I spent last week in Europe attending conferences and meeting with industry representatives from a host of card and technology companies. At home I carry my drivers license with me everywhere, but abroad it is the passport that never leaves my possession. This seems a fitting parallel to the past year–a year that began with a focus on drivers license and national ID technology but has seen industry attention shifting to passports and travel documents.

The passport was a constant topic of discussion during my travels. At meetings, during lunches, and on conference exhibition floors, the world’s leading technology companies proudly showed off their contactless passport innovations. New techniques for creating 13.56 mHz inlays that can be added during passport production processes; innovative processes for printing RF antennas directly onto travel documents; and overlay films that contain complete contactless tokens are emerging. All this attention to the passport technology has been created by the US-VISIT program, the ICAO 13.56 standardization decisions, and a worldwide commitment to increase border control and security.

At both the Cartes conference and the ID World congress, education and demonstrations related to this key driver in the contactless technology market were plentiful–as were demonstrations and discussions of other growing applications of ID technology.

Cartes is truly the “best-of-the-best” when it comes to card technology education and exhibition. The exhibition hall is massive with more than 400 exhibiting companies and 14,000 attendees. The professional staff and world-class speaker lineup has stepped up in recent years to make Cartes the single “go to” conference for this industry. My congratulations and thanks go to everyone that makes this event possible.

On December 8-10, another terrific opportunity to explore travel document security and other key issues in global identification will occur at the Inside ID conference in Washington D.C. Don’t miss this first-ever event focused on ID technology as a cohesive, integral part of the modern economy. Ben Miller, the founder of CardTech SecurTech conferences, has brought together a team of veteran staff to make this event possible. With his unrivaled reputation and contacts, he has put together an educational lineup that explores new areas of identity and provides a fresh look at traditional ID topics.

Mr. Miller and the Inside ID team have graciously agreed to give ContactlessNews subscribers a 20% discount off 1, 2 or 3 day registrations. Just enter the code “RFID” at the registration form to receive the discount (www.InsideID.com).

Chris Corum, Editor, chris@AVISIAN.com