Smart Card Alliance Activities

Latin America Industry Councils

• Financial Payments Council: To promote the understanding of the benefits using smart cards in the financial sector.
• Physical Access Council: To help expand the knowledge and advantages of using smart cards for access control in the security industry.
• Transportation Council: To encourage the modernization of transportation systems through the use of smart card technology
• Media Outreach Council: To provide information to the vertical markets influenced by smart cards through articles and publications.
• Government Information Exchange: To exchange information among different government institutions in the region regarding the use of smart cards in helping to improving government services.

Conferences

The Smart Card Alliance holds three conferences per year: the Smart Cards in Government Conference in the spring, Smart Cards for Government & Payments in the summer (Mexico), and the cross-industry Annual Conference in the fall: and periodic SmartTalk web seminars. These events are designed to provide information to attendees that will assist them in the development and implementation of smart card initiatives.

Educational Institute

The Educational Institute was launched in 1996 to meet the increased demand for smart card educational resources. The Educational Institute engages industry professionals to provide objective and timely educational programs on smart cards, related technologies and smart card-enabled applications. Workshops are developed and delivered at Smart Card Alliance conferences and at selected industry vertical events internationally.

The Educational Institute provides the following courses (members pay discounted rate):

• EI 101: Introduction to Smart Cards
• EI 201: Advanced Business of Smart Cards
• EI 301: Smart Cards for Physical Access Control - Latin A. Chapter
• EI 302: Smart Cards for Digital Signature - Latin A. Chapter
• Card Technology Workshop

White Papers in Spanish and Portuguese

• Identity Management Systems (2006), Spanish, Portuguese
• Building a Chain of Trust (2006), Spanish, Portuguese
• Secure Physical Access (2006), Spanish, Portuguese
• Logical Access Security (2006), Spanish, Portuguese
• Smart Cards and Parking (2006), Spanish, Portuguese

Latin American Smart Card Alliance Supported Conferences

• Cards: Sao Paulo, Brazil
• Expo Seguridad Mexico: Mexico City Mexico
• ISC Brazil
• Americas Fire & Security Expo
• 5th CertForum
• Cartes 2007

Latin American Hosted Event

• Smart Cards in Government and Payments

Smart Card Alliance Web Site (some resources are password-protected)

• The smart card industry “go to” resource, averaging 500,000 hits per month
• Online Smart Card Reader Catalog providing searchable database of reader manufacturers
• Industry news releases from member organizations accessible from the home page
• Industry contact list (members-only)
• Dozens of primers, profiles, backgrounders and resource lists
• Industry event calendar and online event registration
• Industry reports, white papers, and case studies
• Member directory with descriptions and links to Leadership Council-level members
• Minutes and research from council and task force meetings and initiatives
• Past conference speaker presentations (members only)
• Past Alliance monthly newsletters with organizational announcements and industry news
• Position statements on security threats related to smart cards
• Links to government and commercial web sites to provide additional industry information