Standing in line for the big conference could become a much less painful experience if a new class of mobile apps that use QR codes prove effective. Once you’ve gotten through the line, your experience attending an event could be made richer with the same technology.
EventBee, a startup that sells tickets to events for a flat rate of $1 each, launched Android app today that event organizers can download to their phones. The app then scans 2D bar-codes, or QR codes, that attendees received with their receipts when they buy a ticket. The company says an iPhone app will be launched with-in the next 30 days.
Eventbee isn’t alone in thinking QR codes could go well with events. Another startup called Mogotix aims to offer a very similar function, though its organizer-side app is listed as “coming soon.” The advantage of the Eventbee software is that attendees don’t have to do anything but bring their receipts, printed or on their phones. Leading competitor Eventbrite launched an iPhone app this Spring but does not support code scanning for check in.
Using Eventbee’s new app, anyone on an event’s staff can be turned into a quick check-in administrator with a simple download to their phones. The check-ins will be much faster and richer than scanning names on paper. QR code-driven check-ins can also provide much richer analytics, in theory, than would be practical to collect manually. Every code can carry a payload of data about the person checking in.
Beyond Check-ins
Codes for events are believed to have a lot of potential beyond checking in, too. Designer Andreas Carlsson articulated a number of different possibilities for consumer-side QR use in a recent blog post; imagine scanning a conference guide with your phone to get a speaker’s slide deck live on your phone while they are speaking, for example.
So far event attendees have not adopted QR codes with the enthusiasm that advocates have hoped, however. That may change in the future, but Eventbee’s strategy of focusing on getting codes and readers into the hands of event organizers first seems smart.
Regarding consumer features, Eventbee founder Bala Musrif says those are on the road-map. “We’ve got more in the pipe-line in that direction,” he says. “This is our first step – but we’ve got big games planned in real time check-in scenarios.”
Disclosure: ReadWriteWeb has purchased the services of Eventbee for ticketing at past events.
