Trace Labs Presents FDM Project at GS1 Global Forum 2020
In February, the Trace Labs team was once again invited to attend the GS1’s Global Forum, which took place in Brussels. This event is a platform for sharing the latest standards and solutions achievements, implementations and innovations of first-rate practices from different countries around the world, and users’ perspectives. It is also a social event, designed to bring together people with the same vision, all with the goal of improving GS1’s global strategy and fuel inspiration for innovation activities.
This year, the GS1 Global Forum, the most important annual event organized by this international organization, united more than 850 participants from more than 90 countries. Among event participants were CEOs, COOs, marketing and training managers, technical experts, projects leaders, GS1 stakeholder guest representatives from the end-user industry, key trade associations (TCGF, WCO), and solution providers who are also members of different management boards. At the GS1 Global Forum, attendees enjoyed innovative presentations about GS1 supply chain standards and how GS1 is helping companies from all around the world meet obligations and satisfy customers.
Trace Labs and GS1 — A Partnership Based on Trust
Trace Labs has a history of collaborating with GS1 on shaping the future of supply chains. The OriginTrail protocol was presented in GS1’s position paper on blockchain interoperability and during last year’s GS1 Global Forum, Co-Founder & Managing Director Žiga Drev joined the panel discussion where he called for unlocking data from fragmented global supply chains to help it reach true value.
This year, Žiga Drev was invited to speak at the session on the blockchain. He presented Food Data Market, an open-source project leveraging OriginTrail protocol and GS1’s EPCIS open standard, which provides incentives for greater visibility in food supply chains. With Food Data Market, data describing product visibility and storage conditions can be captured, valorized and monetized to provide incentives for greater visibility in food supply chains.
The development of the open-source Food Data Market is funded by LEDGER, an EU-funded project that encourages solving problems with the use of decentralized technologies like the blockchain, and peer-to-peer or distributed ledger technologies. LEDGER is part of the Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative launched by the European Commission with the goal of making the Internet more transparent, inclusive, open, cooperative and respectful of data privacy.
Panel Discussion with Leading Authorities on Blockchain Standards
The session was concluded with a panel discussion. Žiga Drev was joined by Kraig Adams, VP for Customer Engagement for Blockchain at GS1 US, Jacqueline Klaiss-Brons, Senior Management Consultant at GS1 Switzerland, and Richard Plunkett, General Manager of Business Enablement at Woolworths Group, which operates the leading Australian retail chain. Session leader was Timothy Marsh, Senior Director for Traceability, Provenance, Sustainability and Blockchain at GS1.
The discussion focused on how blockchain technology has been increasing supply chain stakeholders’ interest and will continue to do so. Enterprises of all sizes are deciding to implement data sharing solutions that leverage distributed ledgers. Since GS1 is very involved in such activities in terms of setting standards, it wants to educate stakeholders on the benefits of data sharing with blockchain technology. As pioneers in this field agreed on a panel, the blockchain is already proving to be an efficient and effective technology.
The Food Data Market project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program within the framework of the LEDGER Project funded under grant agreement №825268.
