Smart Card Alliance Advances North American Adoption of NFC With New Conference and Web Resources

Smart Card Alliance Advances North American Adoption of NFC With New Conference and Web Resources

Princeton Junction, N.J., October 13, 2011–With major Near Field Communication (NFC) programs underway with Google and Isis, and the imminent arrival of millions of NFC-enabled handsets for consumers, NFC is gaining momentum in the U.S. The Smart Card Alliance today announced plans to lead education and awareness about the technology’s capabilities and benefits for mobile applications–both payments and non-financial uses–through educational resources on its website and the creation of the new NFC Solutions Summit 2012 Conference held in partnership with the NFC Forum in the spring.

The NFC Solutions Summit 2012 will be held May 22–23, 2012 at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport in Burlingame, California. The Smart Card Alliance/NFC Forum Summit will cover the state of the technology, developments in new NFC devices and add-ons, the status of the growing NFC ecosystem, the promise of NFC-enabled payments and other popular applications, NFC implementation, and North American and international experiences with NFC pilots and implementations.

“NFC has the ability to transform peoples’ lives and make everyday activities more convenient and secure, not only for payments but with many non-payment applications like coupons, loyalty, ticketing, building access, identity credentialing, healthcare and social networking,” said Randy Vanderhoof, executive director, Smart Card Alliance. “We’ve created our upcoming conference and expanded the NFC resources on our website as a direct response to the increasing demand we’re seeing for education about the technology.”

In addition to the many NFC product and joint venture announcements, the Alliance’s NFC education plans also were driven by Visa’s August 7th announcement about accelerating the U.S. adoption of EMV and linking NFC mobile payments to the incentives for merchants to meet the new requirements.

“The Smart Card Alliance and the NFC Forum have teamed up to host the NFC Solutions Summit to further our shared goal of educating consumers and enterprises about NFC technology,” said Debbie Arnold, NFC Forum Director. “For NFC technology suppliers and applications developers, it represents an unprecedented opportunity, not only to learn about the business potential and technology of NFC, but also to network and develop new business relationships.”

For NFC publications and resources, the Smart Card Alliance website has updated its NFC Resources page. The page is easily found within the “Quick Links” area of the Smart Card Alliance homepage. Some of the publications available include:

Additionally, within the Alliance multimedia section of the website, visitors can watch video interviews with industry leaders speaking about NFC as part of the ”Smart Card Alliance Perspectives: The Expert Video Series.”

About the Smart Card Alliance

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.

Through specific projects such as education programs, market research, advocacy, industry relations and open forums, the Alliance keeps its members connected to industry leaders and innovative thought. The Alliance is the single industry voice for smart cards, leading industry discussion on the impact and value of smart cards in the U.S. and Latin America. For more information please visit https://www.securetechalliance.org.

About the NFC Forum

The NFC Forum was launched as a non-profit industry association in 2004 by leading mobile communications, semiconductor, and consumer electronics companies. The Forum’s mission is to advance the use of Near Field Communication technology by developing specifications, ensuring interoperability among devices and services, and educating the market about NFC technology. The Forum’s 160 global member companies currently are developing specifications for a modular NFC device architecture, and protocols for interoperable data exchange and device-independent service delivery, device discovery, and device capability.

The NFC Forum’s Sponsor members, which hold seats on the Board of Directors, include leading players in key industries around the world. The Sponsor members are: Barclaycard, Broadcom Corporation, INSIDE Secure, MasterCard Worldwide, Microsoft Corp., NEC, Nokia, NTT DOCOMO, Inc., NXP Semiconductors, Renesas Electronics Corporation, Samsung, Sony Corporation, STMicroelectronics, and Visa Inc.