Out with the Old. In with the New.

The ubiquity of NFC smartphones assures the end of lead retrieval as we know it—an activity that requires special-purpose devices and costs exhibitors money.

In a recent interview with Exhibit City News' assistant editor Krissy Obeng, ITN's CEO Ivan Lazarev predicts that exhibitors soon will no longer need to rent lead retrieval equipment in order to capture leads at events.

"Traditional badging as we know it will disappear," according to Lazarev.

Tomorrow's event badges will be digital. Exhibitors will capture leads by bumping their NFC phones against attendees' NFC phones.

"The digital badge will be contained in a smartphone. Exhibitors will no longer rent devices from registration companies. They won’t need registration companies to get contact data," Lazarev says.

Read the full article here.

ITN Shortlisted for Prestigious Award

ITN has been shortlisted for the 2014 Event Technology Awards.

Our use of BTAGs on the IBC Media Wall has been included in the award category "Best Use of Technology at an Exhibition/Trade Show."

Winners in all categories will be announced in London tomorrow.

Proximity Technology Trending, Says FreemanXP

Team members of FreemanXP scouted the floor of EventTech 2014 in Las Vegas this week (where ITN was an exhibitor) and nominated the top tech trends in experiential marketing based on the products they saw on display.

Heading the team's nominations was proximity technology.

"Proximity technology is growing in popularity as the barrier to entry is getting lower and lower–expect wearables, RFID, NFC, and more to play a big a role in event environments moving forward," the team reported.

ITN’s BTAGs Deliver Content at NAVC Conference

When it comes to wowing attendees, exhibitors and sponsors, content is king.

That’s why the organizers of the NAVC Conference 2014 took advantage of ITN’s new BTAG to deliver attendees content by touch inside the NAVC Conference New Product Gallery.

Thirteen companies participated in the juried new-product showcase, always a popular feature of NAVC’s annual event. The organizers provided each participating company an ITN BTAG, programmed to deliver collateral materials relating to the product on display.

NAVC Conference 2014 attendees—like attendees at every B-to-B event—were hungry for new product information, and BTAG made it amazingly easy for them to acquire it.

Simply stated, a BTAG is an NFC reader or “hotspot.” When an attendee touches a BTAG with his or her badge, the device records the touch. When uploaded to ITN’s cloud, that touch is processed as a request for digital content. The content is sent to the attendee as a link via email.

In addition to functioning as an NFC reader (able to record badge-touches), the BTAG functions as an NFC tag (able to pass information to other readers). That means attendees can also use their NFC phones to interact with BTAGs.

BTAGs are compact, self-contained, battery-powered units. Each unit is Bluetooth enabled, allowing it to connect to a mobile phone and upload badge-touches to ITN’s cloud.

At your event, you can display BTAGs anywhere by affixing them to posters, signs, walls, stands, kiosks, tables or countertops.

You can assign to a BTAG any Web content (URL) you want: Websites, YouTube pages, Facebook pages, e-literature, presentations, photos, etc. Attendees who touch the BTAG with their badges receive an end-of-day email with a link to that content. Attendees who touch the BTAG with their NFC smartphones link directly to the URL.  You manage the content assigned to the BTAG through the BCARD Portal.

And because all the BTAG touches are uploaded to ITN’s cloud, they are available for tracking and analysis at any time.

ITN’s new BTAG gives organizers an innovative tool for adding value to their events. The solution is ideal for providing content that supports keynote addresses, educational sessions, sponsors’ exhibits, and special displays like the NAVC New Product Gallery. BTAGs can also be used effectively for gamifying any event.

ITN Streamlines Valet Service at EMC World

Today’s attendees want to stay connected 24/7, which means they sometimes need to recharge their mobile devices while on the go. That’s why many event producers are now offering a valet charging service at their events.

The producers of EMC World 2014 provided just such a service on their exhibit floor this May.

Instead of waiting idly at a charging station while their mobile devices recharged—wasting time better spent networking and educating themselves—EMC World attendees could drop off their devices for recharging at a service desk, and pick them up later.

The challenge to managing the flow of devices dropped off and picked up at the service desk resides in two areas. How do you quickly and accurately identify who owns which device? And how do you keep track of every device’s whereabouts.

ITN assisted by providing a simple system that addressed the challenge.

We equipped each attendant at the valet charging service desk with an easy-to-use application and an NFC reader.

When an attendee approached the service desk, the attendant asked the attendee to touch his or her badge to the NFC reader. The attendee’s record immediately popped up on the attendant’s computer screen. The attendant then recorded the activity (drop-off); keyed in a cubbyhole number (specifying the slot where the device would be stored for pickup after it was recharged); and entered a description of the device (for example, “iPhone”). All of that information was attached to the attendee’s record. In addition, two copies of a claim check were printed immediately on a local printer—one for the attendee to hold, the second to be kept with the device for identification purposes.

