iBeacon, new technology for event management and trade show?

iBeacon is one type of Location aware technology, it is Apple Trademark for implementation of Low-power Bluetooth technology (BLE), as known as Bluetooth Smart to notify nearby iOS 7 devices of their presence. BLE can also be find Bluetooth 4.0 devices that compatible with dual-mode, including Android and Windows devices.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwnmx-5mBLM

How Event Marketers and can put beacons to use:

Gamification

Nowadays, gamnification plans a crucial role in creating brand awareness while offering enhanced visitor interaction. Enabled by the location awareness of the application, the user can influence their devices to receive entertainment massage signal with every visit to the application. Each status will have its own real-world version. For example, at Consume Electronics (CES) 2014, the iBeacon application encourage delegates to explore the important exhibits at the trade show, and attendees can collect badges from each beacon to won the prize.

Improved networking

Networking is one of the important reasons for people attend events. iBeacon have benefit for event to improve the networking services. The application can provide visitor self-tagging or LinkedIn integration to receive notifications, they can also offer guided tour of the event arena based on the interests of the user. For instance, if attendees want to know more about the mobile commerce or relevant stalls at the event, they can easily get the information on iBeacon and help them connect and exchange contact details.

Frictionless Registration

During the trade show, convention or a concerts, one of the most annoying things for attendees is the extensive registration queues, which would have a great impact on attendees’ overall experience and event’s image. However, today, iBeacon is used by many an organizers to accelerate the registration process of the event, they just need to install a small pieces of hardware at the entrance which is to send greeting notification with check-in information like QR code to their attendees’ electronic devices for a fast-speed check-in. This kind of check-in ways also support the new electronic devices like Apple watch.

Navigation and Heat Mapping

Another most confusing thing for attendees is to find the direction, which makes floor maps become one of the best uses of smartphone applications. However, iBeacons is always the best partner of floor map, in the venue of the event, iBeacon can tell the attendees their highly accurate location (including the floor) and indicate them to the place they want to go via application even though there is no Wi-Fi coverage and the GPS is inaccessible on-site. 

Moreover, it would be a great way to enhance the engagement during the event because users can set the notification when attendees walk by the session.

As iBeacon is connecting to the real-time statistics, it also could be used to monitor overcrowded or security issues by recognizing hotspots and alerts organizers.

  

To sum up, with various function of communication, data solving, iBeacons would be an essential part of any event’s and bring a great change to improving attendees’ experience.

If you have any other effective ideas about iBeacon, feel free to comment below!

Written by Pulin CHEN & Huishan LI

Sources:
http://www.zdnet.com/article/what-is-apple-ibeacon-heres-what-you-need-to-know/
http://www.eventmanagerblog.com/using-beacons-event-experience#gj5xEkyBT8tmQEWE.97
http://blog.beaconstac.com/2014/08/how-beacons-can-transform-event-management-and-trade-shows/
https://attendease.com/blog/industry/i-beacons/