History to foundation of ECCA

The inaugural conference was hosted by Waterford Institute of Technology in Ireland in June 2002. The aim of this three-day event was to promote the advancement of the rapidly developing card, biometric and transaction security technologies. This conference, which was attended by over 200 delegates from 17 European Countries, was an outstanding success. Seminars and workshops presented by expert speakers from Europe and the US covered a wide range of issues relating to campus cards. There was also an exhibition where over 30 companies attended and displayed their products.

One of the key elements of the card conference in 2002 was the Special Meeting of the European Campus Card User Group. A strong recommendation emanating from this meeting was that a European Campus Card Association be formed to act as a forum for the exchange of information and experience and to assist the development of smart card applications on campuses.

Eugene McKenna of Waterford Institute of Technology in Ireland, was requested to coordinate the establishment of a steering group to prepare the way forward in this regard and to process recommendations at the next conference scheduled to be held in London in 2003. The main role of this group is to explore the most suitable structure for a European Campus Card Association (ECCA). The group today comprises of representatives from the following countries - Poland, Ireland, Sweden and Austria.

Since the inaugural conference held in 2002, the second conference took place in London in June 2004. At this event, the ECCA structure and committee was formalised. Since then there have been four other conferences, which have taken place – London again in 2005, hosted by Linkoping University in Sweden in 2006, hosted by Johaness Kepler University, Linz Austria in 2007 and last year’s event was hosted by the Technical University of Lodz in Poland.