How to set up a token-gated event

The event ticketing market has seen fantastic progress over the last few years. And the development of Web3 allowed us to use emerging technologies to deliver better, safer experiences to our communities. So the improvements come not just in the number of sold tickets, but also in the technologies used for them. During this article, we will see how NFT tickets are changing the entertainment industry by focusing on how to set up a token-gated event. And, of course, why you should do it.

Simply put, token-gated events rely on a verification method based on Web3 tokens – instead of a classical e-ticket, the access is based on a non-fungible token. This makes it extremely efficient as it allows you to use it not just for one event, but also for other activities as well. 

People love live experiences, and it’s expected that the event ticketing industry will have an annual growth of 3.5% in the next 5 years. According to Statista, the projected market volume for 2027 is US$82.45bn, a 54% growth from 2019. Our bet is that by 2027 the vast majority of events will rely on NFT tickets. Let’s see why.

What are token-gated events?

Token-gated is an expression that became popular with the rise of Web3. To access these experiences, you need a non-fungible token – like a cryptocurrency or an NFT.  And the most popular form of token-gating an event (or any other type of content) is through NFTs and NFT ticketing.

For an event, this means that access management is done by checking attendees’ digital wallets for a specific token. While this is basically the equivalent of NFT tickets, let’s not forget that they are in fact smart tickets. And you can use it for so much more than just checking access credentials at the gates of your event.

So in this case, a token is gating the event – you don’t own a specific token, and you cannot access the specific event. Simple as that. 

Initially, as the NFTs were generally used as collectibles, the access to the events they allowed you entrance to was issued separately. So all holders of a specific NFT collection (or a cryptocurrency) would receive their access codes before the start of the event.

Now, you can create flawless processes through NFT ticketing. You can create an NFT that, besides other perks, grants access to a specific event. So it’s a token-gated event where a specific NFT becomes a smart ticket. Unlike a traditional ticket, an NFT ticket’s utility is not limited to a specific event. The token used for admission control is also a limited-edition collectible, can be resold for profit, has different perks and add-ons (like VIP access) embedded, and offers many other benefits. 

Why Use Token-Based Access for Your Event?

Setting up token-based access to your events will provide multiple benefits. For you and your community alike. 

You may have heard of tokens before, like NFTs or cryptocurrency. For token-gated events, they’re not just simple access codes. They’re special digital smart contracts that can do a lot of different things. For example, they can store information about different access rights, have economic value, and offer other benefits too.

The great thing about these tokens is that they can help create new, exciting experiences. For example, imagine you have a community of people who are all interested in the same thing. With tokens, you can set up a variety of experiences that everyone in your community can access using the same “event pass.” And because tokens can be pre-programmed, they can also act as event passes, loyalty program cards, and even a way to make payments. So whether you’re using an existing token or creating a new one just for your event, tokens can make the experience even better for your attendees, not just during the event but even after. 

Benefits of setting up Token-Gated Events

There are several benefits for setting up token-gated events, benefits that we have covered in the article covering the benefits of NFT tickets at large. But there are a few points that we should cover in this article in order to better understand why this type of token-gated event can make the overall experience better for your community.

Exclusivity

Besides security, token-gated events also add the feeling of exclusivity. Just those that have claimed a specific token have access to that event – so they will feel like part of something really special. 

Stronger community

This will tighten your community. Traditionally, those joining a specific event are part of a specific community. But unfortunately, until now it was complicated to empower that community as the event ticket would lose all of its powers once the event is over. But now, with the help of token-gated events, the token-based authentication allows you to use the tokens to strengthen your community. The same tokens can be used for gating exclusive digital content, venues, access to limited-edition merchandise, future events, and so on.

Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Up Token-Gated Events

Web3, NFTs, cryptocurrencies; it may sound complicated but it’s remarkably easy to set up token-gated events. With Oveit, each ticket issued by our ticketing platform can be a non-fungible token. Stored on the blockchain, this ticket is in fact a smart contract between you and your community. One that will grant your attendees access to the event, but will also allow you to customize the experience furthermore to the exact extent that you want.  

