Nov 02, 2021Twenty years ago, Walmart, Procter & Gamble, Gillette, the U.S. Department of Defense and other big organizations were looking to develop radio frequency identification (RFID) technology into a new generation of bar codes that could wirelessly identify, track and manage products and supply chain shipments. I had heard about this effort as a reporter for The Industry Standard. I thought that if companies were going to adopt this new technology, they would need good information on how to do it. When the Standard went bankrupt, I decided to fill the need myself.
On Mar. 1, 2002, I posted the first article at RFIDJournal.com, a website I designed and coded myself (it wasn't very impressive). I had $500 in startup capital and one basic idea in mind: to help companies use RFID to improve the way they do business. At first, I had little idea how I would make money, but it didn't matter. I wanted to do high-quality journalism, and that was getting increasingly harder with so many publications simply posting press releases, or writing puff pieces to serve advertisers.
So from the beginning, RFID Journal did not publish press releases or promotional articles from vendors. We published clear, well-written, factually accurate articles researched, written and edited by professional journalists. We covered new products from the start, but the articles of most value to our audience have always been those that spell out how companies are using RFID and other Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to cut costs, improve efficiencies, better serve customers or improve their business in some other way. That has always been our primary focus.
I launched our first event in 2003 with help from a friend in the events business. As fate would have it, it was the same week Walmart announced it would require suppliers to tag pallets and cases with RFID. We called the event RFID Journal LIVE! because we planned to bring users of RFID that we had written about to the event so that they could speak to attendees live, face to face. Our first conference drew 300 people, including the VP of supply chain for Pepsi and executives from other big companies seeking to meet Walmart's mandate.
In the early days, RFID was hailed as a transformative technology that would dramatically improve supply chain management. When that transformation didn't happen overnight, people soured on the technology (Walmart's attempt to shove it down suppliers' throats didn't help). RFID had its ups and downs as a result. We grew in fits and starts, but the team eventually expanded to 13 full-time employees.
Four of my team came over when Emerald purchased RFID Journal in late 2016: Rich Handley, our managing editor; Debbie Hughes, who runs our conference programs; and Alan McIntosh and Matthew Singer, our senior directors of sales. (Matthew has since moved over to Retail TouchPoints.) Each of them shared my passion for serving our readers, attendees, advertisers and exhibitors, and each has been with RFID Journal for at least 12 years, and with Emerald since the acquisition. They understand the technology and the audience's needs, and they have deep contacts throughout the industry with buyers, sellers, consultants, researchers, academics and so on.
In the early days, there was a small community of buyers, sellers and researchers who "got" RFID. We felt that, together, we were going to transform the global supply chain. Over time, the community grew larger (RFID Journal has readers throughout 216 countries and territories) and the connections more tenuous, but to this day, most of the RFID solution providers appreciate that we are educating their audience and connecting them to buyers year-round. We often hear exhibitors say that while RFID technology has not taken off as fast as everyone had expected, adoption would have been much slower without RFID Journal.
James Heurich, the president of RFID Inc., sent me an email after our most recent, COVID-19-influenced event, containing a PDF of an order he had received. "This isn't the only immediate opportunity from RFID Journal LIVE!," he wrote. "Tip of the iceberg. This could be one of the best shows we've had. Thank you for keeping the faith and keeping the show running through pandemic."
The executives at companies using RFID also appreciate the content we produce day in and day out. At LIVE! 2021, Corey Cook, a speaker from Lockheed Martin, came up to me and to thanked me for all we do. His team had just completed a big RFID deployment, and each member received a commemorative medallion the company produced for every person involved with the project. He gave me one, saying, "We wanted you to have it because RFID Journal is part of our team."
In May 2022, RFID Journal will hold its 20th annual conference and exhibition. In the years since our first event, many RFID solution providers have come and gone. Many companies have deployed RFID, while some, like Walmart, have abandoned it. The economy crashed and recovered, and a pandemic briefly shut it down globally. But the one constant in the RFID industry has been RFID Journal providing high-quality articles and a great conference program at LIVE!, and of this I am very proud.
Mark Roberti is the founder and editor of RFID Journal.