When an attendee later returned to the desk to pick up a device left for recharging, the attendee again touched his or her badge to the NFC reader. The badge-read triggered the attendee’s record to pop up on the attendant’s screen. The attendant entered the activity (pickup) into the record, located the device in its numbered cubbyhole, and returned the device to the attendee—all in a matter of seconds.

In addition to supporting a valet charging service, ITN’s valet service application can be used whenever attendees avail themselves of a temporary storage service at an event—a coat check, a luggage room, etc. The producers of EMC World 2014 also used the application to manage the check-out and check-in of headsets by attendees, which were made available in connection with a free onsite translation service.

Learn more by watching this video.

 

Event Producers Name Top 10 Event Tech Trends

A new research report from The X Letter, The Next Tech Trends for Live Events & Experiences, explores the 10 technologies most likely to have significant impact on live events, according to a survey of event producers.

Seven of the 10 technologies included on the list are specialties of ITN:

• Cloud-based event planning tools captured the Number 2 spot
• The Internet of Things captured the Number 5 spot
• Wearable technology captured the Number 6 spot
• RFID/NFC captured the Number 7 spot
• Beacons captured the Number 8 spot
• Big data captured the Number 9 spot
• Real-time attendee analytics captured the Number 10 spot  

You can download the complete report by visiting The X Letter.

Access Control & Tracking at Licensing 2014

International CES Attendees Enjoy Bottleneck-free Badging

"The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) set out to revamp the attendee experience at its 2014 show and pulled it off, due in large part to ITN International, " says Margo Pierce, writing for EXPO Magazine.

In an effort to reduce waste and leverage technology, show management—for the first time in International CES' history—did not mail badges to attendees before the event, Piece explains.

That meant every attendee's badge had to be generated on demand.

With more than 155,000 attendees descending on Las Vegas, all eager to pick up their credentials and dash into the show, ITN had to assure that onsite badge production and distribution was bottleneck-free.

And it did.

"Anyone could pick up their badges at virtually any time—almost anywhere," Pierce writes.

A citywide network of badge production stations was the answer.

Read the full story here.

Partnership Lets Exhibitors Capture Leads with Their Own iPhones

DeviceFidelity and ITN International joined forces at Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona to provide exhibitors an enhanced “NFC Experience” on iOS.

 

Using DeviceFidelity-powered Cashwrap cases for the iPhones, exhibitors were provided a unique opportunity to read conference badges with ITN’s lead retrieval app BCARD Reader using NFC on iPhone 5S, 5, 4S, and 4.

 

The joint effort between the companies assured that iPhone-carrying exhibitors could also capitalize on the NFC Experience promoted by show manager GSMA, in partnership with DeviceFidelity and Incipio. 

 

The NFC Experience allowed attendees at Mobile World Congress to use their iPhones as show badges, as well interact with signs and posters throughout the event. The official GSMA Mobile World Congress show app worked with the NFC cases, and included digital food coupons for use on site, as well as access to content at citywide NFC hotspots.

 

DeviceFidelity worked with ITN to allow ITN’s BCARD Reader also to run on iPhones equipped with a Cashwrap case, as well as on iPads using DeviceFidelity iCaisse products, so exhibitors could capture leads with their iOS devices.

ITN and InGo Partnering to Boost Attendance of Super Mobility Week

ITN plans to integrate InGo’s social networking tool with its registration Website for Super Mobility Week.

InGo’s tool will allow registered attendees to invite key individuals from their social networks to attend the mammoth event.

The tool also enables attendees to see who within their networks will be attending.

“We’re very excited to launch this new partnership with InGo” says Ivan Lazarev, President & CEO, ITN. “Our collaboration will further differentiate us as a leader in the marketplace and allow our client CTIA to accelerate the growth of its event and gain insight into the demographics that drive the event’s value.”



“This partnership is a comprehensive one, including go-to-market teaming, technical collaboration and custom solution development,” says Michael Barnett, CEO, InGo. “Looking down the line, I am most excited about the information-rich lead analysis that ITN will be able to provide CTIA as a result of this partnership.”

Anchored by two CTIA tradeshows—CTIA 2014 and MobileCON—Super Mobility Week will represent the largest technology event in the second half of 2014, hosting thousands of mobile professionals and executives, 1,100+ exhibitors, and 1,000+ media and analysts.

The event takes place September 9-11 in Las Vegas.

ITN is the official registration and lead retrieval provider for Super Mobility Week.

NFC Gets Thumbs Up

EventTechBrief reports that International CES is pleased with its decision to use NFC badges at its 2014 show.

Laurie Lutz, Vice President of CES Operations, told the newsletter she was pleased with the advantages the technology offers.