Create your account

The first thing you need to do is to create your account. You’ll just need to set up billing information and choose one or more payment processors. We work with direct debit for both traditional and NFT (e)tickets, meaning that each time somebody places an order money will go straight into your account.

Also, even for token-gated events, you can allow your community to pay with both fiat and cryptocurrencies. We support multiple payment processors for both types of payments, allowing you to serve your customers regardless of the way they choose to pay.

Setting up your event for tokenized tickets

With Oveit, you can easily set up your next event in just a few minutes. You set up the event details like the name of the event, time and place, and what data you want to collect from your attendees.

Oveit Dashboard - how to set up token-gated events using our ticketing solution

Setting up NFT tickets categories

For the NFT tickets, you can select the artwork that you want to be associated with the tokenized access credentials. You can choose from different formats like .pgn,.jpeg, or .gif, and the artwork will be minted for each of the tokenized tickets your customers will buy. 

You can opt between uploading a single artwork for the entire ticket category or using entire collections. It’s up to you to create the experience your community wants.

Oveit also allows you to set up different perks and add-ons for each ticket category. They can be anything that you want, like special access, merchandise, beverage or food, or even access to future gigs. By using this option, you encourage your attendees to create their own, personalized journeys.

With our software, everything is under your control. Furthermore, you can customize the follow-up email, delivering the message in your exact tone of voice. Once you finish setting up your event you can start selling smart tickets on your website. Using a simple copy-and-paste implementation.

Yes, with Oveit you can sell tokenized tickets on your website. Just like you did with regular (e)tickets. And the great part is that we take care of all the complicated technical requirements, you just need to focus on delivering a great experience.

Getting on hold of an NFT ticket has never been easier. While we recommend MetaMask as the go-to wallet, we support a variety of digital wallets. Your attendees can choose the one that best suits them.

Caption: print screen for Oveit – confirmation page for an NFT ticket order

Once the NFT ticket is actually minted, buyers will receive a confirmation email. They can now sign it to their wallets, becoming the owner of the NFT. It’s also available on marketplaces like OpenSea or Rarible. Your community is now ready to access your token-gated event.

Managing event access at a token-gated event

We’ve kept event access management as simple as possible. Using our proprietary scanning app, you can check the access credentials for each ticket. The blockchain-based tokens contain a dynamic QR code used for scanning. Inside the app, you will see the benefits included in that particular smart ticket. 

ticket issues by Oveit for a token-gated event

The dynamic QR code will regenerate every 30 minutes, making it impossible for anyone to copy it. This makes the experience safe for your attendees, as nobody can in fact steal or copy their event passes.

Final words

Token-gated events open new doors for live experiences. Online and in-person. Unlike traditional tickets, non-fungible tokens allow your community to be part of something special. Even long after the initial experience has ended.

January 11, 2023 Access management, NFT ticketing No comments yet

Ticket Addons are making experiences personal

Ticket addons are the very next step in building amazing, personal experiences for your guests. For a very, very long time tickets have been just a simple way to allow people to access an event or claim some service, like airline travel or public transport.

It essentially went like this: you would purchase a ticket that would allow you one (and just one) access. It was mostly a technical limitation at first but soon after became the norm. When tickets were just pieces of paper, it was much easier to sell and check one ticket per person. If there were two people involved, they would buy two tickets. This made it easier to manage long queues. Each person would show their ticket and they would be allowed entry.

Ticket addons that live on your mobile phone
Ticket addons that live on your mobile phone or an NFC wristband

But things have changed quite a lot in the past 10 years. Most events switched from delivering physical to electronic tickets. Now most tickets are stored on your phone rather than in your wallet.

This opens up so many possibilities. One is the option of storing multiple tickets in one device. The other is storing more access credentials in one ticket. One ticket doesn’t need to mean just one entry. It can mean multiple entries and even more – it can mean multiple benefits in just one ticket. We call these benefits ticket addons. That’s because they are stored “on top” of the original benefit, which is the right to visit the event.

