RFID Journal and GS1 Canada have announced that Keith Sheardown, Bombardier Transportation‘s general manager for technology solutions, will deliver the opening keynote address at RFID Journal LIVE! Canada 2009, to be held on Oct. 5-6, 2009, at the Toronto Congress Centre. The two companies have also announced that a key theme of this year’s event will be supply chain traceability and sustainability.
In addition to Sheardown, confirmed speakers also include:
• David Smith, VP of retail strategy and sustainability at Sobeys, Canada’s second largest supermarket operator
• Gabriele Fusco, president of PeakWorks, a maker of fall-protection equipment
• Bill Hardgrave, director of the University of Arkansas’ RFID Research Center
• Pankaj Sood, founder and manager of McMaster University‘s RFID Applications Lab
• Katie Dainty, director of Sunnybrook‘s Centre for Health Services Sciences
• Dr. Merrick Zwarenstein, a senior scientist at Sunnybrook’s Centre for Health Services Sciences
• Dr. Dan Zikovitz, a faculty member at Sunnybrook’s Centre for Health Services Sciences
• Amninder Singh Randhawa, technical director of the Academia RFID Centre of Excellence
“RFID Journal LIVE! Canada has emerged as an opportunity not to be missed by Canadian organizations of all sizes,” says Art Smith, president and CEO of GS1 Canada, a user-driven nonprofit organization supporting the adoption of Electronic Product Code (EPC) and other supply chain standards in Canada. “Attendees will gain a more in-depth understating of standards and technologies, and also build key business relationships to improve efficiencies with their trading partners along the supply chain. The current economic environment makes it imperative for companies to reevaluate their business processes. An opportunity exists to implement leading traceability technologies to track a product along the supply chain, thereby improving efficiencies, reducing costs and enhancing consumer confidence.”
As in the past, RFID Journal LIVE! Canada will feature end users from Canada, the United States and Europe presenting real-world case studies. The event will feature four conference tracks:
• Achieving Internal Efficiencies
• Enhancing Traceability
• Improving Supply Chain Efficiencies
• Advancing Health Care
“RFID technologies and solutions have matured a great deal over the past two years, and many companies have deployed solutions that deliver a return on investment in less than a year,” says Mark Roberti, founder and editor of RFID Journal. “This is the only event where Canadian companies can learn how to take advantage of a very powerful technology with proven benefits.”
Bombardier Transportation is the rail-equipment division of Bombardier Inc.
“I attended RFID Journal LIVE! Canada in 2007,” Sheardown states, “and although we had no plans to use the technology, l found it a very valuable experience. Listening to one of the speakers, I realized the solution his company had deployed in another industry could also be applied to a track-safety issue we were struggling to address.”