Held at London’s 02 Arena last Tuesday 21^st Feb, official partners, ID&C worked with BRITs organisers to supply a security wristband suite of 23 individual designs, each identifying a different type of guest and level of access.

Matt Wilkey, director at ID&C said, “As music events go, it doesn’t get more high profile than the BRITs. Having worked with the production team at Earls Court and now the O2 Arena, we understand what’s required by organisers for a slick ‘behind-the-scenes’ operation.”

6 million television viewers tuned in to enjoy a festival-worthy line-up featuring Coldplay (no sign of the flashing wristbands), Adele and an anthemic closing set from Outstanding Contribution to Music winners, Blur. Adele managed to add controversy to the evening when tv cameras picked up her ‘hand gesture’, after the double BRIT winner’s acceptance speech was cut short, and boy band winners One Direction managed to thank BBC Radio 1 listeners for an award that was sponsored by Capital FM!

“Becoming official partner was amazing for us, especially ahead of a summer where suppliers will be in the spotlight during the Olympics and Diamond Jubilee events. We’re passionate about what we do and although the BRITs are likely to be remembered for the epic line-up and Adele’s short-lived speech, we know that security wristbands played a part in the successful production.” – added Wilkey.

ID&C also supplied wristbands that were fitted with an RFID micro-chip and used for cashless purchases at the after party bar. Over 1000 guests had the chance to experience the speed and simplicity of transactions when using contactless RFID wristbands, a method expected to be used at a number of major festivals in the UK this summer.

ID&C helped provide a cashless environment in last year’s Isle of White Festival VIP tent and have worked with Coachella Festival, UEFA and video game Call of Duty delivering other RFID applications for access control and social media brand activation.

Recently published figures showing the top grossing festivals, put Coachella, Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits as the top 3 respectively. Only U2’s 360 tour separated the three U.S. festival giants which all sit within the top 5 and were new clients of UK-based security wristband company, ID&C, last year.

The company who have serviced the UK event industry for over 18 years, recently took the U.S market by storm after introducing their fabric wristbands with patented security lock and RFID micro-chip. Now synonymous with UK festivals, the woven fabric wristband was introduced to the UK by ID&C some 10 years ago after festivals including Glastonbury were looking for a wristband that offered a higher level of security. Since then, ID&C have developed their wristbands and introduced additional security features, notably their innovative application of RFID micro-chips.

RFID technology comes with an array of benefits for festival organisers and fans including drastically reduced queues and complete eradication of ticket touting and fake wristbands.

ID&C’s head of RFID, Steve Daly  @RFIDSteve had this to say “The success of our RFID wristbands at Coachella resulted in further enquiries from Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits. The festivals were a pleasure to work with and it was great to see our products achieve the same success over in the states that they have here in the UK.”

RFID or ‘digital’ wristbands have recently captured the attention of live music fans in the UK following Glastonbury’s announcement that they’ll consider using the wristbands when the festival returns in 2013.

‘Plastic Passion’, one of the Event Production Show’s ‘Access Sessions’ held at Olympia, London earlier this month, brought together four corners of the event industry to talk about RFID wristbands, a topic hot on the lips of fans and organisers around the world.

The panel, consisting of Isle of Wight Festival’s Rob Langford, Steve Daly from ID&C (@RFIDSteve), Steve Jenner from Intellitix and Ticketmaster’s Adam Newsam, provided the perfect mix of experience and insight to debate the future of RFID in the live event space.

The seminar kicked-off with an overview of the success seen in North America last summer, where RFID was used for access control at a number of flagship live events. Intellitix’s Steve Jenner, and ID&C’s Steve Daly gave accounts on how the adoption of RFID wristbands at festivals such as Coachella and Lollapalooza gave positive results for the organisers.

Rob Langford from Solo (the production company behind Isle of Wight festival) provided the promoters’ view point, giving insight into the RFID cashless payment trial carried out amongst 500 fans at the festival last summer. The pre-loaded RFID wristbands gave fans in the VIP arena the chance to experience the technology when purchasing at food and drink stalls. Langford expressed that the success of the trial had led the Isle of Wight festival to consider other avenues where RFID wristbands would benefit the festival and its fans.