What kind of ticket addons can I offer my guests?

Ticket addons can come in many shapes and sizes. You can offer your visitors all sorts of options. Let’s say you are preparing a multi-day conference and you want to tailor different types of tickets with all sorts of perks and benefits.

Let’s think of some hypothetical “VIP” ticket. Such a ticket would maybe have access to all days of the event. So you can have a special addon for each day. This way you can separate access rights based on days. You can add a special ticket addon for free coffee. Each time the VIP goes to get some coffee, they can show their ticket and they get their free coffee. In the backend you record all of these “transactions” so you can get a sense of just how much coffee the VIP’s ordered.

Direct payments for event registration
Ticket addon payments go straight to your account

Other ways of using ticket addons is creating special access rights within the event. Let’s say you want to create a special “backstage” area where only the speakers and VIP visitors have access. You can add a “backstage access” addon and scan people in just to make sure only the right visitors are getting in.

What happens if you want to take your guests on a city tour, maybe for those travelling from abroad? You guessed it – use ticket addons. In this case you might use a “City tour” addon and maybe a “Free lunch” addon where users can both travel the city and get a free lunch when they get tired.

Maybe some of them would fancy a visit to one of the local attractions, such as a museum. How would you like to partner with the most important art museum in town and allow conference guests to also visit the museum and enjoy the art collections as part of … you guessed it – the event’s ticket addons.

The cool thing about all of this is that you don’t need any fancy software or hardware. Your visitors only need to have their ticket stored on their mobile devices. And it’s just one ticket that holds all of these benefits and addons in one place.

Ticket addons help you gamify your event

One other way you can use ticket addons is gamification. Let’s imagine a sort of treasure hunt where visitors have to find and engage with four different checkpoints. These might be some cool booths where they can engage with your event story or sponsor booths.  When the treasure hunt is done and all of the checkpoints have been found they can go to a final section of your event’s game where they can claim a prize.

In the backend all checkpoint interactions are recorded and you will get an understanding of your visitor’s journeys. You will also be making sponsors happy if you place their brand within your event’s treasure hunt. Using ticket addons can help visitors engage better with your partners, especially since experiential marketing is such a hot topic these days.

By understanding how your visitors interact with your gamified experience you will be able to improve the experience and increase your chance at having your visitors return.

Ticket addons as a package or purchased on demand

When we built the first version of our ticket addons we just wanted to help event planners pack more ticket entries in one ticket. As event registration solution evolved, so did our ticket addons feature. We first separated tickets from optional tickets. They still came with a predefined structure. You could buy a ticket that would allow you to buy x, y and z ticket addons. It was just that tickets could only hold one specific set of addons. Customers couldn’t really choose what addon they would get.

So we introduced two options of addons: bundled and unbundled. This meant that ticket addons could be sold as a package but extra addons could be purchased by visitors based on their own preference. Using the example above – maybe you were not a big fan of museum so you would choose to not buy the art museum ticket addon. But you could, for example, buy a ticket addon that allows you to claim two cocktails at the conference party.

This now helps the experience planners that use our software to create personalized experiences for their guests, at scale. Whether you have 100 or 100 000 visitors, you can create personalized experiences by using ticket addons for your guests.

Now that you get an understanding of what ticket addons are and how you can use them, let’s see how you can technically make them work for your event:

Why did we create ticket addons?

Each individual is unique. A perfect experience is only perfect if it’s personal and catered to individuals. While most event planners like to think they plan amazing experiences – they’re not personal. From a business point of view, you cannot build personal experiences for thousands of visitors. Or can you? We think so and that’s why we developed ticket addons.

Let’s start with a simple idea: What if you want to include a beer with every ticket you sell? Or add a t-shirt? How about a well-tailored experience that guides a couple to a special seminar, a cruise line, two drinks and a romantic dinner in two? It doesn’t seem very easy if you have to hand out 10 tickets just for this. But there’s a better way of looking at the problem.

Scenarios like these are the reason we started redesigning the concept of how access to experiences and goods work, starting with the ticket.

