September 11, 2012 – When it comes to the rapidly developing region of Africa and the Middle East, there hasn’t until now been a high security printing conference dedicated to this region. This is however set to change, as Reconnaissance International has extended its annual Asian High Security Printing Conference to include this region, under the new name of Asian, Middle East and African High Security Printing Conference.
The strong historic, cultural and business ties that unite Asia, Middle East and Africa form the rationale behind the decision to combine them in one event. What’s more, the venue chosen for the 2012 conference – Dubai – represents one of the major crossroads of this dynamic part of the world.
The conference takes place from 24 to 26 September 2012, at the InterContinental Dubai Festival City. It will be attended by around 250 delegates from the high security document world – both from within the region and around the globe – including government departments, central banks, state and commercial security printers and paper mills, security feature suppliers and systems integrators. The event therefore provides an excellent opportunity for senior-level decision makers to meet in one location and will be of interest to those companies already working in, or looking to expand into, Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
The conference programme comprises speakers who are experts in the field of banknotes, excise stamps, ID cards, e-passports, visas, and vehicle documents and licences – in their respective roles of issuers, printers and suppliers. The welcome address will be given by H. E. Dr Eng Ali Mohamed Al Khouri, Director General of the Emirates Identity Authority. The programme is divided into sessions covering, among others, the regional high security document landscape, travel and ID documents, currency developments, and R&D and innovation. To give a flavour of the kind of presentations to expect, the programme includes:
The central banks of Sri Lanka, Namibia and Kyrgyzstan, presenting their new banknote series, as well as an overview and comparison of the currency markets in the three regions (Asia, Middle and Africa);
A series of presentations on the design and production of currency, with topics including security through design; manufacturing trends; optimizing production, materials and features for durability;
For ID, presentations covering the new Emirates ID card; worldwide trends in ID documents; Japan’s new ID card for residency management; new security features for polycarbonate IDs; implementing end-to-end passport issuing systems; costs versus security in ID documents; decentralisation of secure document creation to enhance security controls;
A session on innovation with presentations on the impact of varnishing, polymer and composites on banknote longevity; quality control and counterfeit characterisation using elemental and molecular ion beam analysis; security feature evolution and optimisation for different climatic conditions; nano- and multilayer coatings; the renaissance of analogue security in the digitised age; all-polymer, transparent and flexible ferroelectric memory devices for banknotes; and control marks for tax collection on cultural items in Turkey.
The conference will also comprise the following two half-day seminars:
Seminar One: Designing Banknotes for Security from the Designer’s and Adversarial Analyst’s Perspective – where adversarial analysis evaluates the resistance of security features to counterfeiting by using the materials and machinery that a counterfeiter would use.
Seminar Two: Authentication and the Smart Phone Revolution – in which, in the first seminar of its kind, the role of the smart phone in authentication and track and trace will be examined in terms of the underlying technology and the opportunities it offers for those involved in producing, protecting and authenticating high security government documents.
The full programme is available here.
In addition to the seminars and papers, around 30 companies will exhibit the latest innovations in high security printing features and technologies, and the conference will be complemented by a number of social events, including a welcome cocktail and conference dinner, which will offer excellent networking opportunities.
The conference, now in its 11th year, was acquired from Cross Conferences by Reconnaissance International, together with its sister event the Pan European High Security Printing Conference. The two events were joined by a joined by a third this year – the Latin American High Security Printing Conference, which took place in July in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
To learn more about Reconnaissance International visit its website.