Tuesday, 22 October 2013 – Last Tuesday saw over 110 people gather for the Biometric Institute‘s Evening Reception at Australia House in London. It was a fantastic evening of networking with a full cross section of Biometrics Institute members, from end users, government, vendors and academics. Included in this social evening were the Barclays, Bank of America, British Airways, Police from the Netherlands, the UK Home Office, Metropolitan Police, the Federal Ministry of Administration from Germany and the Norwegian ID Centre as well as vendors both large and small.

This event comes after a string of successful meetings being organised by The Biometrics Institute who are focused on their mission of promoting the responsible use of biometrics. The Biometrics Institute is targeting end user sectors such as financial services, aviation and government as well as providing their ongoing member services and support.

Earlier this month, the Biometrics Institute held an extremely well received ‘Identities at the Borders Seminar’ in Brussels. There were questions raised about risk management and discussion around whether visas should still be linked

to nationality or whether other risk criteria should be selected. There was also focus on data protection and data sharing and whether we could see a central system (not central database) that could create the equivalent of the “United States of Europe”. Due to overwhelming positive feedback, the Biometrics Institute has already announced there will be a follow-up seminar on the 29 April 2014, again in Brussels.

“Richard Rinkens from the European Commission has already confirmed his attendance for the April 2014 seminar,” confirms Isabelle Moeller, Chief Exectutive of the Biometrics Institute, “this seminar forms part of a range of events scheduled to promote the responsible use of biometrics, best-practice implementations as well as the need for the adoption of biometrics vulnerability testing.”

The Biometrics Institute looks forward to announcing dates for other events for Australia, New Zealand, Europe and the USA including one targeting the financial services sector (following a very successful ‘Combatting Fraud in Financial Services’ Seminar in June 2013) and a cross industry mobile event.

The annual event to mark in your European diary now is the ‘Biometrics Institute Technology Showcase Europe‘ conference and exhibition confirmed for the 26th June 2014 at the beautiful Australia House in London. Last year this conference and exhibition was hosted by the Royal Bank of Scotland and the arena is set for another ground breaking event in terms of discussion, networking and informative debate. As one Biometrics Institute members states “The Institute is setting the bar very high in bringing people together and initiating open and important discussions. The programme and speakers were really first class.”

In the Australian calendar this will be matched by two excellent gatherings, the Technology Showcase Australia 2013 on the 26 November 2013 in Canberra and the Asia-Pacific Conference 2014 on the 28-29 May 2014. The Canberra event will provide a unique opportunity to hear from Australian government where they see gaps in capabilities for facial and fingerprint biometrics, a discussion not to be missed.

The Biometrics Institute is the independent and impartial international forum for biometrics users and other interested parties. It has been established to promote the responsible use of biometrics technologies. The Biometrics Institute has offices in Australia and the UK.

For enquiries contact:
Isabelle Moeller | Email: manager@biometricsinstitute.org,

Web: www.biometricsinstitute.org