This post is a follow up on the post on new technologies we’ve developed at Oveit. The previous post described the ways we are making event management more accessible.

But let’s return to the topic at hand: at it’s core the concept of a ticket is pretty simple: you get a digital or physical token that guarantees you access to an event. That’s it – a binary gateway for your entry in an event. You’re either allowed in or not.

If we want to extend this concept we have to work with a more complex idea of a digital wallet, where you can add all sorts of perks and benefits one has access to.

Adding access to goods and services to a ticket

In the end the concept of a ticket addon is one that’s very old and well established. We think of the addon as a something (good, service or whatever else) that comes on top of your right to access an event or venue. Basically, the question can be distilled to: how do we trade non-fungible payment tokens? Fungible means something that can be broken down in smaller parts (like money) and these sub-parts are similar. Non fungible means you cannot break it into smaller parts. Also, in our case – you cannot trade it.

Version 1.0 : tickets with addons

The first thing we did is make it easy for addons and benefits to be added to a certain ticket. Once you purchase a certain ticket, this ticket gives you access to some specific addons. Let’s say you buy the “Gold” version of a ticket. This entitles you to access to the VIP area, dinner, 2 beers and the event’s t-shirt. Your friend, who purchased the “Silver” ticket can only get access to the event, in the General access area and one beer. Tough luck.

The process is fairly simple too: when setting up a ticket you can add as many benefits as needed, with the proper quantity. In our flow, 0 stands for infinity. Yes, you can hand out an infinity amount of beers for your buddies.

Ticket addons
Ticket addons

As you see – it’s all pretty simple to use. Set up an addon per ticket, select its quantity and publish your event.

When visitors come in, they can either show their electronic ticket (their QR code) or have their NFC wristbands scanned. To scan for perks you can use our free iOS and Android apps. Once it’s scanned, the full amount of ticket addons is showed and whenever visitors are claiming one of their benefits, just tap the proper button in the app (see the mobile app screenshot below) and one unit will be decreased.

Ticket addons on mobile apps
Mobile app perks scanning

Pretty cool, right? That’s what we thought. And then we ran into a problem of complexity: what if you have a limited number of perks but many ways of combining them? The number of needed tickets explodes. What if someone wants to reload their addons. For example they had 2 coffees as addons on their tickets but want one more. There was no way of doing this in the past. So we went further with …

Version 1.5: Addons that can be bundled or unbundled

What is a bundled ticket addon? Very simple – it’s the addon that is surely attached to a ticket. In contrast – the unbundled ticket addon is one which might or might not be attached to a ticket.

Here’s a scenario where these types of addons come into play: someone has purchased the Silver version of a ticket. They don’t have any addon included but access to the event and a hamburger. You, as the event planner, feel generous and you’re working on your loyalty program. You can add the Champagne tour and your event’s branded cap to their ticket.

Bundled and unbundled perks and benefits
Bundled and unbundled ticket addons

Have a look above. This guy or gal is getting a hamburger for sure. But the event cap, champagne tour and the virtual tokes are all up to you, the event owner. You can add them, remove them and in the end track their usage.

Here’s how you can add them. See the screenshot below. Mike (that’s me) can surely have the first 4 ticket addons but it’s up to you if you enable the last 3 and how many of those benefits they will have access to:

Enable ticket addons

Let’s say I want to allow Mike to get 10 caps, just because I’m feeling generous and and he’s also a famous Formula 1 driver.

I can just click “Enable” and add the 10 caps that he is now entitled to:

Add usages to ticket addons
Adding ticket addons

Really simple, right? Yes it is. I can add ticket benefits and addons and create custom experiences for my boutique managed event.

But what happens if I manage a 10 000 people event? What if I want to allow anyone to manage their own custom experience? What if I want each of those 10 000 people to create the perfect package for themselves. Meanwhile I just sit back and see my visitors happy and everything rolling out perfectly. Here’s where the next version of ticket addons comes into play: Allowing visitors to design their own, personal experience.

