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.