PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--25 years young! Despite heavy snowfalls in Paris which blocked access to the exhibition centre, CARTES & IDentification was in fine form, positioning itself more than ever as the sector's key global event. The show confirmed its influence, with 432 exhibitors (427 in 2009), 79% of whom were international, 18,768 visitors, 72% of whom were international (68% in 2009) and 142 countries represented.

Despite a slight dip in the number of French visitors due to the bad weather (18,768 in total compared to 19,883 in 2009), this anniversary edition once again lived up to the profession's expectations. The Comexposium team invites you to the next show, to be held from 15 to 17 November 2011, where Turkey will be the special guest country.

CARTES & IDentification - ever more international

Over the three days, 1,252 participants (1,228 in 2009) attended 18 conferences. Among the participants, 83% were international, coming from 57 countries.

Current themes were discussed at length, in particular during the conferences dedicated to new payment solutions in emerging countries, the internet of things, the evolution of prepaid cards and point of sale transactions, not forgetting the classic themes of non-contact payment, NFC, multi-application, card and data security and citizen identification which were a great success.

As every year, the high point of the Congress was the inaugural conference of the "World Card Summit", during which sector leaders analysed major market trends and presented their strategic visions in front of a full house of 500 people. Eurosmart also took this occasion to present a preview of its 2010 figures and the 2011 forecast for the world card market (www.eurosmart.com).

M2M & the Internet of Things, towards a technological new era

By visiting the Internet of Things pavilion, visitors were able to discover a new demonstration area, in partnership with Eurosmart, where experts presented home-automation applications, opening new perspectives for the smart technologies industry. This technological showcase allowed visitors to become familiar with the Internet of Things.

The pavilion hosted more than 15 companies, including Gemalto, Infineon Technologies, Morpho, NXP and Oberthur Technologies. Both the area and the theme will feature again at the 2011 show.

Identification leaves its stamp

The IDentification area, which is dedicated to identification and authentication, hosted 62 companies, which demonstrated the dynamism of the identity protection sector. Over the three days, it was an essential place to visit and discover the latest innovative technology relating to biometrics, document and transaction security, authentication and physical and logical access control.

A demonstration zone dedicated to biometrics enabled the show's 19,000 visitors to gain hands-on experience of the latest authentication and identification methods.

The 2010 SESAMES trophies: 15 years of innovation

The winners of the 2010 SESAMES trophies were revealed before a privileged audience of 300 during a superb ceremony organised at the Automobile Club de France.

Here once again is the list of winners for this year's trophies, which were particularly rich in innovations:

- HARDWARE SESAME: MORPHO E-DOCUMENTS with ConnectSIM

- SOFTWARE SESAME: INSIDE SECURE with Open NFC

- IDENTIFICATION – ID CARD SESAME: IDEX ASA with SmartFinger Film

- IT SECURITY SESAME: GEMALTO with eGo

- TRANSPORT SESAME: OBERTHUR TECHNOLOGIES with Voox

- BANKING/RETAIL/LOYALTY SESAME: BLACKBOARD INC. with Blackboard MF 4100 Multifunction Contactless Reader

- SECURE INTERNET/AUTHENTICATION SESAME: MEDISCS with IDéPhone

- MOBILITY SESAME: OBERTHUR TECHNOLOGIES with NFC Now for Nice NFC City

- E-TRANSACTIONS SESAME: GEMATIK GMBH with Practice-fee and receipt service

- PRODUCTION & TESTS SESAME: STMICROELECTRONICS with UTAMCIC

See you at the 26^th

CARTES & IDentification show which will be held from 15 to 17 November 2011

at Paris Nord Villepinte.

Special guest country: Turkey

To access the latest news on CARTES & IDentification:

The website: www.cartes.com or the blog: www.blogcartes.com

Photos of the 2010 show can be obtained on request from LEWIS PR

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6555079&lang=en