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First Impressions of RFID from Beijing
Issue #123 | Nov. 9, 2007 | by Andy Kowl
The “Sino-U.S. Seminar on RFID Industry and Applications” here in Beijing concluded a couple of hours ago. This meeting, as you would guess, was attended primarily by our Chinese colleagues other than those American speakers like myself who were invited to attend.
At 9pm here in China, after a full day, it is pretty funny to think I planned on sharing information about today’s events and what I learned. After all, dear readers, you would be disappointed with me, I am sure, if I did not do my part spreading some American goodwill and wrote this column rather than play ambassador in the bars of Beijing. With the time zone difference, this will put any pearls of wisdom I may have well past deadline. So I will leave some quick thoughts with you for now.
One surprise to me was that not only were the Chinese represented by government and major industrial companies, but how many system integrators were in attendance. Like back home, it seems, the VARs are the ones carrying the local workload. Good to see.
Something that was of no surprise was the supply chain focus that most of the Chinese attendees had. It was great to see their sincere interest in the four-wall, positive ROI stories shared by me and other speakers. Some of this perspective was new to many in attendance.
Last for now was how extensively RFID is playing in the preparation for the coming 2008 Olympic Games. To say the population is obsessed with the world showcase coming to their doorstep would be a grand understatement. RFID enabled tickets are on the agenda, of course; and one hopes they run into many less troubles than the World Cup organizers did in 2006.
Other facets of the games in which RFID will play a key part include athlete and personnel security; the entire food chain, in particular for safety and identifying food borne problems; VIP services; and more.
RFID innovation is alive and well here in the Peoples’ Republic. Meanwhile, ambassadorial duty calls. So until I am back in our Homeland next week. . .
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