Version 2.0 : personal experiences for each visitor with self service ticket addons

Right from the beginning we wanted visitors to configure their own personal experiences by choosing the goods and services they want to have access to.

This goes well beyond events. It’s meant to create personalized experiences for an upcoming wave of generations that are used to personal experiences online. Now we bring this convenience offline. Millenials and Gen-X’s want custom tailored experiences and affordable prices.

You, as the event designer or venue owner understand that at its core, this is a problem of logistics. From our perspective unfungible tokens are a great way to deliver these personal experiences and make it usable in real world scenarios.

Sell ticket addons
Purchasable ticket addons

What happens is that you can set whether your addons are prepacked or can be purchased separately and whether they are free or not.

In the frontend visitors can choose the right ticket addons for their private experiences, purchase them in a bundled electronic ticket and than they can access them in the venue.

Pay for ticket addons
Custom selection of ticket addons

What are ticket addons useful for?

We think ticket addons are useful for lots of things but most importantly – safer events and better experiences. Large events tend to be crowded and people tend to get sucked into the experience. They might lose their wallet or credit card and neither you or them want that.

With the prepacked perks we add a special dimension to visitors identity at events – the ownership of goods and services. They don’t need to carry anything with them, as long as they’ve purchased the right addons.

These can be products such as food and beverages, access to experiences or sub-events. Alternatively, addons can also work as the event’s digital currency, allowing all sorts of interactions that are limited by your imagination.

The perfect experience

To summarize – so far event and venue experiences where tightly curated by event planners as they could handle only that much in terms of logistics. Now this experience can become a personal one, engineered by the visitors themselves. The burden of providing it has been lifted using technology.

I hope this was as good for you as it was for us. I’ve saved the best for last: next week we’re talking cashless payments technology for events and venues. Check back soon and see how we developed the technology to help you build your own venue economy. See how edge payments (BTW – what are these ? ) can help increase your revenue by 30 to 60% and improve what you know about your visitors.

February 22, 2021 Access management, Event tech, Festivals, Oveit Features 3 comments

5 Event Trends to watch in 2021

5 Event Trends to watch in 2021 was initially published in our Newsletter on February 11th, 2021.

Hello,
quick question:

How will the future look like?

I’m sure we’ve all asked ourselves this question.

It’s one of the hardest answers somebody could give. Lately, we’ve seen how things can go south without any warning. However, in the long term, we can identify directions that are followed even if temporary circumstances force things to go off track.
During the last few weeks, we’ve tried to see the directions events will go in 2021. We’ve directly spoken with tens of event organizers and read many articles written by the industry’s top professionals. And although nobody can say for sure that there is a stable track that we should all follow, we’ve identified the most important trends that will probably mark 2021’s event industry. 

Photo by Polina Kovaleva from Pexels

 
Hybrid events

When discussing with event professionals, hybrid events were the most common answer as a 2021 trend. Regardless of how things will evolve, hybrid events are here to stay. 
Why? Even if restrictions are fully lifted, and this will probably not be the case for 2021,  we are not yet ready to go back to the way we used to act before the pandemic. Most of us will still choose to attend from the safety of our homes. And that’s fine. Events can now offer meaningful experiences for both in-person and virtual attendees. 
How? Even if you are hosting an in-person event, make sure that you offer online participants a way of attending your event. Most likely, a big part of your community is still not able (or ready) to attend physically, and that’s ok! You can easily allow people to virtually attend your experience. With Streams.live you can easily set up online and hybrid events – it automatically imports data from Oveit and you can use the same username (email address) and password to access the account. 
 

Micro-experiences

Even if you have the opportunity to host in-person experiences, they will probably take the form of micro-experiences.  
Why? Due to travel bans, in-person attendance will probably be limited to locals. Small get-togethers will replace classic events, at least for this year. Having fewer physical attendees will allow you to not only make sure that sanitary measurements are properly implemented but also to focus on delivering tailored, attendee-centric, experiences. With few exceptions, just local supporters of your events will be able to attend in-person.
How? Make sure that you follow all sanitary recommendations, I cannot stress out enough this. Also, make sure that you collect all needed information from your attendees. This will help you deliver safe and tailored experiences. 
 

