Executive Director’s Letter
Dear members and friends of the Alliance,
This month the Smart Card Alliance unveils a new look for the monthly Smart Card Talk eNewsletter. Our goal with the new format is to provide our member and non-member subscribers with a brand new way of viewing the important smart card industry news, events, and industry information that is happening in North America and Latin America. The Alliance and our media partner have invested in new ePublication technology that gives our readers the look and feel of a high quality print magazine, but with the freedom and convenience of an all-electronic distribution and viewing experience. We hope you will have patience with us as we try to get the kinks out and experiment with different layouts and content arrangements. We welcome your feedback on the newsletter by email to news@smartcardalliance.org.
We are also pleased to announce two new hires to the Smart Card Alliance staff. Debra (Debbie) Marshall has joined the organization as our new Communications and Operations Manager. Debra brings over 20 years of experience as a marketing communications consultant, corporate communication and marketing strategist, and director of communications with a number of non-profit associations and corporate clients. Debra will be responsible for managing our internal communications with our Alliance members, the Alliance web site, our social media communications, and member resources documentation. One of Debra’s first assignments will be to get to know our members and find out firsthand from our most loyal supporters how we can improve and bring more value-added services to our members and help grow the smart card market.
Jaclyn (Jaci) Snyder has been hired as the Conference Services Coordinator. Jaci has a degree in communications/media and has had success developing member meetings and conference events for a number of large organizations. Jaci has jumped right into the active planning and coordination for the upcoming Smart Card Alliance Government Conference in November, by getting the event information and registration web site launched, working with the contractors and meeting facilities at the meeting venue, and supporting the conference program committee in coordinating speakers. Jaci will be splitting her time with the planning that has already begun on the 2012 Payments Summit in February in Salt Lake City and the new NFC Solutions Summit 2012 event with our partner, the NFC Forum, recently announced for May 2012 in San Francisco.
Both of these hires have joined the Smart Card Alliance at a critical time in our history. The continued growth and expansion of the smart card markets in North America and Latin America demand that the Smart Card Alliance also expand and meet the needs of an organization that grew by 60 new members in the last 12 months and will surpass 200 members by the end of 2011, and whose annual budget will exceed $2 million this fiscal year, a 62% growth since 2009. New breakthroughs in the market environment involving EMV, NFC mobile payments, national cybersecurity, health IT security, and open bank card payments in transit will demand more deliverables from our industry councils, expanded media relations activities, new multi-media content for our web site, and better social media management in order to keep everyone informed as the smart card market evolves.
The Smart Card Alliance has not even begun to reach its full potential. There are plenty of chip technology companies, financial institutions, government agencies, transit operators, mobile network operators, software developers, solutions architects, system integrators, end user organizations, consultants, and contractors that are just entering the smart card market in the U.S. and are not yet participating members of the Smart Card Alliance. As the market heats up in the United States, we are seeing increased membership coming from Canada, United Kingdom, Western Europe, China, and Korea. Many of these international organizations bring years of experience with smart card technology for payments, identity management, access control, mobile payments, healthcare, and transportation in their home regions. Next to China, the U.S. is poised to be the biggest adopter of new smart card technology and services in the world over the next 5 years. The migration to EMV alone could add nearly 1 billion new chip cards and NFC-enabled mobile phones, and an estimated 6 million new POS devices in that time frame.
Our commitment to our members and followers is to keep the Smart Card Alliance moving the smart card market forward by investing in new technology, better communications, and better organization as demonstrated by this new ePublication-formated newsletter, our two new professional staff members, better web resources and better organized conferences and events, and in building relationships with other industry organizations in the U.S. and internationally. The smart card industry is just getting interesting–and there is plenty of room for more of you to get connected and start helping to shape the industry in the years ahead.
Sincerely,
Randy Vanderhoof
Executive Director