Issue #184 | March 20, 2009 | by Andy Kowl

Breaking news: thousands of optimistic businesses in one place.

I can't believe we missed the NFMT Show last week, National Facility Management Technology, just up the road from us in Baltimore. If any audience must be talking about RFID, facilities management is a no brainer, right?

We heard from RFID Street reader, our buddy Steve Brown of access control pros Solid State Systems in Gaithersburg, Md., who exhibited at the show and felt it was a great success.

He reports fellow exhibitors use this show as a gauge for how business will be for the balance of the year, and their conclusion was positive. Attendees were also upbeat. Nobody was happy about the economic mess the world was in; but everyone was there to learn, buy and sell.

It felt great to get the reality check that literally thousands of attendees at a major trade show were positive about moving their businesses forward. After hearing repeatedly about The Big Freeze that has hit project buyers, knowing a few thousand IT and Operational folk are alive, well and excited, is oddly reassuring.

Looking at the actual show blew me away. www.nfmt.com

For starters, I read the "Asset Track" – and there was no mention of RFID. It is really crazy that smart asset tracking was not addressed. Who is more at fault, the show producers' content team or us RFID sellers who have apparently ignored a multi-billion dollar industry that needs RFID technology?

It is only one of the many verticals where including auto-ID technology is obvious, but MIA. In my role speaking to marketers, I cannot tell you how often I hear about them "targeting verticals." Check out who was at the show: all sorts of companies selling technology identical to what RFID vendors sell – except without the RFID.

Facility managers a target rich environment
Another mantra in the RFID business is "solution selling;" but as I've said before, I see very little current RFID marketing easily packaged into an elevator speech. I don't think anybody here would have wanted just tags or just readers. A facilities management solution? Now you're talking!

But going through a random list of the hundreds of exhibitors, all I see are companies ripe for getting involved with RFID. There is one company called SafeGuard Products, www.spaceguardproducts.com that builds wire cage "storage and guarding products," none of which includes RFID. Hello.

Then of course there is SensorSwitch, whose website talks about technology "used to monitor thousands of buildings of all types and sizes. . . It records activity of a building's lighting as well as its occupants." www.sensorswitch.com Another exhibitor was Innovation Wireless, who sells synchronized clock systems to hospitals. www.innovationwireless.com I do not know their business structure, but they are selling to the same people who buy RTLS, I bet.

One of the more direct overlaps with what we normally write about is Industrial Signal, who I see is across the Potomac from our office, in Arlington, Va. www.indsig.com. They help companies monitor pump and other industrial systems. They appear not to be using any sort of RFID. I wonder of anyone has tried to partner with them.

Hospitality industry also overlooked so far
We have written a couple of times now how important RFID will be for the hospitality industry and how their annual show, HITEC, has not had much RFID inclusion. In last year's show directory RFID vendors were listed as a category, but a review of those vendors leads me to conclude these particular companies are just on the periphery of RFID technology, i.e. I never heard of them, except for one.

Here you have thousands of IT buyers who have baggage and storage areas that should be tracked; parking lots in need of vehicle tracking and automated systems; rental and return items; reusable and high value assets to track; and much more. But they are barely getting any attention from the major RFID vendors. Hard to imagine. www.hitec.org

More industries who are prime buyers
Just yesterday, a major association approached us about putting an RFID pavilion into there annual trade show, and we may do so. We have strong relationships with dozens of trade shows and conferences, some of which have little RFID presence beyond the publication we distribute at the shows, our Leading RFID Innovators book.

For all of you marketers who talk about verticals, let us know if you are looking to find inexpensive ways to get in front of hundreds or thousands of buyers, and/or resellers, this year by participating in such a pavilion. Who knows? Maybe we'll be able to bring you to the 4-5,000 hospitality buyers.

And while you are reaching out to more verticals interested in buying RFID, sign up for your free profile on IT Sales Network and begin opening some doors.