The explicit insight into RFID technology provoked an extensive Q&A session, where a packed-out audience asked everything from ‘how can an RFID wristband be topped-up?’ to ‘who owns the data on the wristband?’ The most frequent question though, ultimately asked ‘who will pay for the technology?’ The scrutinised panel gave individual scenarios and explained possible business models that included sponsorship and paying for the new technology from the proven uplift in sales that a cashless payment solution can generate. Solo’s Langford stated that it was certainly not the intention of Isle of Wight to pass the cost onto the fans.

Although no specific festivals were named, it was unanimously hinted by the panel that the industry could expect to see a cashless payment solution at a UK festival this summer. 

Today, BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat reported that RFID wristbands will feature at UK festivals this summer. This is great news for ID&C!
Last week’s Eurosonic Noorderslag festival gave thousands of delegates the chance to trial the technology for admission in and out of the event.

More “music to our ears” was hearing Glastonbury organiser, Michael Eavis announce that the team behind the UK’s largest festival is considering using RFID technology when it returns in 2013.

In America this summer, the real buzz were the RFID wristbands that replaced tickets at Lollapalooza, Coachella, and Austin City Limits. The three giants of the U.S. festival scene adopted a complete RFID access control solution which admitted thousands of fans an hour via the custom RFID wrist bands. The custom printed RFID wristbands were supplied by ID&C with the systems supplied by London-based Intellitix.

“In our first year of operation, this summer, we activated over 1 million RFID festival wristbands without a hitch,” says Intellitix CEO Serge Grimaux. “By linking access control with cashless payments and social media, we can transport the message of the festival and its sponsors far beyond the festival site. The festival community now has a platform on which it can build endlessly. These are incredibly exciting times!”

“More festivals will use RFID wristbands next year, whether it’s for cashless payments or access control, ” says ID&C’s Craig Bennett. “It’ll have a huge impact next year and people are starting to use the technology in different ways. These systems have proved 100% reliable, they eliminate resale and fraud and drastically cut down on queuing times.”

According to Virtual Festival’s census, over two-thirds of audience members would be keen to try an RFID cashless wristband.

Excerpts taken from IQ, Issue 38

That’s the last blog from us in 2011. A very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from all at ID&C – see you in 2012!

Held, for the first time, at the Round House, the Festival Awards enjoyed its most successful year to date with almost 1000 guests gathering from all corners of the UK to celebrate the very best in festival line-ups, experience, and even toilets!

Amongst the usual debauchery of an end-of-season awards party was a Festival Awards-first, which gave each guests the chance to use RFID wristbands and make a cashless transaction to receive a free drink. The wristbands, provided by event access control specialists ID&C, were exchanged for tickets upon arrival, each pre-loaded with a complimentary drink voucher, courtesy of RFID systems specialists, Intellitix.

ID&C’s Craig Bennett said “The UK Festival Awards provided the perfect environment for people to witness the speed and ease of cashless payments using RFID wristbands. RFID has been a popular topic across the UK event industry this year and it was great to see the technology in action at such a fantastic event.”

RFID wristbands at Festival Awards

The infrastructure behind the cashless transactions was provided by RFID technology experts, Intellitix

ID&C were also proud to sponsor the Best Grass Roots Festival Award and would like to congratulate the team at Y-Not Festival for their triumph.
Well done guys!

Y-Not Festival win Grass Roots Award

Other award winners included Glastonbury (Best Major Festival) Creamfields (Best Dance Event) and Sonisphere (Best Lineup). Those lucky enough to take to the stage were greeted by fruitful hosts, the Cuban Brothers, who proved to be a massive hit with the audience.

To discover more on RFID applications for events, visit our RFID website.

MarketingProfs in particular listed the new form of real-life interaction as their No. 1 marketing trend for next year.
They said:
The use of RFID and social-enabled sharing will increase because of smartphones, photo-sharing and location check-ins are no-brainers. And marketers, as well as tradeshow and event attendees, have been using smartphones to share their event experiences via Facebook photo albums, TwitPic, Flickr, and so on. But 2012 could well bring automatic social-enabled sharing thanks to radio frequency identification (RFID).”

