I have witnessed greatness! Yesterday I attended the ITEC technology conference in
I registered online for the event and received an email instructing me to print out and bring the bar-coded registration with me. Upon entering the building they had many terminals setup with bar-code readers that you just walked up to and scanned your registration. Just a quick scan and you keep moving toward the entrance. Just before you reach the entrance there were several people pulling printed ID cards much like the ones from SAMS, off of card printers that were initiated by the scanning of your registration form upon arrival. These people just simply picked them up and began calling your name, you grab your card slip it in your badge holder and off you go. No lines, no wait, you didn’t even have to stop walking to get thru the process! The conference was able to process about 3,000 people without blinking an eye and without any wait.
Oh and it gets better. Upon entering the conference, the vendor booths were setup with card readers that can read the info off of your card. So if you want a vendor to contact you if you were interested in their product, just swipe your card at the terminal at their booth. The vendors leave with a contact list of everyone that swiped their card. These machines also print out paper receipts so that a sales guy can write any notes about your conversation and associate it to you. It doesn’t get much cooler!
I had to find out how they were doing it. After talking to the registration people, I found out that they outsourced the whole thing with a company that specializes in conference registrations. The company is called ExGenex, and from what I saw is greatness!
Registration Card
2 comments:
Many companies are finally starting to use barcode technology to tie into a backend database with all of your information in it.
For example American Airlines lets you print your boarding pass up to 24 hours before your flight, Ticketmaster will allow you to print your tickets, or email your tickets to someone else. The only thing needed is a barcode (or the number the barcode represents).
The downside is you need to protect the barcode information. There have been reports of people posting tickets for sale on eBay (or gift cards, which work the same way) and including the barcode in the picture.
Unscrupulous people can print the ticket or write down the barcode number and get into the concert or use the gift card without ever having purchased it, or having the document in their posession.
Jeremy -
Your right they are becoming more and more popular. I personally think that RFID is going to take off like wild fire very soon and the decline of the barcode will soon follow. And man does that technology open up a can of privacy worms.
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