ITN International has successfully tested its prize-winning Citywide Attendee Credential during a North American event. A select group of attendees of the Smart Card Alliance 2012 Payments Summit, which took place Feb. 8-10 in Salt Lake City, were able to ride local trains using their event badges to gain access.
“The test proves we can readily expand the benefits of our NFC badge beyond the confines of a North American venue,” said Ivan Lazarev, president and CEO, ITN International.
The Citywide Attendee Credential, an innovative application of ITN International’s BCARD attendee credential, allows a destination and an event organizer to partner to provide attendees with value-added services. BCARD, an event-industry standard in NFC-enabled attendee credentialing, has been deployed at more than 1,000 events worldwide since its introduction in 2004.
With ITN International’s BCARD, a destination can grant attendees access to its infrastructure, attractions and amenities, while an organizer can meet its needs for attendee credentialing, tracking, access control and exhibitor lead retrieval.
Bethesda, Maryland-based ITN International introduced the Citywide Attendee Credential during IBC 2011, an exhibition with 48,000 attendees, which took place in Amsterdam in September 2011.
The credential’s test during the Salt Lake City event required the cooperation of two organizations: Smart Card Alliance, based in Princeton Junction, New Jersey, and the Utah Transportation Authority, based in Salt Lake City.
“It’s fitting an event devoted to smart cards would serve as the testing ground for an innovative smart card application,” said Randy Vanderhoof, executive director, Smart Card Alliance. “Enabling our conference attendees to use their badges to access public transport is a real benefit for us, as well as our attendees.”
“We’re delighted to have played a pivotal role in this exciting program,” said D. Craig Roberts, technology development director, Utah Transportation Authority. “While we didn’t address all the card-security issues you’d need to address in a national pilot, the test did show you can blend an event credential and a transport card seamlessly.”
“The Citywide Attendee Credential can help places like Salt Lake City become an event organizer’s preferred destination,” said Lazarev. “I look forward to the day when transit systems all over North America are NFC-enabled and event planners can provide their attendees this kind of ‘all-in-one’ badge.”
