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Ease: NFC's Clear Advantage

Successful Workplace reports that QR Codes, because they require users to take extra steps, are rapidly losing ground to NFC.

"Just as some of the world realized what QR codes actually are, the shift is happening toward Near Field Communication (NFC) instead," writes columnist Jeanne Roué-Taylor.

Both technologies serve the same function, Roué-Taylor says, but with a major difference in the user experience.

Both "create a digital bridge to physical collateral," but QR Codes are "too clunky" and demand "too many steps from ‘notice to value,’" while "NFC, simply put, is easier to use."

NFC is a "virtual doorway" that's driving the "move toward the Internet of Things," Roué-Taylor says.

While QR Codes demand that users change platforms to acquire collateral, NFC enables them "to invisibly pass through electronic borders without changing platforms."

NFC Tags, One. QR Codes, Zero.

NFC World reports that NFC tags have beaten QR Codes for in a popularity contest.

"We have found that the NFC tags are more popular than the QR codes, because they are very simple to use," Dutch retailer Vic told the trade publication.

In a test, Vic placed NFC tags and QR Codes throughout its store.

 

Both allowed shoppers to access product Websites, discount coupons and promotional videos using their smartphones.

The NFC tags were used more frequently than the QR Codes.

"It is definitely something we hope to keep in our store going forward into the future; it is our way of connecting our online and offline worlds."

Welcome to the Mobile Movement. Resistance is Futile.

Event technology guru Corbin Ball provided today’s guest post. His bimonthly newsletter Tech Talk is read by more than 9,200 planners worldwide.

When he was still governor of New York, future President Martin Van Buren wrote a letter to sitting President Andrew Jackson complaining about a new form of “mobility.”

“The canal system of this country is being threatened by a new form of transportation known as railroads,” Van Buren wrote. “Railroad carriages are pulled at the enormous speed of fifteen miles per hour. The Almighty certainly never intended that people should travel at such breakneck speed."

How often, like Van Buren, do event planners swear that the Almighty never planned for attendees to use their mobile phones?

All humans are naturally resistant to change, but planners are even more so. That’s because event technology is often mission-critical. If it blows up your face, your job is on the line.

That said, the sheer rate of technology-driven change is unprecedented—and overwhelming. The number of options presented every year paralyzes planners into inaction.

But planners shouldn’t resist new technology—particularly the technology behind today’s “mobile movement.” Because to do so is to guarantee your event will become noncompetitive. Digital Darwinism is the name of the game today. Don’t adapt and you’ll perish.

If you want to blame someone for the situation, blame attendees, not smartphone manufacturers.

Attendees are carrying around more computing power in their pockets than fit in several rooms a generation ago. And they like the feeling. In fact, attendees are ready participants in the mobile movement, and are on a path to make ever-increasing demands on you to give them the same digital conveniences others give them every day.

What should you do to prepare yourself for the future?

Stay aware of the technology that’s trending. Right now, that’s mobile (and social) media. But more new technology is due on the scene any day—and poised to usher in more change in the next five years than it did in the past fifteen.

Do your research. Read newsletters and blogs voraciously. Talk to peers. Pick consultants’ brains and ask vendors to provide you background and best-practice information.

Evaluate and forge ahead. As a planner, no one is better positioned than you to evaluate new event technology. You’re on the front line. You know what matters to attendees. And you understand what’s at stake.

Charles Darwin said it best: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”

NFC Hits "Point of No Return"

"NFC has reached the point of no return," says ABI Research’s John Devlin. "It all hinged on handsets; and next year we will see half-a-billion devices in the hands of consumers as it becomes more widely integrated."

The number of NFC devices in use will exceed 500 million in 2014, with 285 million shipped this year alone, according to ABI.

Companies like Blackberry and Samsung have implemented narrow strategies around NFC. As a result they are setting themselves apart.

Others, like LG and Sony, are horizontally integrating NFC into a broad array of products—not only mobile phones and tablets, but PCs, peripherals, speakers, TVs, cameras, games and appliances.

Wall Street Journal Trumpets NFC

Ben Rooney, writing for The Wall Street Journal, says the recent Mobile World Congress makes clear "that Near Field Communication might finally be about to have its day."

NFC was pervasive at Mobile World Congress, Rooney notes. "If you had the right phone you could bypass the entrance queues with an NFC-powered 'badge' on your phone. The halls were strewed with NFC-powered 'smart' posters that would unlock all manner of hidden secrets if you tapped them with your smartphone, from restaurant information to directions to the nearest restrooms. There were demonstrations that allowed you to play music on headphones, test if products were genuine or counterfeit, or that let you replace your car keys or your house keys with just your phone."

Yes, other technologies let you do these things, Rooney says; but none beats an NFC-enabled phone when it comes to convenience.

"Yes, you can travel with Oyster card, but if it runs out of money you have to queue to charge it up. With an NFC-enabled phone you don't. Yes, you can read QR codes, but you have to have the app installed, and there have been cases of people covering over QR codes on posters with malicious codes that direct users to nefarious websites. Yes you can print out your boarding pass for a flight, or even have it delivered to your phone, but you have to have the app open—and your phone has to be on. NFC-enabled ticket apps can work with the phone off. They will even work—under some circumstances—if your battery runs flat. Some NFC readers can generate enough power in your phone to power up the security chip, which may be at least enough to get you home."

BCARD Platform Introduced at EXHIBITOR 2013

On March 18, ITN will introduce BCARD Platform during EXHIBITOR 2013.

"Anywhere, anytime and always on," BCARD Platform is a mobile lead management system exhibitors can use at any kind of event, no matter whether digital badges are issued.

Leads can even be captured during face-to-face encounters at the office, the airport, the golf course or the watering hole.