MANAMA, 30 January 2005 — Bahrain will swipe its way into the future when it hosts a state-of-the-art smart card key conference tomorrow and Tuesday. The conference titled “Smart Society — Act Now?” is being organized by the Bahrain IT Society (Bits) and the Central Informatics Organization (CIO), the government entity which is implementing a smart card (CIO) project in Bahrain.
“The conference and exhibition is organized in view of Bahrain’s plan to issue smart cards to citizens and residents, replacing the current CPR card,” said BITS President Mohammed Nass. “About 10 sponsors and exhibitors will demonstrate their smart card solutions.” The event will be held at the Bahrain Conference Center, Crowne Plaza, under the patronage of CIO acting President Shaikh Ahmed bin Ateyatallah Al-Khalifa. “Several experts have been lined up for the conference. The panelists include representatives of Smart Card vendors, consulting companies, solution providers and government organizations.” The speakers include US company Leadership Group President Dr. Jerry Brightman, UK-based UniversalSoft Director Dr. Aziz Shaikh and King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals computer engineering department lecturer, Dr. M. Wassim Raad.