Please Note: The following agenda is still in development and subject to change
2025 and beyond will present opportunities and challenges to business leaders. Inflation and interest rates will return on the wings of government spending, a tightening labor market, global demand and higher-cost production inputs from raw materials to electricity. Navigating the twin challenges of inflation and interest rates will require immediate action. We will discuss the timing and the actions to take to get your company ready for the next few years and the rest of the decade.
Manufacturing and the economy in general are in recovery, but the rate of rise will vary by industry and even geographic region. The information we present on the various domestic and global landscapes will allow decision-makers to position their companies for maximum return through the coming years.
As an experienced economist, Taylor St. Germain provides consulting services for small businesses, trade associations and Fortune 500 companies across a spectrum of industries. Taylor specializes in forecasting at both the market and company levels and is a key contributor to maintaining ITR Economics’ forecast accuracy rating of 94.7%.
His dynamic personality and extensive knowledge of economic trends and their business relevance are highly valued by clients and colleagues alike.
Taylor spent time in the tech industry providing market intelligence to electronics OEMs, semiconductor companies and component manufacturers. In his five years with ITR Economics, he has worked with various distributors, manufacturers and producers, helping each client navigate the business cycle and optimize their corporate planning strategy.
Taylor earned his bachelor’s degree in statistics from the University of Vermont and is finishing a master’s degree in applied economics at Southern New Hampshire University. He has been featured in OEM Magazine, NALP, Lawn and Landscape and on the Fab Lab and Wealth Formula podcasts. 
The payment & financial industries can create a positive impact on the environment by using more eco-friendly materials, such as wood and 100% recyclable metals. However, they might be overlooking a much greener initiative: combatting fraud. Consider that every dollar lost to fraud costs about $4.5 to the afflicted parties—costs attributed to additional servers (fraud information storage), electricity for additional transactions and other carbon emissions directly due to fraud-related friction and inefficiencies in the financial system. Combatting fraud has been viewed as a way for the industry to save money, but factoring all this in, it’s also a way to save the planet.
Learning about adhesives doesn’t have to be dry!
Join this session that combines broad technical insights with an interactive experience.
Our “Adhesive Pub Quiz Game” is designed to challenge participants while delivering key knowledge about adhesive types, applications and best practices in the card industry and beyond.
No matter your expertise level, walk away with not only better adhesive expertise but also the satisfaction of learning through a bit of competition and fun.
In the past decade, the United States has increased its use of tariffs on imports across the board. Under the Trump Administration, the U.S. has signaled an intent to expand existing tariffs, including tariffs on critical products such as semiconductors. In response, foreign governments have announced plans to retaliate with tariffs of their own, escalating global trade tensions.
These “Trade War” policies have a direct effect on the development, manufacture, and supply of smart cards and smart card components. While U.S. manufacturers may benefit from protective tariffs that shield protect domestic innovation, they simultaneously face significant challenges with sourcing materials and navigating export restrictions. Meanwhile, importers will face increasing obstacles in accessing products from China and other affected countries.
This presentation will explore current trends in international trade related to smart cards, the potential future impacts of ongoing tariff policies, and how companies in the industry can adapt to the shifting trade landscape in the coming years. 
We typically think of using a credit or debit card to pay. But a card can do so much more. In this presentation, we will show how the card can be leveraged with groundbreaking innovations such as micro-screens and biometrics, and how the card can be used to e.g. authenticate the user by just tapping the card to a smartphone (enabling a passwordless consumer journey) and to store private keys in the chip of the card for a seamless and secure digital assets UX.
As the gift and loyalty card industry rapidly evolves, material innovation and sustainability are becoming just as critical as security and fraud prevention. While digital solutions continue to grow, physical cards remain an essential part of the ecosystem, requiring manufacturers and converters to balance performance, sustainability, and operational efficiency in a competitive market.
In this future-focused session, we’ll explore how the industry is shifting toward eco-conscious materials, print adaptability, and supply chain efficiencies while ensuring cards remain durable, high-performing, and aligned with corporate sustainability goals. We’ll compare plastic, digital, and sustainable card materials, examining their strengths, challenges, and long-term viability in the evolving landscape. We’ll also discuss how universal coated products and advancements in print technologies optimize working capital and reduce material waste.
As the first paper mill to achieve Mastercard’s Card Eco-Certification (CEC), Monadnock Paper Mills will share insights into how certification programs are shaping the industry and why sustainability will be a key driver of future innovation.
Key Takeaways for Attendees:
- Material evolution—How plastic, digital, and sustainable substrates are shaping the future of cards
- Sustainability in card production—The role of certifications like Mastercard’s CEC in industry adoption
- Operational efficiencies—How print adaptability and universal coated products reduce working capital
- Hybrid solutions—How digital and physical cards will coexist in the evolving marketplace
Please note that this schedule is still in development and subject to change
With the wide variation on card builds, materials, and options in today’s market, ensuring you hit your business’s gross margin targets is more difficult than ever. This very practical discussion will focus on how to implement a margin management system: the tools and data required, simple do-it-yourself analysis techniques, and building action plans for when operations strays from its goals. Oriented toward general management, operations management, and finance professionals. 
The use of recycled or biobased card materials is increasing rapidly. Despite the undoubted advantages, bonding on these new materials, however, remains a challenge. This presentation delves into innovative ways to bond on eco-friendly card materials sustainably. It highlights traditional fastening methods, innovative adhesive systems as well as thermoset bonding. At the same time this educational presentation explains and differentiates their eco-friendly advantages and challenges on the example of real-world applications (such as chip module implanting). On top of that the presenter will share pragmatic und useful recommendations for how to approach and overcome bonding challenges with regards to eco-friendly card materials. A key method for adding value to your offering and successfully competing against low-cost/high-volume competitors lies in personalization and small order processing. However, the challenges of building a manufacturing process capable of individualized order processing are daunting. Initial implementations typically require extraordinary amounts of time/labor in order processing and non-scalable processes for manufacturing and shipping small quantities. We discuss general approaches to solving these problems, with a highlight on digital order automation and digital manufacturing job management.
Presenting the Élan Awards of Excellence
Tonight we will not only celebrate the winners of our prestigious Élan Awards of Excellence, but also the rich culture and geographic diversity of our ICMA attendees. Make your way through the global food and drink stations for a fun culinary experience! Enjoy the music and make some new ICMA friends and connections.
Card personalization and issuance requires technology, precision and efficiency to bring cards to life. In parallel with the underpinnings of Industry 4.0, digital machine intelligence within this segment brings increased efficiency and ROI opportunities to the forefront of smart card manufacturing. The Entrust Production Analytics Solution is a software platform built on delivering this value proposition to card personalization operations through a customizable, real-time, aggregated architecture. This presentation will look more closely at how and why the trend for digital intelligence can leverage powerful real-time analytics to identify trends in productivity, bottlenecks, quality gaps and overall line-balancing. Production analytics continues to drive the next generation of smart manufacturing in card personalization and issuance, bringing enhanced value to operations and business alike.
Celebrating its 70th anniversary with a leading position as a plastic substrates supplier for the smartcard industry, SPICA discovered and launched a new technology unique in the industry, which will lead to a revolution in the way the PVC sheets for the card market will be designed and produced. There will be unlimited possibilities; the only limit will be the imagination of SPICA and its partners.
Training is an integral part of hiring and retention in the card manufacturing industry, especially for companies that are hiring outside of the industry. David Tushie, standards and technical representative of the International Card Manufacturers Association (ICMA), shares insights on the state of the card manufacturing industry and how the Advanced Card Education (ACE) program can be the answer to helping industry leaders better hire and retain employees.