Contactless experiences 

In 2021, paper and money should not change hands. Transform your events into cash (and paper) free experiences and keep everybody safe.
Why? Money changing hands is definitely something that we should avoid by all means. It’s expensive and allows for fraud and human errors to occur. It’s also unsafe from a medical point of view. But going touchless offers many operational benefits as well.
How? Event registration and management solution allow you to go fully digital and eliminate the need for printed tickets, cash, or plastic tokens.  It may sound complicated, but it’s even easier (not to mention safer) than how things used to be. Read this article and see how easy it is to transform your event into a touchless experience.
 

Live shopping as event trends to watch in 2021

gentleman performing in front of a camera

This experience, which, at first sight, may seem that has nothing to do with event trends, is the result of mixing entertainment and shopping. It’s used to describe online shopping journeys that have engaging live video experiences as their starting point. 
Why? The last few years gave us the possibility to see live how entertainment (live events) and purchases go hand in hand. Better said…people spend more while having fun. And we saw how more and more brands have included events and festivals not only in their marketing strategies but as selling channels as well. New revenue streams were initiated through this kind of live experiences. Moving your experience online doesn’t mean that these revenue streams will be lost.
How? By creating shoppable experiences within your virtual events, viewers can purchase products and services straight from the live experience. Without being forced to leave it. Streams.live allows you to easily make your content shoppable.
 

Sustainability

The general opinion is that sustainability is not just a 2021 trend. It’s here to stay. Unlike some of the other trends (mentioned or missed from this message), sustainability has, in the long term, a much greater impact on our lives and businesses. Luckily, event organizers not only see sustainability as important but are also taking action in this direction. 
Why? Because environmental problems are a fact and it’s up to us into making a difference. We can not only make our events more environmentally friendly but we can also spread the word throughout the community. 
How? You can start small: encourage your attendees not to print their tickets as they can easily be scanned straight from their smartphones. Next – find a solution for your left-over food. There are so many solutions to eliminate waste. Single-use plastics should be a thing of the past, we have so many eco-friendly alternatives these days. You can go further and find a partner that is willing to educate your attendees on sustainability and the benefits of circular economies. 


 
These are just 5 event trends we think you should take a look at in 2021. Of course, while documenting, you will find comprehensive lists of what to expect from 2021. Some trends are here to stay, some are just temporary. Some are pandemic-inducted (or accelerated), some are not. But they are all equally important.

February 19, 2021 Access management, Event registration No comments yet

How to organize safe events during a global pandemic?

Being an event planner during a global pandemic might be the worst nightmare that you can ever think of. However, these are things that we have little control over and require us to adapt accordingly. As we get used with living under imposed government restrictions, we can see several precautionary measures being removed from our daily lives.

Unfortunately, this new virus is directly related to mass gatherings, which are at the forefront of hosting events. Among the first precautionary measures imposed by governments was to restrict and put on pause the world of live events. During these challenging times, members of the meetings industry create complicated scenarios and endless debates on what it takes to organize events in such a global pandemic.

Therefore, this article is going to focus on different measures that can help our beloved world of live events to get back to normal during these unprecedented times. It is important to keep in mind that precautionary measures are extremely important, and we will only succeed by following strict guidelines. As we speak, an increasing number of events are either cancelled or postponed. Those that are postponed will soon have to take place and event organizers should be prepared to host them accordingly.

Pre-event safety measures

  • Implement attendance policies and restrictions

Stay up to date and determine which countries may experience an upward trend in terms of Coronavirus cases. The John Hopkins live-tracker is a great tool that keeps you updated in real time. Try to impose restrictions and limit potential attendees that visited in the past 60 days countries with a high-risk of infection.

  • Filter participants based on country of origin

It might be a good idea to require international attendees to bring their passports for an additional layer of safety. Those participants that visited a high-risk country in the past 60 days should not be allowed to enter the event premises. However, make sure to consult local travel restrictions and guidelines before taking such decision.