“NFC is the best technology to use, bar none. It’s easy to manage the data. It allows unlimited options on what you can do on site, whether it’s access control, ticketing, lead management or games. It’s fast, versatile, very simple in any environment and makes updates instantly,” Lutz said.

Lutz said it was ITN's mastery of NFC that attracted her organization to the company in the first place. 

“We wanted the International CES to be on the leading edge and make sure that we were taking advantage of the best and most innovative technology out there,” Lutz said.

Innovations in the credentialing process came into play as well.

ITN's ability to distribute onsite badge production citywide allowed International CES for the first time to forego mailing registrants their badges before the show.

“We had over 30% of people pick up their badges at remote locations we set up like the airport or 15+ official hotels before they even arrived at the show," Lutz said.

"It was amazing seeing so many people step right off the shuttle buses or taxis with their badges and be able to walk right into the show."

Read the full story.

ITN's FastTrack Cart. Distributed Event Check-In Simplified.

ITN's new FastTrack Cart is a mobile badge production unit ideal for generating badges at remote locations such as hotel and airport lobbies.

Custom-built of metal and plastic, the cart is compact, lightweight and easily portable. Rubber wheels make it easy to roll the cart over both carpeted and uncarpeted areas.

The central design component of the cart is its removable tray. The tray provides for all power management, connectivity and supplies. Because of the tray, the cart presents registrants with a clean, well-organized desktop when the cart is in operation. In addition, the removable tray can be used with other suitable furnishings (kiosks, tables, desks, etc.) without use of the cart.

Both the cart and the tray are optimized for rapid setup. Total installation takes less than five minutes. A single socket is provided for power and a single socket for Internet connection, and the unit’s large storage capacity allows for enough supplies to serve hundreds of registrants. A custom-built lid and straps also eliminate the need to dismantle the cart at night, and provide for secure overnight storage of all hardware and supplies.

The cart can be branded on three sides. Multiple carts can be networked locally.

Intel Free Press Likes ITN's NFC "Smart Badges"

Intel Corporation's Free Press has nothing but glowing praise for ITN's NFC-enabled "smart badges."

"The so-called Internet of Things is expected by industry watchers to be among the major themes at International CES in Las Vegas," Free Press writes. "More everyday objects are becoming 'smart' and that extends to the trade show badges attendees wear at the annual consumer electronics industry gathering."

That "smartness" is thanks in large part to the embedded NFC chips provided by NXP Semiconductor.

"The intent of the smart badges with wireless chips is to ease information exchanges in situations such as checking in at booths and events as well as storing information like lunch tickets for media attending the show," Free Press says.

Read the full story here.

BTAG: Your Content at a Touch

ITN's latest innovation, BTAG, is a near-field communication (NFC) hotspot that delivers content whenever an attendee touches it with his or her event badge or NFC smartphone.

BTAGs allow attendees to gather content during your event in the easiest way imaginable—by turning their NFC badges into “digital tote bags.”

BTAGs give you an innovative new tool for communicating throughout your event:

• BTAGs are ideal for event producers who provide content for education, marketing or customer experience enhancement. They're also the perfect solution for exhibitors who want to enhance an in-booth demonstration or presentation by providing attendees collateral.
• BTAG is a BCARD Reader (able to capture badge-touches) and an NFC tag (able to pass information to other readers). That means attendees can also use their NFC phones to interact with BTAGs.
• You can assign to a BTAG any Web content (URL) you choose: microsites, e-literature, video, audio, slides, etc. Attendees who touch the BTAG with their badges receive an email with a link to your content. Attendees who touch the BTAG with their NFC smartphones link directly to the URL.
• You manage the content assigned to the BTAG through the BCARD Portal. You can change the content at any time.
• On site, you can deploy BTAGs anywhere by affixing them to posters, signs or any surface; or by asking your representatives to carry them.
• Every BTAG is a self-contained unit, powered by a battery that lasts up to seven days. Each unit is Bluetooth enabled, allowing it to connect to a mobile phone and upload badge-touches in real time to the BCARD Portal, so you get a live picture of attendees’ interest in your content.

1 in 2 Phones Will Soon Have NFC

NFC's champions consider the technology a breakthrough because it makes accessing content and exchanging information more interactive and intuitive than competing technologies. But skeptics have been quick to point out that NFC hasn't caught on everywhere because there aren't enough NFC-enabled smartphones in use.

The landscape is about to change.

According to ABI Research, mobile manufacturers will ship more than 500 million NFC phones in 2014, up from 285 million in 2013. And, according to Frost & Sullivan, by 2015, one in two phones in use will be NFC enabled.

Worried about Privacy Issues?

Are you worried that tracking attendees at your events may be an invasion of their privacy?

