security. Use case presentations will be made, and panel members will discuss lessons learned and future implementations. A special Birds-of-a-Feather roundtable on the business issues of a shared device for banking, mobile and transit offers attendees a chance to engage in a discussion with industry leaders in an open forum.

“We built the CTST 2008 agenda around the theme of ‘the future of payments and security.’ That future seems to point to many similarities involving developments in contactless chip technology and mobile technologies driving more convenient ways to pay and access on-demand services. The agenda also covers the convergence of contactless financial payments, NFC-enabled mobile payments, and transit in major U.S. pilots underway,” added Vanderhoof.

NFC mobile payment allows consumers to pay for goods and services with a simple wave of their mobile phone. Because the technology can link electronic devices, it also opens up possibilities for more diverse transactions like ticketing, transportation payments, vending and music downloads.

Attendees can visit http://www.sourcemediaconferences.com/CTST08/audio-messages.html to hear a special welcome message and overview of the Mobile & NFC track from Christian Juettner, track chair and group vice president for Giesecke & Devrient.

For the complete agenda and to register, please visit http://www.ctst.com.

About CTST 2008–The Americas Conference

CTST 2008–The Americas Conference combines the Smart Card Alliance annual meeting and SourceMedia’s CTST 2008 conference to feature 120+ speakers, 40 conference sessions, 20 hours of exhibit hall time and the Alliance’s prestigious Outstanding Smart Card Achievement (OSCA) awards. David Pogue, the humorous, tech-savvy New York Times technology columnist and Emmy-winning CBS news correspondent, will keynote the event luncheon.

New this year is a choice of four focused full conference tracks: Payments and Applications; Identification and Policy; Mobile and NFC (Near Field Communications); and Security & Access Control; plus two, one-day mini tracks: Emerging Technology and Innovation Spotlight, and Latin America Spotlight.

Exhibit Hall hours are: Tuesday, May 13th, 11:30 a.m. – 6:30 p.m.; Wednesday, May 14th, 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.; and Thursday, May 15th, 10:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. CTST 2008 sponsors are Oberthur Technologies, CoreStreet, Giesecke & Devrient, Infineon, Inside Contactless, Texas Instruments, Gemalto, First Data and NXP.

About SourceMedia Conferences and the Smart Card Alliance

Each year, SourceMedia Conferences & Events attract over 20,000 attendees worldwide to over 70 events. Its products include but are not limited to conferences, exhibitions, roundtables, exclusive dialogues for CEOs, CFOs and other top executives, Web seminars, road shows, Pod casts and custom events.

The Smart Card Alliance is a not-for-profit, multi-industry association working to stimulate the understanding, adoption, use and widespread application of smart card technology. It has over 170 members worldwide, including participants from financial, government, enterprise, transportation, mobile telecommunications, healthcare and retail industries.