  • Provide flexible cancellation policies given the current situation

If for some reason you decide to postpone or cancel your event, show that you care and enable participants to use tickets for future editions or apply refunds if there will be no future editions anytime soon.

  • Consider hosting a Hybrid event

In our previous posts, we’ve talked about the benefits of hosting hybrid events. Given the current situation that we all deal with, that of a global pandemic, hybrid events might be the answer to deliver events to a broad audience. This way, those failing the screening process can attend the event virtually from all over the world. Streams.live is a streaming solution designed to accommodate the needs of a hybrid event and it can keep your audience engaged with little to no effort.

  • Public health tracking through data collection waivers

Follow global privacy regulations and collect necessary information from your participants. If any incidents occur during your event, public officials should at least have a name and a contact number from those attending. In the given context of a global pandemic, this information is required to conduct epidemiological investigations. With Oveit, relevant data can be collected through registration forms (GDPR compliant) and attendees are required to fill those details before they receive their electronic tickets.

The form setup. You can choose from text, dropdown lists, email, dates and file uploads
  • Keep attendees updated with special event rules

Make sure that participants are well-informed and aware of any uncommon precautionary measures implemented. It can take the form of a newsletter and most organizers send these updates two-weeks in advance, one-week prior, three-days prior, one day prior and a small recap during the event day.

Impose day of event precautionary measures

  • Temperature screenings at the event venue

As you already know, one common Coronavirus symptom is high body temperature. Therefore, before entering the event premises, staff members should screen attendees with thermal scanners to decrease the risk of infection. Those with temperatures higher than 37.8C must be escorted to an isolation room for additional investigations.

  • Designated isolation holding room

Together with health agencies, event organizers might have to prepare an isolation holding room for suspected cases. This room should follow strict disinfection procedures and medical staff must be present.

  • Regular deep cleaning throughout the venue

Contract an experienced cleaning team that gets the job done. Make sure that high-touch areas, such as door knobs, stairs handrails, chairs, registration areas and bathrooms are cleaned more often. Appropriate disinfectant substance should be used for deep cleaning.

  • Display health notices at the venue

Place health notices throughout the venue, especially in areas where attendees tend to crowd. These should include social distancing reminders, frequent hygiene practices, and other relevant precautionary measures.

  • Safety measures for Food & Beverage providers

Communicate with food vendors well in advance and educate them on best practices on how food should be served during your event. For example, instead of open buffets, advise them to serve individually wrapped food. If your F&B providers insist on using open buffets, make sure that they use splash and sneeze guards or other relevant food safety measures.

  • Hand sanitization devices around communal areas

Forcing people to use bathrooms for hand hygiene is not a good option since it compromises social distancing rules. Instead, a good backup plan is to place hand sanitizer dispensers in key areas, especially nearby meal, and beverage stations.

Follow-up after the event

  • Post-event surveys

Use these surveys to analyse your event’s success, but also to find out if any of those who attended are feeling unwell to avoid the spread of the virus.

  • Prepare attendee data if necessary

If public officials need the attendee data to conduct an epidemiological investigation, make sure that you have it handy and ready to go. Time is extremely important in such investigations.

In summary

Remember, these are general guidelines and before applying any of them make sure to double check with local authorities. We hope that events will get back to normal as soon as possible, but before that, better be safe than sorry.

At Oveit, our mission is to help event organizers accomplish their goals, even during challenging times. We try to find innovative ways in which our technology can be used in force majeure situations. Hopefully, these guidelines will help you get back and running.

Stay safe!

June 24, 2020 Access management, Event management, Event professionals, Event spotlight, Event tech, Events, Oveit Features, Technology, Uncategorized No comments yet

How to make event venues safe with Cashless Payments?

