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©2005 Corbin Ball Associates
RFID (radio frequency identification) is working its way into the meetings and tradeshow space with multiple benefits in convenience for attendees, the meeting organizer, and the exhibitor.
The most recent example seen was at the PCMA Annual Meeting with a record 2600+ registrants in Honolulu in January. Laser Registration provided the registration and RFID services for the meeting.
The badges looked normal, but on closer inspection, an adhesive paper strip attached to the back contained an almost indiscernible bump (the chip). For display purposes in the picture below, the strip has been torn from the back and placed in front.
This chip works somewhat like the barcode in the supermarket only more reliably and not requiring line-of-site vision. Similar to a barcode, the chip contains a small string of digits which are matched by readers to attendee registration information. So, in a sense, as the digits are “read”, the attendees are “recognized” by the system in a similar manner to how a can of beans is recognized by the readers in the supermarket.
915 MHz frequency chips were used for this meeting. The read range (the distance where the readers can sense the badge) could be tuned from 2 feet (60cm) to up to 15 feet (4.5m). The additional cost to provide RFID is currently from US$.50 to US$2.00 per badge depending on the quantity and the extensiveness of the services required. These costs are expected to plummet in the next few years.
Wearing this badge, a range of services opened to the attendees:
Entrance Greeting
As attendees walked into the registration area wearing their badges, their names appeared automatically on a plasma screen monitor by the door.
Room Count Tallying
An RFID sensor, tuned to a 15-foot read range, sensed the tags and matched the data on the tag to the registration data. Running counts of people walking by were tallied at the entrance and in the general sessions allowing the meeting planner (and those watching the screen) to know, at a glance, the number of people in the room.
These registration totals could easily be sorted by attendee geographic origin as well. This yielded realtime geophraphic analysis of attendees in the session:
Cyber Café/Message Center Access
As an attendee walked up to a message center terminal, a tag reader (tuned to about a 2-foot read range), recognized the person. Their name appeared on the terminal, and with a minimum of log-in steps, they could check email and surf the web.
CEU Tracking
Continuing education unit credits were also tracked. The readers, tuned to about a 2-foot read range, allowed people to simply walk up to the reader in the back of each meeting room. The attendee’s name automatically appeared on the reader and a receipt automatically printed.
Banquet Seating Notification
As attendees gathered in the foyer for the final night banquet, there were 42 inch (1.1 M) plasma screen monitors by the entryways displaying a diagram of the banquet seating table arrangement. As people walked up to the monitors, their names were displayed on the screen with arrows pointing to the tables they were assigned to – a nice touch to expedite the flow into the room.
These are but a few of the many applications that RFID can provide. Among the ones not used at PCMA (as they do not have an exhibit) are exhibitor lead retrieval and general movement tracking through and exhibit hall for marketing purposes -- just to name two of the more obvious ones. In many ways, RFID is a solution waiting for many more applications.
Privacy Concerns?
I inquired both with the registration service provider and those behind the registration counters if there were concerns expressed about privacy. Did people react negatively to being automatically scanned in this manner? Only one person I heard of voiced concerns, and those were not strongly felt. The general consensus from my informal, unscientific poll was that the added benefits provided were worth any perceived invasion of privacy.
RFID is another way that technology can streamline the meeting process. It will be an interesting trend to follow as they work their way into the meetings and exhibitions industries and into society in general. |