Here at ID&C we couldn’t agree more. In fact our very own Radio Frequency wristbands have been used for this exact marketing method. Back in September, our RFID wrist bands were custom designed for the new Call of Duty game’s XP event in L.A. The social gaming event saw thousands of COD fans play the game in a real-life environment (fake guns of course) and during the simulated war-zone, fans could use their wristbands, fitted with RFID chips to post their scores and photos direct to Facebook. This kind of social interaction will add value to events and allow marketers to measure ROI on new levels thanks to Facebook’s every-updating analytics.

Read the rest

As leaders in the production of security and promotional wristbands for live events, we were excited to see such an interesting new product. We expect to see these LED wristbands much more in 2012.

Head over to Coldplay’s website to see pictures and videos of the wristbands in action.

The wristbands were supplied by RB Concepts.

ID&C did not produce the L.E.D wristbands for the event and are not affiliated with Coldplay, RB Concepts or the X Factor.

This year’s Isle of Wight Festival was host to the UK festival industry’s first ever cashless environment. ID&C supplied the state-of-the-art RFID wristband, used to purchase food and drinks with a simple tap of the wrist. The transactions happened in a fraction of a second and left punters astonished. In fact, a survey carried out amongst those using the RFID wristband revealed that 98% agreed that this process of transaction was faster than paying with a card. There was unanimous support for the RFID wristbands with 100% of people surveyed saying they would like to use them again at future events.

The UK Event Awards take place next Wednesday 30th November at Wembley Stadium – wish us luck.

See the other nominees 

Our recent developments in the realm of RFID wristband technology and the growth this and our other products have achieved for ID&C, has lead us to be in the running for Best Innovation, Best Growing Business and Best Enterprising Business awards.

The annual awards bash welcomes over 30 finalists representing the cream of West Kent businesses to a swanky hotel in Tunbridge Wells. 12 trophies will be up for grabs on the evening, including the coveted Best Business Award, which is put forward by a judging panel, who reveal the nominations on the night!

Our head honcho, Matt Wilkey commented: “Despite the recession, we’ve had a successful year, our innovative products have helped create new opportunities for us and we’re honoured to receive any kind of recognition locally, three nominations was unbelievable!”

We’ll let you know how we got on, next week. For now… Fingers crossed!

Craig, ID&C
www.idcband.co.uk

As the festival scene’s most recognised security wristband supplier, we’re showing our support for the industry’s indie-kids by sponsoring The Grass Roots Festival gong at the UK Festival Awards next week.

The annual Awards, which attract the who’s who of the festival industry, have seen Glastonbury, T in the Park, Mumford & Sons and Biffy Clyro pick up the coveted prizes in recent years. Organisers are expecting over 600 guests to the show, which moves this year, to London’s impressive Round House.

We took the decision to sponsor the Award following our work with LeeFest back in the summer. LeeFest, who previously won the Grass Roots Festival award in 2009, were recipients of a professional accreditation pack supplied by us.

Lee Denny at LeeFest had these kind words to say:
“’ID&C’s accreditation package was a dream come true – not only did it make the event safer and more secure, it made it more beautiful too. The products they provided brought together our crew, artists and dedicated fans in a way that I never thought a festival wristband could!”

The LeeFest Wristbands & Lanyards

Here at ID&C, we made a conscious effort to give something back to the industry’s inspiring newcomers, who we believe are a key ingredient to the growth of the festival business. LeeFest stood out for us because of their focus to offer the best possible experience for their fans.

As AIF (Association of Independent Festivals) members, we value the effort made by the festival freshmen who strive to bring amazing experiences to music lovers. Soon we’ll be launching a competition, giving one UK festival the chance to win the same package enjoyed by the team at LeeFest, so keep your eyes peeled!

The Grass Roots Festival Award winner will also receive a £1,500 bursary towards disability access training from Attitude is Everything, a prize kindly provided by Festival Republic.

We’re also showcasing our RFID wristbands at the UK Festival Conference which takes place at the HMV Forum before the Awards ceremony on November 15th.

All the best,
Craig

From Lollapalooza Website

This has been the biggest year ever for British festivals, with close to 600 accounted for. Some have said the market is saturated, but any influx of new events has to be good news for the industry.

