In the first of a series of articles, David Preston, CEO of Realise joins Mollie Phipps of Sprintr for a review of the future of event registration

In our daily lives we are all becoming more and more used to automation, with self-service options and artificial intelligence influencing what we do, buy and experience.

Take this scenario. I’ve just been an airline passenger for 4 flights starting in London and then travelling to and across the US. I could have passed through the airport and boarded my flight without speaking to anyone from the airline, from check-in, bag drop and even actually boarding the plane.

Whilst I was in the USA, I took a trip to the local supermarket. Overwhelmed by the choice of products and merchandise, I filled the trolley or ‘cart,’ as the Americans call them – and headed to pay. One more choice. Do I interact with the young teenager at the check-out who really doesn’t want to be there, but whose parents insist that they have a Saturday job, or do I go to the self-check-out machine?

Self-service in events

With more and more of us becoming familiar with the use of and interactivity with technology, isn’t it about time that the interactions we are having enters the world of events?

Automating the badge pick-up process is an obvious one. Sure, it can be pleasant to be greeted by a person, asked my name and have a badge printed, put on a lanyard and handed to me but the person isn’t really adding anything to the process that I could have done myself.

They could probably be better utilised somewhere else in the event where their eyes, ears, ability to speak and present a smile would be more welcome – like answering the essential question “where do I find the coffee?”

Some companies like Cvent are offering tablet-based self-check-in solutions, but this generally still relies on a human to pick the badge from the printer and attach it to the lanyard and hand it to you, the delegate, all under the guidance of the registration desk. Labour intensive, relatively slow and ultimately quite a cost to the event organiser.

Wouldn’t it be better if I as a delegate could pick up my badge from a kiosk, just like I would at the airport when checking in? Just think of that in terms of delegate experience. Convenience, speed, no queues and all self-service in. a way the user chooses.

Sprintr

Good news. The Australian company AV1 have come up with this very solution. It’s called Sprintr. It is a self-contained kiosk, just like the ones we are all becoming familiar with in airports, that can scan a barcode on your phone or piece of paper and retrieve your own badge and you are all set.

It’s even agnostic as to what registration system the event organiser is using, which means it will work with anyone else’s technology. It has its own internet connection enabling it to operate wherever there is a mobile signal and electricity.

Isn’t it time you brought your event into the 21st century and created a delegate experience to parallel what they are experiencing everywhere else?

Source: Conference News

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