The response to ProMat 2005's RFID Knowledge Centre was "very positive", with 5,000 visitors attending, said Dr Richard Ward, executive vice president for professional development for the Material Handling Industry of America (MHIA).

The 25,000 square foot (2322.5 square metre) centre at McCormick Place South's 300,000 square foot (27870 square metre) show floor, in Chicago, was dedicated to advancing visitors' knowledge of RFID technology.

How RFID technology works, the opportunities RFID presents and how to plan for RFID implementation were among topics covered.

Ward said visitors directed their comments and queries at 30-odd RFID seminars held at the trade show, but enjoyed a multimedia presentation at the Knowledge Centre.

"Our purpose was to demonstrate how RFID works by way of a multimedia presentation and actual RFID personal tagging presentations," Ward said.

"We also demonstrated RFID by creating a personalised RFID tag unique to each individual. So, when they left the Knowledge Centre, the computer was able to identify that tag and say thank you to each person," he said.

The engineer said visitors' knowledge of RFID varied from "very little to a fair amount".

"The topic had been prominent in our news for about a year.
(Forkliftaction.com News #162).

"I think most people were not experienced yet in RFID, so our centre gave added value to it," he said.

Ward said MHIA would send a questionnaire to all RFID Knowledge Centre visitors to survey their experience of the technology.

He described RFID in simple terms: "RFID is another way of accomplishing automatic identification not unlike the role a barcode plays - except RFID accomplishes it in a different manner."