Mar 26, 2018For the past 12 years, RFID Journal has been giving out awards for the best RFID implementations. Each year, the finalists are invited to speak at RFID Journal LIVE!, our annual conference and exhibition. This year's event will be held in Orlando, Fla., on Apr. 10-12, and many finalists have confirmed that they will be there to present.
These are not awards, like some, that you can buy (research firms often give awards to companies that pay them). We recruit academics from around the world who have no financial stake in the projects that are being submitted for awards, or the solution providers involved in those projects (you can view a list of the judges here). They choose the finalists and the winners.
The purpose of the awards is to highlight success stories and reward companies for excellent RFID projects. We invite the finalists to speak so that attendees can hear from those who ran these great projects. They can ask them questions, hear what issues they might have run into and find out how they overcame them.
I'm very proud of the RFID Journal Awards. They serve a real need, in that they raise awareness of some of the amazing things companies are doing with radio frequency identification, and they help to educate our event attendees. I know that the companies feel honored when they win, because they tell me so.
The awards are organized by industry, so three retailers are finalists for the Best Retail RFID Deployment category, three manufacturers are finalists in the Best Manufacturing RFID Deployment category and so on. One thing I am most proud of is that the finalist come from around the world. Take a look at this year's finalists and where they come from:
Best Retail RFID Implementation
• River Island (United Kingdom)
• SportZone (Portugal)
• VISA (United States)
Best Manufacturing RFID Implementation
• BAE Systems (United States)
• General Motors (United States)
• Marzotto Textile Manufacturing (Italy)
Best Health-Care RFID Implementation
• Adana Integrated Health Campus (Turkey)
• AUM Cardiovascular (United States)
• St. James's Hospital (Ireland)
Best Logistics/Supply Chain RFID Implementation
• Daimler (Germany)
• ShelfAware (United States)
• Ternium (Argentina)
Best RFID Implementation—Other Industry
• Codelco (Chile)
• Gate Gourmet (Peru)
• Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering (Hong Kong)
Best Use of RFID to Enhance a Product or Service
• Information Mediary (United States)
• National Company of Kazakhstan for Air Navigation (Kazakhstan)
• Vitamix (United States)
That's pretty impressive.
In addition, nine companies have been chosen as finalists in the Best New Product category. The products include a tag that can withstand time in a microwave oven, a flag tag that will work on many metal objects, a tag IC that supports encryption, and new types of readers, including models that can be placed in a ceiling for continual reading (for a list of all the finalists, see Finalists Unveiled for 12th Annual RFID Journal Awards).
I believe that the awards have added additional value to our LIVE! conference, which offers more than 100 educational sessions and many great new end-user case studies. I hope you will join us in Orlando on Apr. 10-12, so that you can hear from those who have already deployed RFID successfully.
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.
