Earlier this month, I sat down with Geoff from the Near Field Communications (NFC) Product Management Team at RIM to get his take on a top NFC myth we often see from our Inside BlackBerry for Business Blog readers. (FYI – the BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900/9930 smartphones and BlackBerry® Curve™ 9350/9360/9370 smartphones have NFC built-in NFC.)

Editor’s Note: About a year ago, we sat down with Geoff for the first time to get his perspective on where RIM is going in the NFC space. If you haven’t had a chance to watch Geoff’s video interview, check it out here: How to use Near Field Communication (NFC) for Business.

Debunking The Top NFC Myth: NFC is not just about mobile payments!

Popular perception seems to be that NFC is just a way to make mobile payments. Although RIM has been a key mobile payment advocate – including becoming among the first smartphones to be certified by MasterCard® and Visa® for NFC-based payments and working with EnStream in Canada – this capability was merely a stepping stone to a BlackBerry presence in the NFC space. Mobile payment capability is just one part of NFC technology’s true potential.

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry for Business Blog »

If you were at BlackBerry World™ or BlackBerry® 10 Jam last week, you might have seen the foursquare “Check-in Stations” we set up. Did you know they were NFC-enabled?

Four days prior to the two conferences, foursquare released an updated version of their BlackBerry® smartphone app. The biggest addition? Near Field Communications! You can now check in at a venue with nothing more than a wave of your NFC-capable BlackBerry smartphone. (Of course, the venue has to have NFC tags for you to tap your BlackBerry smartphone against. It’s not actually magic – it just seems that way.)

Peter Nofelt, Software Engineering Manager – BlackBerry at foursquare (you might recognize his name from BlackBerry DevCon 2010) shot a quick demonstration video of the onsite NFC experience with fellow BlackBerry platform developer at foursquare, Kyle Fowler.

We learned a lot about #TeamBlackBerry from your foursquare check-ins. At BlackBerry World, the Solutions Showcase had the most check-ins and was the most popular event, while the most popular session was a Hands-On Lab, “BlackBerry® Mobile Fusion Studio and BlackBerry Device Service,” whereattendees learned how to install BlackBerry Mobile Fusion Studio and BlackBerry Mobile Fusion for BlackBerry devices.

At BlackBerry 10 Jam, attendees checked in at the Jam Space most often. No surprise there – the Jam Space was where developers could “Ask The Experts”, port their apps to the BlackBerry platform (in minutes!) at the App Express station, or simply hang out with us at the Social Media Desk. The most popular conference session on foursquare was “Get Ready for Cascades™ Development,” where attendees got a preview of Cascades and the powerful tools behind it.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a BlackBerry conference if we didn’t have the swag to back it up. At the end of each conference, the five attendees with the most check-ins won exclusive foursquare “Mayor Badge” t-shirts. Check out one of the mayors of BlackBerry 10 Jam, Chad Tetreault — he’s the guy that brought you LensBoost, among many other apps.

Below are more of the photos you shared with us when you checked in on foursquare, including another picture of those awesome t-shirts! (I know, I want one too. That’s the problem with “exclusive.”)

BlackBerry 10 Jam

BlackBerry World

If you haven’t done so already, head to BlackBerry App World™ to download the foursquare app.

Were you at the event? Did you check in? What badges did you earn? Share your foursquare stories in the comments below!

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

As you may have heard, earlier this week during the keynote at Mobile World Congress 2011, Research In Motion® (RIM®) co-CEO Jim Balsillie stated that some of the BlackBerry® smartphones released later this year will feature Near Field Communications (NFC). I was fortunate to catch up with Andrew Bocking, VP Handheld Software Product Management, right after his appearance on a MWC 2011 panel about NFC. In the above video, Andrew explains what NFC is, how it can be used and what this all means for BlackBerry smartphone users. Check it out!