RFID wristwands enable secure into live events, among other benefits. (Photo Credit: Evan Sanders)
Uses for RFID bracelets are expanding well beyond ticketing, food and drink. Now, they can ID patrons with medical emergencies, as well as improve the fan experience by tying them to offerings like photo booths.
Whether it’s the capacity to collect purchasing data, enforce security or provide cashless payment systems, Radio Frequency Identification wristbands are growing in use, particularly at festivals and mega events.
Aaron Bach, vice president and senior account manager, Arnett Designs Inc., a manufacturer of RFID wristbands, said that one of the most important strengths offered by this technology is the ability to prevent people from sneaking into an event. Since each uniquely-coded wristband is checked in at the entrance, it is impossible for it to be passed back to another person. Bach offered the analogy of a large-scale event where, if tickets cost $300 per person, 1,000 people attempting to sneak in would cost the organizers $300,000.
The case was clear for Bach. “If you’re talking about spending a portion of that to install RFID, look at the cost savings,” he said.
Michelle Geddes, marketing and operations manager at MedTech, said that the RFID technology provided by her company enables a cashless system for people to purchase items at events. Users can upload a chosen dollar value to their wristband, either through on-site kiosks or online when they buy their ticket. The technology cuts out the possibility of money being stolen since the virtual wallet is secured to the user’s wrist. Geddes said that events that offer this option see an increase in spending, since the convenience of making purchases will sometimes outweigh the thought of how much is being spent by attendees.
“People are seeing two to three times more spent at their festivals when they’re implementing that cashless technology,” Geddes said.
She added that the data collected from these sales can show which vendors did especially well by seeing where customers, and even repeat customers, went. The venue can then take that data to make a case to different businesses to return to the event.
“It just helps to bring vendors and sponsors on board much quicker,” Geddes said. Products and income are only bolstered by this kind of collaboration, which Geddes said, “helps organizers to build a better festival for fans.”
The capabilities of RFID extend into the field of safety as well. Ben Taylor, chief operating officer at Front Gate Tickets, said that RFID wristbands can be scanned by medical teams if a guest is having an emergency.
“We can scan that wristband and pull up the registration information that the patron provided,” Taylor said. Emergency contacts will be in there, and the venue can see who the medical team is working with at any given time.
Aside from medical services, Taylor also shared that his company has deepened the level of interaction attendees can have with the event. Taylor said that kiosks located around a given venue can do everything from entering attendees in sweepstakes and register them for customer assistance, to giving them updates on the event or provide an opportunity to upgrade to VIP areas.
Taylor shared that FGT is also developing photo booths that RFID wearers can interact with, which they are aiming to roll out in 2017. In this way, his company hopes to make the event even more “about the patron’s experience at the individual level, rather than at a macro level of the event itself.”
As with any cutting-edge technology with significant benefits, RFID technology has seen high demand by events of all kinds. According to Bach, adding RFID technology to a ticket is within reach, but can be a challenge for some events. The technology “can’t be more than a couple of bucks” per-person, said Bach, so with a 75,000-person event, an added cost of $2 per ticket can add $150,000, or $225,000 at $3.
“When you look at it from that scope of things, if you break it down to an individual ticket, two dollars doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you’re taking it to 75,000 people you can see where the price is and where it’s going to be,” said Bach.
Even so, the price is better than it has been in the past. “It’s gone down a lot from where it used to be,” said Bach. As technology has improved with better and cheaper chips, pricing has gone down, to a point where Bach thinks it has “leveled out.”
“I don’t think it’s going to get any lower than it is because it already is really affordable when you think about what all is involved with it,” said Bach.
Geddes said that the sometimes-prohibitive price tag can be a barrier for some organizers. This requires people to take a hard look at their goals when it comes to RFID.
“I always look at is as first you’ve got to crawl, and then you can walk, and then you can run,” Geddes said. “Get in touch with what it is you’re wanting to collect. Is it data that you’re wanting to collect from your fans, is it that you want to track entry and exit, is it that you want to do a cashless type of system? You have to know what you want from your event as well as what your budget is.”
On a nostalgic level, some event-goers might miss the keepsake element of tickets. RFID wristbands do not always lend themselves to being kept for long periods of time. However, the industry is aware of this aspect, and is making moves to meet it.
“I like the old school piece of ticket stock,” Taylor said, relating to the need for a souvenir felt by many eventgoers. He said that though the decision is left to their clients, Front Gate Tickets offers commemorative tickets or 3-D laminates alongside the RFID wristbands. The keepsakes come with the brand, date, and everything else a traditional ticket has, even if it was not used to enter the event. The display is sleaker, according to Taylor, and could be framed or kept in a keepsake book.
“It expands on the idea of the paper ticket and takes it to a whole other level,” said Taylor.
While RFID wristbands are useful at multiday event, Bach said, “it doesn’t really make sense to have RFID unless it’s something that you’re using on more than one occasion.”
Bach did think that the technology could become popular as an option for season ticket holders, “where people are going to be coming back more than once.”
Bob Moroz, president of RFID Canada, said that he thinks RFID technology will eventually replace tickets, but that they, in turn, would be replaced by cellphones. Phones already have the capacity to share barcodes that can be scanned, and already have an RFID reader already built in. Moroz said he saw cellphones providing access, like boarding passes today, eventually taking precedent over tickets and RFID wristbands in the next three to five years.
“The good thing about RFID is it’s harder to tamper with,” Moroz said, “so it’s safer, it’s easy to read, it reads very quickly compared to other technology, whether we’re talking about barcoding or visual.”
Wherever RFID goes, the value is clear, especially when it comes to data.
For Geddes, the conclusions derived from data points are valuable assets for driving an event towards success. “It helps you to provide insight in your fans or the people attending your venue,” said Geddes. “I think what you collect drives where your business is going.”
Interviewed for this story: Aaron Bach, (949) 716-5852; Michelle Geddes, (519) 266-3566; Bob Moroz, (905) 513-8919; Ben Taylor, (512) 389-0315