5th Higher Education Smart Card Association conference and exhibition hailed biggest and best yet

March 24, 2014 - PRLog -- Monday, 24^th March 2014: the opportunities, challenges and legal requirements associated with the adoption of smart technology in higher education were the main themes for this year's event, which brought together education professionals and suppliers from across the country.

Supported by the University of Brighton, the two-day event took place in The Old Ship Hotel in Brighton, and combined the conference with a small exhibition. Exhibitors in attendance included Burall InfoSmart, SALTO, EMOS Information Systems, Fidelity Systems, MagnaCarta Chipcard Solutions, Lenel, WPM Education, TDS, VMC & MCR Systems, Frontline Security Solutions, Nedap, Dot Origin, Essentra Security and Uniware.

Graham Davis, Unicard Services Manager for the University of Brighton commented: “The University of Brighton would like to congratulate Smartex for hosting an excellent and informal HESCA14 in Brighton this year. HEI response was extremely positive and it was great to see delegates engaging with suppliers in an informal and friendly environment”.

Tony Blundal, Security Systems Administator for the University of Bristol added: “Your talkers on the attendance monitoring were superb and I can honestly say I have a much better understanding of the reasons behind requiring it than I did before as a result of attendance.  I will be feeding as much info back on this as I can.”

Dan Isaaman, Joint CEO of Dot Origin, said “This is the second year that Dot Origin has exhibited at the Smartex HESCA event, and we have found it to be highly useful and very well organised. The education sector is an important market for us, both for general supplies of smart cards and smart card readers, and also for our dedicated software products, which include the Read-a-Card ID integration utility and our EdgeConnector access control solution, which enables organisations to link door access controllers directly to their existing user databases and to Active Directory in real time. We will definitely be attending again next year!”

Sue Woodcock, Marketing Manager of Essentra Security stated: “Essentra Security was delighted to attend HESCA’14 for the fifth(?) consecutive year.  As a prominent supplier of ID card printing solutions in higher education it’s a well-established and very well run event and we consider it an important way to ‘show and tell’ our new technologies ahead of the University enrolment period.  Having acquired Securit World in 2012, a well-established brand and following the rebrand of Payne Security to Essentra Security in 2013 it’s even more important to have the vehicle to tell our customers about our changes.  HESCA’14 once again delivered on attendance, format and value.”

Richard Poynder, Smartex Chairman, commented: “We have operated HESCA for 13 years, and are delighted that it has grown to become the UK’s premier association for smart campus card schemes.  HESCA14 was further evidence of the service value of HESCA to the HEI community, and I should also personally like to thank our exhibitors for their support of that event. This enabled us to invite non-member HEIs free of charge”.

The next quarterly HESCA meeting will take place on 3rd June at the Park Tower Knightsbridge Hotel, London.  Information about this meeting can be found at: http://www.smartex.com/forums/higher-education-smart-card...

**ENDS**

Notes to Editor

Photos are available upon request

About HESCA

A growing number of leading universities are members of HESCA.  Its main objectives are to bring these together with leading suppliers and consultants for quarterly full-day meetings in London, in order to learn of new products, services and methodologies - supported by frequent case studies - covering the many functions on and off campus that can usefully be supported by single, multi-functional smart cards.

Recent HESCA meetings have attracted record attendances, and have learned of the latest developments and use-cases for attendance recording and monitoring, cashless campuses (using both closed-loop e-payment products and contactless-enabled EMV cards) and physical/system access control.

About Smartex

For over 21 years, Smartex has been successfully building the world's largest network of professional associations for smart card technology and all of its associated and successor forms, including RFID tags, biometrics and mobile NFC.

Members in three continents meet regularly to learn of new technologies, products and schemes, and to network in a non-sales environment.

Members are given instant access to information, expertise and business opportunities in this fast-moving and rapidly expanding space.

Further information can be found at www.smartex.com