PRINCETON JUNCTION, N.J., April 23, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- With more than half a billion NFC-enabled handsets to be available by 2014, NFC technology "has reached the point of no return," according ABI Research1. To discuss the state of quickly accelerating technology, a broad base of industry players will gather at the NFC Solutions Summit 2013 this May 15-16, 2013 at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport in Burlingame, Calif. Presented by the Smart Card Alliance in partnership with the NFC Forum, the Summit is the leading annual NFC conference, featuring leaders from the entire NFC ecosystem.
Details about the event, attendees, exhibitors, and agenda for the pre-conference workshops and the conference are now available at http://www.nfcsolutionssummit.com. Early registration discounts are available until April 23rd.
The two-day NFC Solutions Summit will features leaders from financial services, payments processing, retail services, technology providers, applications development, and industry analysts in an interactive, instructive forum on the business issues, implementation milestones, and technology advancements happening in NFC markets. The Summit will include comprehensive topics covering the state of the technology, developments in new NFC devices and applications, the status of the growing NFC ecosystem, the promise of NFC-enabled payments, marketing, access control and other popular use cases applications, NFC implementation guidance, and North American and international experiences with NFC pilots and implementations.
The conference begins on May 15th with a full day of plenary keynote speakers and roundtable panel sessions. On the second day, attendees will be invited to choose from multi-speaker panel sessions in separate NFC Technology and NFC Business Solutions tracks. Attendees can also look forward to technology exhibits and networking events over the two days.
Keynote session topics include:
-- The Worldview on NFC
-- Reaching Global Scale with NFC Mobile Payments
-- Extending Secure Identification and Authentication to Mobile Devices
-- Mobile Security
-- Mobile ID, Biometrics and NFC-A Natural Fit
-- Bridging the Gap for Marketers Between the Physical World and Mobile Consumers
-- NFC on Mobile Devices: What Can I Use NFC for Today?
-- NFC vs. The Cloud for M-Commerce
Pre-conference on May 14th, the Alliance is hosting two workshops: "NFC Base Camp," and "Advanced Mobile Wallet and TSM Workshop." "NFC Base Camp," developed for business level professionals, will cover the fundamental technologies, standards, NFC Ecosystem, and business applications for NFC-enabled devices. "Advanced Mobile Wallet and TSM Workshop" aims to provide a deeper understanding of the NFC ecosystem and focuses on the elements necessary to make (secure) NFC services available to end users including the mobile wallet and the Trusted Service Manager (TSM).
Also pre-conference, the Alliance will hold its full-day training course for individuals planning to take the Certified Smart Card Industry Professional (CSCIP) exam. The exam will take place on May 16th at 4:30 P.M. The CSCIP program, the smart card industry's only standardized certification program, prepares professionals to gain advanced levels of smart card industry knowledge and applications experience, and then move on to complete training and pass a multi-part exam developed by leading smart card industry experts and international industry associations. Additional information on applying for the CSCIP certification program and signing up for upcoming training courses and exams, visit the Smart Card Alliance website at http://www.smartcardalliance.org/pages/activities-leap.
Follow news about the 2013 NFC Solutions Summit and more by following the Smart Card Alliance on
Twitter @SmartCardOrgUSA, Facebook at Smart Card Alliance, and LinkedIn at Smart.Payments.
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 http://www.smartcardalliance.org.
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1 ABI Research, March 2013. "NFC Installed Base to Exceed 500m Devices Within 12 Months." http://www.abiresearch.com/press/nfc-installed-base-to-exceed-500m-devices-within-1