How does RFID technology for events work?

Are you aware of RFID tech­nol­o­gy for events but not sure how it works and what it can do for you? Read on to dis­cov­er the main ben­e­fits and uses of the tech­nol­o­gy that will rev­o­lu­tionise your event man­age­ment.

1. What is RFID technology for events?

RFID tech­nol­o­gy is a sys­tem that enables the stor­age and trans­fer of data by radio fre­quen­cy. This is par­tic­u­lar­ly use­ful at events and has a vari­ety of uses, as we’ll see below.

The attendee’s infor­ma­tion is stored on an RFID or NFC chip/tag in their cash­less wrist­band. Using RFID read­ers and spe­cialised soft­ware, this data can then be read, mod­i­fied and man­aged in a way that’s use­ful for atten­dees, the organ­i­sa­tion and spon­sors.

2. Use of RFID wristbands at events

RFID tech­nol­o­gy has dif­fer­ent uses depend­ing on the event’s type and char­ac­ter­is­tics, but we’ll focus on two major uses which offer great ben­e­fits and which can be tak­en advan­tage of in var­i­ous ways: access con­trol and cash­less pay­ments.

The most impor­tant data stored on the RFID wrist­band, espe­cial­ly for events such as music fes­ti­vals and cor­po­rate events, is the attendee’s access rights and the mon­ey on their cash­less account which they can spend on food and drinks. Each ven­dor has an RFID read­er that can read the infor­ma­tion on the chip and write new infor­ma­tion on it, such as deduct­ing and updat­ing the avail­able bal­ance.

3. Benefits of RFID technology for event management

Faster payments and access control = less time queuing

The most well-known ben­e­fit of using RFID tech­nol­o­gy at events is that it allows the event or fes­ti­val to reduce queues at all key points! This ensures faster move­ment of flows at both the venue entrance and bars.

From an attendee’s point of view, it’s clear that spend­ing less time queu­ing is a great source of relief as it leaves more time to enjoy the event, but it’s also huge­ly ben­e­fi­cial for organ­is­ers:

• Few­er queues at access con­trol means that atten­dees show their tick­ets and gain access in a stream­lined man­ner, increas­ing secu­ri­ty at a crit­i­cal point for any event. The soon­er peo­ple can access the venue, the soon­er they can start pur­chas­ing food and drinks, enjoy the activ­i­ties pre­pared for them, com­mu­ni­cat­ing, and so on. It’s a mat­ter of image as much as any­thing else!
• Few­er queues at bars increas­es the poten­tial to serve peo­ple and makes staff avail­able to take more orders and make pay­ments at a faster rate — all result­ing in more sales.
  Con­trol de aforo y de zonas restringi­das

Control over capacity and restricted areas

As well as their use at entrances, RFID wrist­bands can also be of great help in con­trol­ling capac­i­ty (as long as there is care­ful super­vi­sion of entrances and exits) and access to restrict­ed areas such as back­stage or VIP areas. Each attendee’s access rights are writ­ten on the wrist­band, mean­ing that the RFID read­er can be used to autho­rise or deny access to a cer­tain area. This is much eas­i­er and faster than visu­al­ly check­ing dif­fer­ent coloured wrist­bands!

A secure, reliable system

Weezevent’s sys­tem of RFID cash­less pay­ments and access con­trol is robust thanks to triple secu­ri­ty pro­tec­tion (wrist­bands, read­ers and the sys­tem itself). This guar­an­tees peace of mind for every­one.
It also allows cash man­age­ment to be con­cen­trat­ed at cer­tain wrist­band top-up points (except at 100% online cash­less events, where cash is com­plete­ly elim­i­nat­ed — even bet­ter!), this all helps to improve the event’s secu­ri­ty.

Boost sales and revenue

Using an RFID cash­less sys­tem at your event can help boost your rev­enue in var­i­ous ways, some more direct than oth­ers.
The most direct is the increase in sales, since reduc­ing queues at bars will allow you to sell more food and drinks. How­ev­er, you’ll also be able to offer per­son­alised pro­mo­tions, which will build loy­al­ty among your audi­ence.
It’s also worth not­ing what RFID cash­less tech­nol­o­gy can bring you through your spon­sors: a new com­mu­ni­ca­tion medi­um (the RFID wrist­band) on which you can offer to fea­ture their brand image. The infor­ma­tion you col­lect through this sys­tem can also be use­ful for your spon­sors in help­ing them to bet­ter plan their brand acti­va­tions.