Despite the recession, the public will always find a way to fund their pleasure time. What this market will demand, however, is a focus on the overall experience a festival can offer its cash strapped punters in 2012.

Taking advantage of available technology and using it to enhance the festival experience is something we’ve seen across the United States this summer, where our RFID wristbands at ID&C found their way onto more than 500,000 wrists, at Coachella, Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits. In taking the hi-tech pluncge, the three festivals gave their fans and enhanced experience before they even entered the site.

A buzz surrounding the wristbands was reflected across social networks and the festivals’ official message boards, helping to promote the events in turn. once on site, fans benefited from the enhancements the RFID technology provided, such as reduced queuing and a less invasive entry.

Cashless payment is another high-tech offering for organisers, The trial at the Isle of Wight Festival’s VIP arena back in June was a resounding success. Reduced queuing times at the bar means more sales! That’s just one of the ways organisers can directly benefit. There are many more pieces to the puzzle when thinking of enhancing the overall festival experience, but get it right at the gate and you’re off to a good start.

RFID access gates at Lollapalooza Festival

This year, we worked closely with the guys at the award winning LeeFest, supplying a complete accreditation pack free of charge. We loved the ethos of their event and how the focal point was to deliver the absolute best festival experience and we’re so happy to hear the accreditation offered a helping hand in achieving this.

We see the festival ‘indie-kids’ as a great asset to the industry, and later this year we’ll be launching a competition offering any festival with less than 5,000 capacity, the chance to win a full accreditation package.

Written by Craig Bennett
as featured in Access All Areas

As a panellist for the anticipated ‘Criminal In-Tent’ seminar at the LIVE UK Summit earlier this month, Daly showcased how RFID wristbands will play a part in the combat against increasing criminal activity witnessed at festivals in 2011.
Sat with Daly were, Kevin Walker, detective constable at Leicestershire Police and Reg Walker, ticket fraud expert from Iridium Consulting. Offering experience and insight, the seasoned pros discussed how festivals have continued see criminal hotspots at campsites, site perimeters and even inside main arenas, where wristband mugging has been an issue.

Criminal gangs, fraudsters and mere chancers will always exist in the industry, but while anti-crime initiatives strive to raise awareness, the panel was in mutual agreement that the strengthening of communication between organisers, access specialists and police will drive the success of crime prevention at festivals going forward.

ID&C’s Steve Daly explains how RFID wristbands can combat fraud

This year’s riots showed how today’s technology can be used as a tool to negative effect but it was security wristband technology that drew a focus in the latter part of the seminar. ID&C’s Steve Daly noted the success of RFID wristbands used at the Coachella festival in California. In 2010, organisers of the 3-day gig struggled with touts, fence-hoppers and hundreds of chances. The deployment of RFID wristbands in 2011 however, eliminated all fraudulent activity around the Coachella site and as a result of this, overall criminal activity was reduced.

The unique design and technology behind the wristbands proved too advanced for the fraudsters who, along with the usual chancers, were dismissed way before they had a sniff of the Coachella arena. “The wristbands and access systems ran without a hitch and allowed organisers to dramatically improve on security, while the punters got the added value of reduced queues’’ states Daly.

Daly continues, “The technology was trailed at the Isle of Wight festival this year with RFID wristbands providing a cashless environment for fans in the VIP arena. Although this wasn’t introduced to combat criminal activity – organisers in the UK are now more aware of the benefits RFID can offer festival security.

ID&C will be showcasing their RFID wristbands and security accreditation at the UK Festival Awards Conference on 15th November at the HMV forum.

The V.I.Pee auction was set up for one lucky person to win 4 x tickets to LeeFest along with their very own luxury portaloo for the weekend. Here at ID&C, we’re delighted to have supported such a fun and successful campaign and are very happy to be working with LeeFest this year to provide their entire accreditation solution including security wristbands, lanyards, laminates + more.

The competition was an instant hit, with almost a thousand page views on ebay. 29 bidders battled for the title, with the ‘V.I.Pee’ crown eventually going to Adam Grinter from East Grinstead. Lee Denny, festival founder and director, was overwhelmed by the response to the competition:

“Everyone loved it! It was my brother Andy who suggested it… I’m worried that if he keeps having ideas like that, soon it will be him running the whole show! We’re just really chuffed that a bit of fun like ‘V.I.Pee’ has raised so much money for Kids Company!’

