Despite the world economic downturn, ID World 2009's organisers are expecting participation at the international conference to surpass past years' performances.

Event director Federico Faleschini says the event attracts a high CEO attendance regardless of the economic climate. Fifty-six CEOs spoke at the event last year and more are expected to attend this year.

"Confirmed speakers and exhibiting partners tell us the limitations of events [focusing] on single industry tracks, like only RFID, biometrics or just security, are swaying their decision in favour of ID World," Faleschini says.

ID World 2009 is an annual conference and exhibition on advanced automatic identification technology. It offers a platform to industry leaders and senior government representatives to share their vision and communicate it to the industry at large. So far, over 200 speakers from five continents will be a part of 19 separate conferences at the event.

Highlights of the conference include the African Government Panel where a delegation of African government representatives will present on current African government-driven national ID schemes and citizen-centric services. There will also be forums like the CEO and Investors Forum, Citizen ID Forum, Transport Security Forum and the Asset Tracking Forum.

ID World 2009 will also include the NFC Academy & Exhibition conference on near-field communications and its applications, the Sustainability Summit and QUID Innovation Italy, a summit on automatic identification in Italy parallel to ID.

Early bird conference registration closes on 14 September. The event will be held at the Milanofiori Congress Centre in Milan from November 3-5. For more information, visit www.idworldonline.com.