RFID Moving to a Latin Beat

Our first event in South America should help raise awareness of the benefits that the technology can deliver to companies in that region.
Published: August 16, 2010

When CNN was founded as the first cable news network, way back in 1980, the 24-hour news channel saw itself as the first global news organization. American-born news people were told never to use the word “we” when referring to Americans, and were counseled not to present news as it would be presented by U.S. broadcast news stations in the United States.

Likewise, RFID Journal was created as a global news provider of radio frequency identification. We hold events in North America, Europe and the Middle East. Now, our first event in South America, RFID Journal LIVE! Latin America (LatAm), marks a new chapter in our global coverage.




The conference will be held on Aug. 31 to Sept. 1, in Bogotá, Colombia. We have partnered with LOGyCA, a supply chain services firm associated with GS1 Colombia. I’m excited about this event because it offers us an opportunity to educate businesses in that region regarding what radio frequency identification can do for them.

We have put together a lineup of speakers for LIVE! LatAm that includes some of the leading experts on RFID in the United States, as well as end-user companies that have deployed the technology in Latin America. The speaker list includes:

Sérgio Arai, the CIO of Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein


David Blackford, U.S. Transportation Command‘s deputy of logistics technology integration division


Elkin Alonzo Diez, Familia Sancela‘s supplier relationship manager


Sonia del Pilar Acuna Duran, the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia‘s director of information technology and communications


James M. Kress, the VP of RFID sales for Tyco Retail Solutions at Tyco International


Luis Vicente Ortega, Liverpool‘s dynamic response manager


Jesús Quintero, Almacenes Éxito‘s supply chain manager


Jaime Ramirez, the information systems and technology field manager of Bechtel‘s Los Bronces Project


Ian Robertson, the director of global industry development at GS1 EPCglobal US


Sanjay Sarma, a professor and co-founder of the Auto-ID Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

I have no doubt that attendees at LIVE! LatAm will learn a great deal from these speakers, who will discuss their deployments objectively. But the education doesn’t stop there. We will be offering our highly popular RFID Journal University program as a preconference seminar, and we have also teamed up with the International Supply Chain Education Alliance (ISCEA) in order to enable attendees to become certified RFID supply chain managers.

If you are based in Latin American and are eager to learn how RFID can improve the way your company does business, please join us in Bogotá. You will have a unique opportunity at the conference to hear from early adopters and meet the companies that provide RFID technology. I hope to see you there.

Mark Roberti is the founder and editor of RFID Journal. If you would like to comment on this article, click on the link below. To read more of Mark’s opinions, visit the RFID Journal Blog or the Editor’s Note archive.