SupplyChainDigest Editorial Staff

We didn’t attend last year’s RFID Journal Live! Event, so we can’t make comparisons, but the general sense from attendees who did was that the conference and presenters continued to improve, understandably as the RFID industry advances (at some levels) rapidly. Certainly the show was very well produced, from the impressive main speaker stage, backdropped with a huge warehouse-like racking and container display, to the general flow and execution of the events and exhibits. It was first class all the way in that regard.

Speakers included a lot of the usual suspects – Alan Estevez of the DoD, John Clarke of Tesco (very refreshing, however), Lyle Ginsburg of Accenture, Simon Langford of Wal-Mart, etc. (We missed former Homeland Security secretary Tom Ridge’s speech on Sunday night.)

Our quick reaction overall:

	There was a certain amount of the same blah, blah, blah – we even considered rating different speaker’s sessions with a “blah, blah, blah meter,” but wisely decided against it – but all told the content was pretty good.
	It’s obvious – and understandable – that companies/early adopters are very reluctant to share any real insight. They will give some hints, point in some directions, but offer very few real details. This is understandable, in that to go through all this cost and effort and not gain any competitive advantage in the end would seem a dubious proposition. On the other hand, since ROI is so hard to clearly find right now, can’t we have some more clarity as to the real sources from industry thought leaders, as we called for last week in our piece on “The 10 Things Necessary for EPC/RFID to Thrive.” Estevez did say they were finding improved receiving efficiencies of about 3% for tagged goods thus far.
	Not surprisingly, speakers tend to be enthusiastic cheerleaders for RFID. That’s why they are picked. But we believe the explicit or implied comments that equate some degree of EPC skepticism with being a Neanderthal in terms of where the technology is headed are misguided. Estevez cited a quote from 25 years ago, from one industry executive basically questioning whether bar codes were worth a darn and would provide any ROI. Yes, seems very silly today, and partly relevant to today’s scenario. But most sensible people with questions about RFID today aren’t saying it can’t work, it’s a bad idea, etc. Rather, they are generally using traditional business logic, such as looking at whether a given problem can be solved with alternative approaches or technologies, and questioning the pace of compliance-mandated adoption given current ROI uncertainties, high tag and readers costs, performance questions, etc., That traditional, logical approach to new technology is often being belittled by the ECP evangelists.
	There is a bit of a split developing in the “just do it” gang. One branch seems to say just do it because it simply is really better and there is all kinds of real ROI. The other branch says “just do it,” because there is an awful lot to learn, and you can’t learn unless you experiment. We like the latter much better.

We thought there could have been more sessions on use of RFID outside EPC and the consumer goods-retail value chain (there was an interesting sounding presentation from BP on using RFID for asset tracking and tying in sensor data, but we missed it).

Eventually, as the industry matures, there will be substantial RFID conference consolidation. For now, you have lots of choices – RFID Journal Live is certainly one of those that may have staying power.

Did you attend RFID Journal Live? What were your impressions? Are evangelists unfairly disparaging those with questions? Do we need more real ROI details/insights from leaders? Let us know your thoughts.