PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The 2^nd edition of CARTES in Asia exhibition and conference attracted 3,056 visitors from 61 countries – an increase of 8% compared to 2010. Over 120 smart technology companies from across the globe including market leaders American Express, Datacard, Eastcompeace, Gemalto, Giesecke & Devrient, HID Global, Verifone, Watchdata, and Zebra Technologies joined this year’s event. While organisations such as Global Platform, Mastercard, SIM Alliance, Paypal and Price Waterhouse Coopers presented at the co-located two day conference. CARTES in Asia ended last week and took place at AsiaWorld-Expo, Hong Kong, from 29 to 31 March 2011.

Michael Weatherseed, Security Business Event Director at Comexposium, reported a year on year increase in numbers in attendance across the exhibition and conference: “We were delighted to see world leaders Amex, Gemalto and Giesecke & Devrient join the exhibition this year, which is a reflection of the growing strength of CARTES in Asia and the importance of the smart technologies market in Asia Pacific. We also saw a significant growth in visitors from Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines at the exhibition and conference with 343 delegates who were particularly interested in e-banking, and convergence and mobility. We also had great success with the Asian Card Summit, with 221 participants attending the round table gathering of the industry’s top leaders.”

Visitors came from across the globe, mainly from APAC countries (mainland China, Hong Kong SAR, Indonesia, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand) but also from Europe, USA and the Middle-East. Whether from the banking sector, or from smart card manufacturers, electronics, telecom and IT security, they came to see and hear about the latest innovative technologies for card manufacturing, authentication solutions, payment solutions and mobile security. The main issues discussed during the conference were mobile payments and services, NFC and contactless applications, e-transactions and e-banking, payment card readers and terminals, Internet of Things and M2M applications.

Exhibitors came from 23 countries including Australia, Germany, Hong Kong SAR, Italy, Japan, Norway, Philippines, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Russia, Taiwan, UAE and USA. The exhibition also featured pavilions from mainland China and France.

“As one of the most established and large-scale card and payment exhibitions in Asia, CARTES in Asia offered us a dynamic platform to showcase broad spectrum of smart card applications and innovations. During the prolific three-day agenda, we managed to reach top-notch attendees from Asia Pacific and different industries. We will definitely continue to support this high-impact industry event,” said Cynthia Wong, Director of Marketing, Asia Pacific, of exhibitor HID Global.

In addition to a market leading exhibition and conference, the organisers of CARTES in Asia also revealed the winner of the Asian SESAMES Awards. Gemalto won the top award with their Smart Badge Holder, which enables workforces to use their corporate badges to access their encrypted emails and to sign documents electronically from their smartphones and other devices.

On winning this special accolade, Tan Teck-Lee, Chief Innovation and Technology Officer from Gemalto said:

“Gemalto is delighted to be this year’s Asia SESAMES Awards winner. This recognizes our leadership in digital security innovation and ability to bring cutting-edge concepts to fruition. We will continue to invest in researching and developing ideas to benefit everyone as our world becomes more and more connected.”

The CARTES exhibition and conference now takes place three times a year across the world. The next editions take place:

CARTES & Identification

Paris, 15 - 17 November 2011

CARTES in North America

Las Vegas, 5 – 7 March 2012

CARTES in Asia

Hong Kong, 27 – 29 March 2012

Contact

For more information, obtain photographs from the show including the Asian SESAMES Awards or to arrange interviews with Michael Weatherseed, Director of Security Business Unit, then please contact Mandy Queen at CRED Communications Ltd (English media) on +852 96847365 or email mandy@credcommunications.com and contact Otis Kung (Chinese media) on otis@credcommunications.com or telephone +852 96843926 .

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6682412&lang=en

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