At Venditalia, the leading international vending market tradeshow, taking place in Milan (Fieramilanocity) from May 7-10, Intel Corporation is launching a worldwide "Intelligent Vending Competition" aimed at seeking out new ideas, talents and projects for the vending machine market of the future.

As the vending market segment transitions to the digital era, Intel's main aim in organizing such a contest is the search for innovation in both technology and business within vending. Intel is referencing three criteria in the contest: user experience, business models and transaction models. Improvements in user experiences and the ways in which humans interact with machines though use of touch-screen technology, rich graphics, gesture recognition or integration with social media are key components to the content. Secondly, the adoption of new business models, including multi-product vending, price campaigns, discounts, vouchers, coupons, loyalty programmes, advertising and advertising campaign efficacy, will be judged. And the final criterion is the integration of new digital payment systems and transaction methods including contactless payments, near field communication (NFC), smartphone-based payment or use of innovative vouchering.

The prize is an opportunity to display the winning innovative vending solution on the Intel stand at Venditalia 2014, introducing the winning design to vending industry specialists and other visitors expected at the tradeshow this year. In 2012, Venditalia registered more than 314 exhibitors and 20,000 visitors from 93 countries worldwide, mostly managers and manufacturers of products for the vending machine market.

Participation in the "Intel Intelligent Vending Competition" is free of charge and open to all companies and innovators over the age of 18 who work in the field of vending systems. The official rules can be found in the competition announcement, available online at: www.inteleventzone.co.uk/iva-2014/contest-rules.php. The deadline for sending applications is March 1.