For answers, check out the recent article appearing in Meetings & Conventions, "Attendee Privacy."

Authors Michael Lowe and Michael Shapiro offer practical tips for tackling the privacy issue, based on interviews with event planners and attorneys nationwide.

As the authors discovered, most planners are comfortable with today's tracking technology when used for educational session scanning, access control and lead retrieval. That's because the vast majority of attendees at large events have "a reasonable expectation of privacy."

"Planners should include information in registration forms noting what kind of data is being collected, via what methods, how it will be used and how it will be stored," one attorney told the authors.

ITN Introduces BTAG

Drive Engagement with Gamification

Games have always scored high as a traffic- and engagement-building tactic. The reasons why are well understood. Games satisfy attendees’ innate needs to compete and win recognition. They also offer attendees the opportunity to bring home highly coveted “swag.”

But today, with the appearance of “gamification” on everyone’s hot-topic list, plus attendees’ near-universal fascination with new mobile technologies, games are undergoing a renaissance at events.

In their own way, ITN's near-field communication (NFC) event badges are contributing to the renewed enthusiasm. Event producers who use ITN have a distinct opportunity to "wow" their attendees with a game, because they can treat every attendee's badge as a "virtual swag bag."

What makes this possible is the ability to encode, as well as read, an NFC chip. That feature of the chip makes the event badge a key ingredient of a buzz-worthy and highly memorable game.

To succeed, you need to design a game aligned with your event's goals and that attendees will find alluring. Here are some design alternatives:

Skills competition. Suppose you want to increase traffic at some specific location.  You could design a game that challenges attendees’ physical or mental skills—anything from hitting a target to taking a quiz. An attendee could earn the right to play the game by completing an action (answering a simple question, for example), for which she earns a digital token that you write onto the attendee’s badge. The attendee then redeems the token to play, and earns more tokens (also written onto the badge) based on the number of points scored in the game. Afterwards, the attendee redeems all the digital tokens won for a matching-level prize by visiting your winner’s station.

Treasure hunt. Suppose you want to offer exhibitors a traffic-building sponsorship opportunity. You could design an old-fashioned treasure hunt. Attendees could earn points toward prizes by visiting a series of exhibits, where each participating sponsor rewards them with tokens written onto their badges. After the series of visits, the attendees would circle back to the lead sponsor's exhibit, where they would enter a prize drawing by redeeming their digital tokens.
 
Game show. Suppose you want attendees to actively listen, while you communicate a lot of information. You could train a presenter to act as MC, and design a game show that challenges players’ knowledge. Attendees would play by using tablets that—before activating the game—capture their contact information with a touch of the show badge and prompt them to answer a quiz. Based on their game-show scores, players would be awarded variously valued digital tokens (written onto their badges), which they could redeem for the corresponding prizes.

Mission. Suppose you want to collect market research from attendees. You could send them on a “mission.” Under this scenario, attendees would earn digital tokens on their badges by visiting a series of kiosks, where they complete your research surveys, presented on tablets. Players who take part in the mission (even the ones who don’t complete it) would receive real-time recognition on a leaderboard and through social-media posts, as well as collecting digital tokens they can redeem for rewards.

Chance. Suppose you want to draw a crowd and maximize word-of-mouth throughout the event. You could design a game of chance. Attendees who play would win digital tokens worth various amounts that they could redeem for refreshments at participating concessions throughout the venue.

Want to boost attendee engagement? Consider integrating a game into your next event.

Giants Loving NFC

Corporate giants like Google, Visa and McDonald's are singing the praises of near-field communication (NFC), due to its ability to dish out direct advertising and return real-time consumer data, according to Popular Science.

Because NFC is being built into the new generation of smartphones, it won't be long before most consumers will be able to pay for purchases and interact with brands through touch.

Advertisers won't use NFC only to deliver consumers coupons, promos, samples and other "digital perks," but to collect marketing intelligence, just as they do now on Websites.

"When you make an NFC purchase, your phone isn't just transmitting your bank numbers for payment. It can also transmit your buying habits and demographic information," Popular Science writes.

"That sounds terrifying, but for the most part that kind of information is already out there and being used every time you buy an app, or anything from Amazon, or search for a product on Google. NFC just has the potential to make that data available instantly and in real time, which is exceedingly valuable to marketers and retailers and other people who care that you prefer Five Guys to Shake Shack. And instead of coupons, you might get beamed advertising instead—intensely targeted ads tailored to your latest purchase."

Lead Qualification Should Come First

What defines success for an exhibit manager?

"It's all about the qualified leads you collect," says Mike Sorgani, our VP, Sales.

Mike was recently interviewed by the Sales Lead Management Association's SLMA Radio.

Tune in and learn why lead qualification should be every exhibit manager's passion.

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