Welcome to the Products of the Future: Applying Printed Electronics

Raghu Das MA is Managing Director of IDTechEx. He has a BA Natural Sciences honours degree from Cambridge University, where he read physics, mathematics, computer science and material science. He gained technical and marketing experience with RFID when he worked for tag suppliers. At IDTechEx, Raghu is in charge of the consultancy service and the annual Smart Labels USA conferences. He has carried out consultancy in America, Europe, the Middle East and East Asia. He has lectured on RFID, Smart Packaging and Printed Electronics at over forty global events and is co-author of several IDTechEx publications.

IDTechEx is a knowledge based company specialising in smart labels and smart packaging, the hottest aspect of which is Radio Frequency Identification RFID at present. The company gives strictly independent marketing, technical and business advice and services on these subjects. It is in three forms - consultancy, publications and conferences. Staff are mainly honours graduates specialising in the subject. They travel intensively, visiting many conferences, universities and companies to learn and interpret the latest information. Indeed, IDTechEx is unusually international in its reach, with directors in the US and UK and technical associates in Japan, Spain and elsewhere. IDTechEx technical staff and associates speak Mandarin, Canton, Japanese, French, Dutch and many other languages.

 

Consultancy is carried out for a wide variety of clients across the world, recent examples including Hewlett Packard US, Polytechnos Germany, Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, QinetiQ UK, a biotechnology company in Canada and a group in Japan. Consultancy includes business and technical due diligence for investors and companies seeking licences, guidance on technological trends and business plans and presentation of tailor made tutorials. IDTechEx has also recommended optimal technologies for certain product designs and product positioning sought by clients.

 

IDTechEx publications include introductory material such as "The Smart Label Revolution" and "Smart Packaging" plus in depth analysis of aspects such as "The Future of Chipless RFID", "Total Asset Visibility " And "Smart Tagging and Smart Packaging in Healthcare". These reports are published in hard copy and on disk. However, IDTechEx also publishes the monthly web journals "Smart Labels Analyst" and "Smart Packaging Journal" which contain in depth analysis and reports on the many conferences staff attend worldwide. IDTechEx has the world's largest database of RFID case histories.

 

The IDTechEx conferences are annual and include Smart labels USA, Asia and Europe, Smart Tagging and Packaging in Healthcare and, with PIRA, Intelligent and Smart Packaging (both in the US in 2004). Smart Labels Europe will move from the UK to the South of France in 2004. Smart Labels USA had over 400 attend this year from 24 countries. The conferences are the largest available in those subjects and the Smart Labels series is unique in being a global set of three - USA/Europe/Japan. IDTechEx only does conferences on subjects where it is a globally acknowledged expert.

Raghu Das MA (Cantab) is CEO of IDTechEx. He has a Natural Sciences degree from the University of Cambridge, where he studied physics. He has been closely involved with this subject for over nine years, carrying out consultancy in Europe, USA, Asia and the Middle East. He has lectured on these topics at over 300 events around the world and is author of several IDTechEx publications. r.das@idtechex.com