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The Group of Twenty (G20) is a forum for economic cooperation that plays a major role in shaping and strengthening global architecture and governance on international economic issues. India currently holds the forum’s presidency, until November of this year, and it recently hosted a two-day Sustainable Finance Group meeting at the Radisson Blu hotel in the city of Guwahati.
More than 100 delegates, including representatives from G20 nations, assembled at the Guwahati hotel for discussions. Those in attendance were issued RFID tags, according to articles published by GPlus (see RFID Tags Provided to G20 Meet Participants In Guwahati) and EastMojo (see Assam: G20 Meet Goes High-Tech with RFID Security Measures for Delegates), which they then wore while visiting sessions offered in multiple conference halls at the venue.
An RFID pass was issued to each G20 participant.
Readers installed at each hall’s entrance monitored the attendees’ movements, recording the entry and exit times when they moved from one room to another. Security personnel deployed at the entrances viewed the results on a screen, enabling the hotel to ensure that no one without proper authorization could gain access to the delegates. The goal was to prevent unauthorized parties from disrupting the proceedings—even the media had their movements restricted, in fact—and thus ensure the delegates’ safety while maintaining the security protocols in place.
This represents the first time RFID-tagged passes containing personal data and access rights have been issued to G20 delegates and participants for the purpose of automatically identifying everyone onsite. “We have to ensure the security of every person taking part in this global event,” an anonymous security official told EastMojo. “RFIDs are the preferable safety database, which helps identify all the people who are registered for the event. Anyone who is not registered cannot enter the halls.”
The delegates included representatives from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nigeria, the Republic of Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States. With so many nations involved, maintaining security was understandably a very high priority, and RFID proved to be the logical solution to the problem. You can read more about this impressive use of the technology at the above article links.
Rich Handley has been the managing editor of RFID Journal since 2005. Outside the RFID world, Rich has authored, edited or contributed to numerous books about pop culture. You can contact Rich via email.