Waiting in line is beginning to convince the attendee that his arrival time is bordering on overdue. Delayed by unforeseen circumstances, the line he currently stands in is the last in a string of external influences that have caused his late entrance. Understandably, he breathes a sigh of relief as he approaches the registration table to finally receive his RFID name badge, directional glasses, and event PDA. As soon as he clips his RFID card to his shirt, turns on his PDA, and puts on his directional glasses he is provided with the punctuality and simplicity his day has up to that point lacked.
The first change noticed is from the glasses. He selects the first location of previously requested company booths, and through the glasses he can see the line of lighted floor tiles that will lead him to its location. Once he arrives at the booth, his PDA picks up the frequency emitted from the booth and brings up the company’s history, a description of its products, their prices, and a list of his past interactions with the company. The people running the booth receive similar information from the attendee’s RFID card: the attendee’s profile, a description of his company, a record of sales to the attendee’s company, and a list of products worth promoting to the attendee. And so for the rest of the day, all the attendee has to do is follow a yellow brick road seen through his glasses and take care to not run into the thousand of other people at the convention.
RFID Fantasy?
This is a possible future Radio Frequency Identification might one day offer. The glasses might be a stretch, but RFID is being developed to enhance lead retrieval and attendance tracking methods and on the verge of being implemented. RFID can eliminate the current direct data collection methods and convert the process into a form of passive data collection. The main goal being that when an attendee walks up to a booth or into an educational session room, a sensor will recognize the attendee’s tag and provide information normally provided by the scanning of bar codes.
In a sense, RFID is not a completely new process; it is an update of older and current lead retrieval methods. However, it can have other applications besides lead retrieval. RFID can offer a means of researching traffic patterns at conventions, leading to further development with administrational and promotional techniques within the Meetings Industry. The Meetings Industry, however, is not where RFID was first utilized.
Other Uses of RFID Technology
In the past few years RFID equipment could be most commonly seen in the form of an EZ tag system on toll roads. With an EZ tag, drivers do not have to slow down, throw change into a collector, and wait for a gate to lift. They simply have to drive under a scanner which identifies the car’s EZ tag placed on the windshield behind a rearview mirror. The shipping industry is currently trying to enhance tracking methods that would allow customers to determine a shipment’s exact location in transit. Today, the top 600 vendors that sell products to Wal-Mart use RIFD chips, which have enabled Wal-Mart to mostly automate its inventory system. Biologists are developing RFID as a means of tracking animals in field studies.
Maged Mohamed, CEO of TechNeat , describes when his company first started exploring applications for RFID, “We started looking at this about two years ago and we said : the tradeshow industry and the segment we’re in, as far as a technology vendor for supplying data collection, retrieval, and tracking equipment, let’s utilize RFID. We went into one area where it would [present] a lot of value, basically the area of tracking attendance at trade shows and conferences.” Within the Meetings industry, TechNeat and other companies like it currently use RFID at conferences to monitor audience attendance at lectures and presentations. Using a scanner at entry and exit points they can identify when an attendee enters and leaves a conference. This information can be used at continuing education conferences to record an individual’s attendance.
RFID is a technology that will greatly shape the future of our industry. Meeting Professionals should take the time to learn how this exciting new tool will impact their shows and events.