Last updated: 20 March 2014
Greetings from LeWeb in Paris where the Internet of Things is this year’s theme. Can you picture the event with around 3,000 attendees milling about and meeting each other? Now imagine the number of business cards being exchanged…
How many conferences or events have you attended where you have swapped business cards with new and existing acquaintances? And how many of those business cards have sat in your desk gathering dust and never been used? I think we all know that feeling.
Frustrating, isn’t it? There are currently ten billion business cards in circulation in the world and I imagine a large number of those will not be seen or used beyond the first time.
Regular readers will have seen us blog before about the multiple ways you can use your cellphone for tasks that were formerly considered paper-based or too complex for our smartphones. From mobile payments to unlocking your car door or hotel room, the options are almost endless. Smart technology such as NFC, coupled with smart devices, make more traditional tasks high-tech.
And that includes the business card. What’s the one device you always have on you? Not your keys, or your wallet, but your cellphone. So, we have combined the business card with the cellphone. Instead of having to remember to bring many business cards, now you can rely on just the one smart card that syncs to your device and to your new connection’s device for an instant connection. Called POPwings and launching today in conjunction with LeWeb, where early adopters and tech influencers rule, this is how it works.
Several influencers have blogged about the death of the business card, with some claiming LinkedIn will replace it and others predicting the QR code with a vCard will become its successor. We predict it will be NFC technology, with one savvy business card you can customize, available for sharing via your device. It increases your network on the spot, remembering not only whom you met, but when and where you met them, and can even take action immediately. As everything goes digital, so should business cards.
In addition, you can save money with just the one smart business card instead of having to bulk buy, and your information is securely stored in the cloud and backed up.
Be an early adopter and embrace NFC for your business card. It’ll declutter your desk at the same time!