Next weekend British Sea Power, DJ Fresh and Fenech-Soler headline LeeFest along with a host of other national and local acts.

www.leefest.org.uk
www.idcband.co.uk

Festival accreditation & access control company ID&C (that’s us!) is sponsoring the award winning* LeeFest’s unique competition to win festival tickets and… The world’s most glamorous portaloo.

The annual music festival in South-East London that began in a schoolboy’s back garden, is returning for its sixth year this summer. Headlined by the UK no.1 artist DJ Fresh, Fenech-Soler and British Sea Power, this grass roots gig has clearly established itself as a festival to be reckoned with.

Lee Denny, festival founder and director, measures the event’s growing success in terms of the portaloo count:
‘At the first festival, people had to use the toilet in my house, then the following year we invested in a single portaloo. Since then, the number has grown and this year we’ve got 39!’

To celebrate the new portaloo record, the LeeFest team are launching ‘VIPee’ – a charity auction with a twist! Punters will have the chance to bid for four festival tickets with all proceeds going straight to the London-based charity, Kids Company.

As a reward, the winning bidder will be crowned the ‘VIPee’ of LeeFest 2011 and given the key to their very own red carpeted and treat-filled portaloo for the weekend to share with their chosen few! Any winning bidders who already bought LeeFest tickets will have their original ticket money refunded.

The auction goes live on eBay TODAY at 6pm for a week. Search on eBay for ‘LeeFest VIPee’ and get bidding!

Further information and the full line-up is available at http://www.leefest.org.uk

*Best Grassroots Festival – UK Festival Awards 2009

FULL FESTIVAL ACCREDITATION FROM ID&C

We’re supplying LeeFest with a complete festival accreditation package, including:
Woven fabric wristbands
Security lanyards
Plastic wallets
Printed festival pack (including a map, weekend line-up and all the info festival goers will need to know).

Mid-year figures posted by PollStar show Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival as the worlds highest grossing festival of the year, with profits just shy of $25m. Our RFID wristbands helped provide the mammoth three-day festival with a high-level of security, eliminating pass-backs, combating counterfeit wristbands and minimizing the queuing times.

See the stylish festival wristbands in action with the RFID access control gates

Read about how the RFID festival wristbands work

ID&C’s RFID wristbands in full force at Coachella

The success of Coachella led us to work with two other major U.S. festivals this year. Lollapalooza in Chicago and Austin City Limits in … Austin will both benefit from state-of-the-art RFID wristbands. Keep an eye on our blog for all the details.

In the meantime, check this out – The Ultimate Guide to Latitude Festival
From http://www.paamapplication.co.uk

The project, led by MasterCard® saw festival goers in the VIP arena put the PayPass ™ prepaid wristbands to the test, unanimously rating them as a must-have for future live events.

Research conducted by MasterCard® amongst those using the ID&C-supplied fabric festival wristbands found they were their preferred payment method at the festival, with an astounding 100% of users stating that they’d use the wristbands again at other festivals, concerts and sporting events.

Pre-loaded with £30, the wristbands could be used to purchase food and drink with a simple tap of the wrist – ‘‘It’s the simplicity and speed which make contactless wristbands so attractive to festival organisers and punters alike.
The opportunity to work on this groundbreaking project at one of the UK’s most established festivals has been fantastic and the results have clearly revealed how contactless wristbands can enhance the user experience.’’ Says Steve Daly, ID&C’s Operations Director.

Contactless Festival Wristbands

John Giddings, Isle of Wight festival promoter, said: “Festivals are all about a great shared experience – the music, bands, food and drink all add to the atmosphere. New innovations such as this really add to the experience. I’m proud to have pioneered the wristbands at the Isle of Wight Festival and hope to see them developed further for future events.’’

At ID&C’s, our contactless wristband projects have grown rapidly in 2011 with the mammoth Coachella festival already under our belt. We have also secured two further deployments of RFID access control wristbands in the U.S. working with Chicago’s Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits in Texas later this year.