There is no doubt that the world of events and hospitality has been seriously hit by COVID-19 and the imposed lockdowns. Major festivals around the globe got postponed or canceled. Across Europe and not only, governments begin to realize that imposed restrictions are indeed an efficient way to limit the spread of the virus, but they also realize that such restrictions can only harm economies in the long term. So, should event organizers implement cashless payments as a precautionary measure to limit the spread of the virus?

As economies get back and running after weeks of lockdown, many of us face unprecedented situations in terms of conducting business and daily activities. Even before this pandemic, it was obvious that the use of cashless payments solutions around the world is on the rise. But guess what? In a post-COVID-19 world, cashless payments might be more important than ever.

It is predicted that a new type of customer will emerge from this pandemic. We already saw an increase in demand for cashless payments solutions over the last years, but the differentiator lies in how providers deliver those expectations and how it separates them from other competitors.

Facts about COVID-19 and Cash handling

Government officials have strongly advised us to avoid cash handling during the coronavirus outbreak. It is well-known that cash is notoriously covered in germs, but what is the reality when it comes to COVID-19 and cash? According to many experts, the chances of being infected after handling cash is still low compared to other ways of spreading the infection. According to a recent post published by Reuters, the U.S. Federal Reserve started quarantining physical dollars coming from Asia, before allowing it to recirculate in the U.S. market. It was treated as a precautionary measure against spreading the virus among U.S. citizens. Although there is no hard evidence saying that handling cash increases the risk of infection, many retailers decided to advise their clients to use cashless alternatives.

At Oveit, we’ve decided to upgrade our closed-loop payment solution and add two additional features, very relevant in the given context. These two are related to real-time footfall tracking capabilities and an App which enables attendees to act as their own cashiers.

End user App (Wallet) for Cashless Payments

Without an end-user App, attendees would still have to visit a physical top-up point to add money to their digital wallets. After many years of experience and feedback coming from our partners, we concluded that building an end-user App (wallet) can bring more value in return, for both event organizers and participants. The purpose of this App is to create a seamless top up process for the end-user (attendees), allowing them to use their own smartphones for comfort and security purposes.

For the event organizer, this alternative decreases the number of cashiers required on-site and therefore reduces the event costs. Attendees are empowered to act as their own cashiers with the entire process being automated. Moreover, by activating the ‘Auto top-up’ feature, participants can assure that their digital balance will never fall under a pre-defined amount.

Also, the withdrawal process is simplified. Traditionally, the process required attendees to visit physical top-up points and receive cash in exchange. The top-up was done by either card or cash payment, but the only option to withdraw the remaining amount was by receiving cash back. The end-user App (wallet) removes this step and enables participants to withdraw the remaining balance on their own or even use it at another event. 

Footfall Tracking

Recently, we’ve received a request from one of our clients. He wanted to know if it’s possible to track in real time the number of attendees in specific areas of the venue. 

With the current social distancing rules in place, we believe that being able to track footfall in real-time can contribute to a safe and responsible event. This way, you can benefit from a modern alternative to control the number of attendees inside a venue. How does it work?

1.       Attendees arrive at the event with their electronic tickets ready to be scanned

2.       A designated staff member hands in NFC wristbands/cards/badges for every participant

3.       By using the Oveit Pay App on an Android device, a staff member simply scans the QR code on the ticket and pairs it with a wristband/card/badge

4.       Before passing the entry point, participants are required to tap their NFC tags on an NFC enabled reader

5.       The same process applies for check out. Participants tap their NFC tags on NFC enabled readers placed at all exit points

Final Thoughts

Among event professionals, we’ve seen continuous debates on whether the event industry will change in the future and how it will change. As retailers get back and running, B2C and B2B interactions look different, with several precautionary measures in place. It’s the aftermath of a global pandemic and it’s our responsibility to act accordingly.

As we are eager to see events coming back to normal, we strongly believe that Oveit can contribute to a safe and responsible way of hosting large gatherings. Of course, other parties must get involved to achieve that, but in terms of safe payment practices and access control, we got you covered!

June 17, 2020 Access management, Economy as a Service, Event management, Event professionals, Event tech, Festivals, Oveit Features, Technology, Uncategorized No comments yet