Next week I will be attending the RFID Journal LIVE! 2008 conference in Las Vegas, where I’ll be immersed in the world of radio frequency identification technology. The show will cover applications of RFID across the aerospace, manufacturing, supply chain/logistics, pharmaceutical, and retail industries.

I’ll be focusing on the pharmaceutical track, learning about the latest breakthroughs, product announcements and trends in RFID’s use in compliance, track-and-trace, anticounterfeiting, and more. New products like tags, readers, and tracking systems have already been announced, and I’m excited see demos and find out more. Here are just a few examples: Alien Technology will demonstrate the “Intelligent Tag Radar,” which can provide information about the velocity and position of RFID tags in addition to the contents of tag memory; Lexmark’s “RFID UHF Option” allows customers to turn an existing Lexmark T64x series printer into an RFID printer that prints, programs and verifies RFID tags while continuing to serve as an office printer; ODIN technologies will release the “EasyMonitor” suite, designed to automate the RFID infrastructure such as readers, printers, handhelds and peripherals; and Zebra Technologies will show its on-demand RFID printing/encoding products and line of RFID “smart” labels and tags.

Winners of this year’s RFID Journal Awards will be announced at the conference, including awards for “Best RFID Implementation,” “Best Use of RFID to Enhance a Product or Service,” and “Most Innovative Use of RFID.” The final award, “Best in Show,” goes to the company that shows off the best new product or service. Ten finalists have been chosen, nine have been revealed: American RFID Solutions, Intermec, Lexmark (for its “RFID UHF Option”), NCR, Omni ID, Pramari, Reva Systems, Skyetech, Wirama, and Company X (to be announced).

Stay tuned for updates from the show!