Essentially, QR codes convert a long message into a small, scannable barcode, which can be used to interact with customers before, during and after events. Text messages, emails, business cards and weblinks can be embedded within the code. When scanned, the message is then stored on the user’s mobile giving a longer lasting connection with your audience than a typical print or web ad.

QR Code Wristband

One tip when embedding long URLs is to shorten them first using a shortener like http://bit.ly. You can then use the shortened URL to make your QR code. We like to use http://qrcode.kaywa.com/ it’s quick and simple to use. The shorter the link, the less complicated the QR code is, making it easier for phones to scan… And remember, always test them first!

At ID&C we have supplied security access solutions to the event & sporting industries for over 15 years. We can provide full accreditation and security solutions for any size event, including all types of wristbands and lanyards.

By Craig Bennett
Marketing Manager
ID&C
As featured in FS Arena

For us, the big news is the presence of live music promoters throughout the list with Simon Moran of SJM concerts featuring highest at #9. The concert giant appears ahead of Black Eyed Peas front man will.i.am, CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos and is only a place behind the co-founder of Google! SJM co-owns the V-Festival who we regularly provide security wristbands for. SJM are also the promoters of Take That’s Progress tour, which starts tonight in Sunderland.

Music Power 100, Live Music highlights

The live music giants in the the music power 100:

#9 Simon Moran – Live music promoter: managing director, SJM Concerts
#34 Michael and Emily Eavis – Live music promoters: Glastonbury festival organisers
#36 Denis Desmond – Live music promoter: owner, MCD Productions
#40 Harvey Goldsmith – Live music promoter: Harvey Goldsmith Productions
#57 Rob da Bank – Broadcaster: Radio 1 DJ Label executive: founder, Sunday Best Live music promoter: Founder, Bestival
#65 Paul Latham – Live music promoter: president, Live Nation UK
#73 Melvin Benn – Live music promoter: MD, Festival Republic
#96 Bob Angus – Live music promoter: managing director, Metropolis Music
#98 John Northcote – Live music producer: CEO, Academy Music Grou

Full list here Music Power 100

Craig Bennett
Marketing Manager
ID&C Ltd
Extracts and images from the Guardian

Given that its primary product need not take any particular shape, colour or form, ticketing has always been a prime candidate for trialling emerging technology and new ideas. RFID (radio-frequency identification), while far from groundbreaking in the technology stakes, has the potential to radically alter event ticketing. Last summer, German promoter FKP Scorpio issued 500 RFID cards for cashless purchases on-site at Hurricane Festival while Hungary’s Sziget festival adopted a wider trial using 11,000 cards that could be used at 300 terminals around the site. Meanwhile in Canada, the Festival d’Ete de Quebec sold 150,000 RFID wristbands as entry tickets for a 11-day line-up that included Arcade Fire, Santana and Black Eyes Peas. April 2011, however, was a tipping point.

Original Video- More videos at TinyPic

Last month, Coachella festival in Los Angeles adopted an RFID wristbands system for its 75,000 ticket buyers. Early reports say that queues were reduced and the system drastically cut touting. ”There were no technical issues whatsoever, the technology performed seamlessly”, says operations director Steve Daly at ID&C which suplied the bands, chips and patented Smartlocks. The access control corridors and back-end system was from Intellitix, the new company established by Ticketpro chief, Serge Grimaux. And there were more than a few interested promoters on-site to observe.

Extract taken from IQ Magazine, Issue 35
http://www.ilmc.com

Personalise each band with a different saying or name……………. this gives creative options to add a bit of fun / spice to the party using nicknames, catchphrases etc !!!!!

Great for birthday parties of any age, university parties, stag and hen dos (not to get lost !!) xmas parties, new years parties, engagement / wedding parties, annual events……… in fact any gathering !!!

Totally unique to your event…….. for evening / night dos check out the “Glow in the Dark” wristbands

 Go on be different…………………… add a new talking point to your party !!!!

Checkout the website for the range of sizes and colours available, for single and interlocked wristbands at www.team-sport-bands.co.uk/personalised-wristbands-1-c.asp and you can create your very own wristbands.