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November 2007 • Volume 12 Number 11
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Executive Director's Letter
As October turns into November and the autumn leaves change colors and fall from the trees, most people in America start to think about how they are going to celebrate their Thanksgiving dinner, enjoy a brief respite from the busy fall business cycle, and focus on how much turkey they will consume while watching football on television. For the rest of the world who doesn’t share our November tradition of a mid-week overindulgence of food and family, autumn means something completely different. November is the month of the Cartes & Identification conference in Paris. I returned to Paris for my fifth consecutive year at this annual mega-smart-card-industry event. I can count on three things each year when I arrive and prepare for the annual trek to the Parc d’Expositions de Paris where the Cartes conference is held. First, I will be amazed at the number of people and exhibitors who mingle together non-stop from morning to late afternoon in the exhibition hall. Just when I think that the size of the show has maxed out, I am surprised again that more people find a way to attend. This year's attendance figures were over 21,000 people, with 68% of the attendees being international. It further pleases me that an increasing number of industry movers and shakers from the United States -- from suppliers to end users -- find a way to get to Cartes and see what the excitement is about. Second, I will be overwhelmed by the diversity of products and solutions on display in the expanding exhibition center. All identification and payments technologies and applications are on display, ranging from chip vendors to terminal manufacturers to systems integrators to payments brands. Also, as the IDentification component of the event grows, we are seeing more security and access technologies and solutions presented as well. The third thing I can count on is that there will be some type of worker strike affecting our visit to Cartes. For the second year in a row, a transit strike shut down the trains to the exhibition center and crippled the subway system within Paris. For most events, a strike might keep scores of customers from attending the conference, but I have learned that the Cartes-faithful are a hearty breed. People found creative ways to overcome the transportation challenges. Like scores of others, I used a combination of commuting methods, from cabs to buses to crowded subway cars to long-distance walking, to get to the conference and back to our Paris hotel. Cartes is too important and packed with too many opportunities to meet important people to be deterred by a labor dispute. The Cartes experience makes me more determined than ever to use our partnership with SourceMedia to make the May 2008 CTST in Orlando a similar experience and to solidify the event's position as the premier smart card industry conference and exhibition for the Americas. You will hear more from me about these efforts in future months. One disappointing announcement at Cartes was the decision to shut down the long-standing industry publication, Card Technology, and merge the card payments industry news with its sister publication, Cards & Payments. The end of the era for Card Technology magazine was preceded earlier this year by the departure of Don Davis, the longtime editor. The magazine had been getting thinner for several years, but the quality of the writing never declined. I have been involved in the smart card industry for more than 15 years, and I can tell you that rarely did a month go by during that time, that I didn't set aside an hour to read the magazine from cover to cover. All print media publications are struggling in the new electronic information age, but no daily news feed or electronic newsletter contains the creative graphics and images that Card Technology used to bring life to the news and information inside. It will be hard for me to replace that one hour per month in a more productive, informative way. Until next month, I wish you all success and good health. Randy Vanderhoof
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