Business Intelligence: real-time data tracking

Today, tech­nol­o­gy can gen­er­ate a large amount of inter­est­ing data for your event. In par­tic­u­lar, with RFID cash­less pay­ment and access con­trol, you can col­lect and gen­er­ate data that allows you to analyse activ­i­ty at your event by point of sale, by bar­tender, by peri­od etc. Use this valu­able infor­ma­tion wise­ly to opti­mise your resources and ini­ti­ate actions in a range of areas, such as organ­i­sa­tion, com­mu­ni­ca­tion and attendee loy­al­ty.
Hav­ing a con­trol pan­el where you can observe what’s hap­pen­ing in real time is high­ly use­ful for mak­ing imme­di­ate deci­sions, but RFID tech­nol­o­gy will also allow you to accu­mu­late this infor­ma­tion and analyse it thor­ough­ly once the event is over.

4. Benefits of RFID technology for attendees

Speed in topping up the RFID cashless wristband and purchasing items

With the RFID sys­tem, atten­dees will notice the dif­fer­ence. When enter­ing the event, they’ll receive their RFID cash­less wrist­band which will give them access and allow them to pur­chase items with­out need­ing to queue or wor­ry about their wal­let.

Depend­ing on the event’s lay­out, atten­dees will be able to top up their RFID cash­less wrist­bands before and dur­ing the event, either online or at phys­i­cal top-up points. If they’ve topped up before the event, they’ll be able to pur­chase food and drinks as soon as they enter.

Fast and secure spending controls and refund requests

Cre­at­ing an online cash­less account gives the attendee con­trol over their spend­ing, as they can check their bal­ance and pur­chase his­to­ry at any time.
What’s more, after the event, they can eas­i­ly request a refund of the remain­ing bal­ance, depend­ing on the con­di­tions set by the event.
Good com­mu­ni­ca­tion is key in this sense, as it allows atten­dees to make the best pos­si­ble use of the sys­tem. If you clear­ly explain that they can top up online before the event to save time, and that they can request a refund of the remain­ing unspent bal­ance, they’ll top up more mon­ey in one go and pur­chase items with­out wor­ry­ing or weigh­ing up each pur­chase.

Enable the digital experience that attendees are looking for

Event atten­dees are increas­ing­ly seek­ing a com­pre­hen­sive, con­ve­nient and digi­tised expe­ri­ence. The use of RFID cash­less pay­ments have already tak­en root and become a con­sumer habit, espe­cial­ly at fes­ti­vals. Proof of this is the online top-up rate of RFID wrist­bands which is increas­ing year on year.

Improving the VIP experience

Audi­ences are also becom­ing more demand­ing, but they are will­ing to pay more to get the expe­ri­ence they’re look­ing for, which is why the VIP audi­ence is grow­ing every day, as we’ve seen at fes­ti­vals we worked with this sum­mer.
RFID tech­nol­o­gy and our cash­less solu­tion enables the man­age­ment of these small but impor­tant groups of peo­ple who aren’t part of the rest of the audi­ence as they’ve acquired extra rights. The infor­ma­tion includ­ed on their RFID wrist­band is all that these groups need to enjoy ben­e­fits such as access to restrict­ed areas.

5. How to implement an RFID cashless system at your event

RFID tech­nol­o­gy can help events go fur­ther in their man­age­ment and in their rela­tion­ship with atten­dees. Despite the many ben­e­fits of this tech­nol­o­gy it’s worth remem­ber­ing that the means of imple­ment­ing and using a tech­nol­o­gy are as impor­tant as the tech­nol­o­gy itself, if not more so.

Our experts sup­port you step by step and are keen to share the best prac­tices observed in our expe­ri­ences with a range of events of all types and sizes, whether in terms of cash­less pay­ment, access con­trol or online tick­et­ing.

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