Nov. 3, 2008—At last month's EPC Connection 2008 event, EPCglobal North America's fifth annual conference and exhibition, approximately 350 professionals gathered to gain insight into how Electronic Product Code (EPC) standards can help companies cut costs, improve supply-chain execution and boost sales. Attendees discovered how to employ EPC RFID technologies for internal and external benefits, learned how industry leaders are complying with mandates and proceeding with rollout plans, heard end-user case studies and research results from early adopters and academics working to solve problems such as tagging products with high liquid content or packaged in metal containers, and more.

The conference, held Oct. 14-16 at Chicago's Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, featured presentations from organizations that have successfully deployed EPC RFID technologies. In addition, attendees received updates from GS1 US subsidiary EPCglobal North America, and viewed demonstrations of the latest technology solutions. Speaker presentations are now available—see the final page for downloading instructions.



Preconferences and General Sessions
The event opened with a trio of preconference seminars, designed to provide in-depth information regarding specific aspects of EPC and RFID technologies. RFID Journal University—presented by RFID Journal editor Mark Roberti and Toby Rush, president of Rush Tracking Systems—provided those new to radio frequency identification with the foundational knowledge required to understand how RFID can be applied to solve specific business problems. Attendees learned how to select the correct vendors, and how to choose the right options for particular applications.

RFID Journal and EPCglobal worked together to develop EPC Compliance & Benefits Training, a special preconference seminar created to help companies become EPC-compliant and achieve internal and supply chain benefits. Those attending learned how to encode tags and associate them with the proper items, integrate tagging with back-end systems, and employ EPC data to drive benefits.