Magazines Archives - 2011 June

Cards Asia 2011 ‘bigger’ and ‘better’ than before
Story 3 - Review

CARDS ASIA 2011, held at Suntec Singapore from April 23-25, met with an increased turnout as visitors and exhibitors from across the South-east Asian region showed up at the exhibition-andconference event.

Organised by Terrapinn Asia, Cards Asia 2011, co-located with seven other “synergistic” events — Retail World Asia, RFID World Asia, Prepaid Cards Asia, Near Field Communication World Asia, Mobile Money World Asia, Digital ID World Asia and Transport Ticketing World Asia — saw more than 6,800 attendees from over 50 countries this year, to meet with partners and attend the numerous conference tracks and seminars that ran alongside the exhibitions.

With the immense growth potential that markets in South-east Asia and India have seen over the past few years, Terrapinn Asia’s CEO, Richard Ireland, told Retail Asia: “Cards Asia 2011 is bigger and better in its 16th year, with a much wider spectrum of payments innovations and applications than in the previous years.”

Attesting to the show’s reputation as a launch platform for new solutions in the region was first-time Cards Asia exhibitor YuuPay Management Singapore, an e-payments company. Celia Chua, YuuPay’s office manager, said it planned to introduce its latest payment solutions at the show, selecting its mobile payment solution that works with virtually any smartphone device to turn it into a mobile payment or pointof- sale system.

Other companies felt that the show’s extensive range of participants provided exhibitors with more opportunities to showcase their products and solutions. One such exhibitor was France-headquartered near-field communication (NFC) consulting company, Think&Go NFC, which took part this year because the event’s retail and NFC focus was in line with its own objectives that included reaching out to more retailers.

Think&Go NFC was housed at the French pavilion, which doubled its presence at the show this year. Its CEO, Vincent Berge, added: “We were introducing our newest range of solutions for NFC shopping, which includes [a lot of] successful and innovative features.”

Aside from the array of innovations and applications that were featured, a number of seminars and various other activities took place on the 8,000sqm exhibition floor — keeping the show bustling with activity.

Terrapinn’s Ireland continued: “The conferences were more robust in terms of the quality of programmes and list of speakers, who came from the buyer and vendor side. This year, [we had] speakers from great brands such as Groupon Singapore, Pacific Asia Books Kinokuniya, PayPal and Pizza Hut Hong Kong. We covered hot topics such as e-commerce, in-store experience and customer engagement. There was also an exclusive retail prepaid masterclass: Maximising your gift card programme to increase revenue and customer loyalty.”

One participant, Muhammad Nasrul, head of card and merchant operations at PT Bank Danamon, Indonesia, shared that the NFC conference was “very enlightening and comprehensive”.

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