nTag: Name Tags that Take Notes, by Ian Mount, Fast Company, January 2005

Imagine going to a conference where everyone is wearing an electronic tag that keeps track of what seminars you attend, your agenda, interests, job, etc., and then allows you to exchange that information with someone else via infrared and radio frequencies?

What does this do for you? How about helping you to determine which people are the ones with whom your time would be most well spent in terms of marketing and networking? How about being able to swap electronic business cards immediately? How about your tag telling you who it was that the person you are talking to now spoke to several minutes ago?

The Tag "emails the cards later, as well as the identity of anyone we've spoken to for more than 45 seconds. Conference organizers, meanwhile, can break down attendance by demographic, or identify the so-called Kevin Bacons who act as the biggest social nexuses."

On the negative side, with 4 AAA batteries, the tag is heavy, and can only communicate with tags up to 6 feet away. And if, as this writer did, you find yourself in your hotel room, surrounded by people in adjacent rooms who have forgotten to turn off their tags, it can be a little unsettling. Rental fees range from $40 to $120 per tag - so it's a little pricey. And it's not like it will work by itself. Others have to have them on hand as well, because it takes two to tango here.

BRAINSTORM

I had to do some extra research on this baby...too cool. Got me thinking, too...(smile).

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Networking Applications

Common Ground
Idea Sharing
Card Exchange
Network Tracking and Visualizations
Networking Games


Event Management Applications

Lead Capture
Polls and Surveys
Message Delivery
Personalized Event Information
Attendance Tracking and Security

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In the industries I have been in, gathering the names and information of everyone that visits your booth, or that you meet, is rough on everyone. At the last expo one company I work with attended, everyone carried a card with their company's information on it, and the people at the booth just scanned your card, and voila, they had all of your information.

Just 2 problems.

Everyday people didn't carry scanners, so only booth owners could tally up the information.

The information that was entered via scanner had to be sent by the expo people (or the vendor supplying the scanners) via disc or email to the booth owner. Not only was there a gap in time involved, but when you saw the data, you wondered who had entered the information in. There was no consistent formatting, and you couldn't use it for a good contact list or just import it into your contacts table because it looked so bad.

Therefore, the idea with the tags is a pretty good one in my eyes. If everyone had a $40 tag (yes, I know they range up to $120, but let me dream...), everyone would benefit from immediate information. Instead of having to talk to people for half an hour to find common ground, the tags actually tell you both what you have in common. And what about transcribing all of that information you normally take by hand and putting the business card information into your computer and pda? Not with this...

Now, I know of several large expos coming up, and wouldn't that be a great proving ground? But coming up with, at the minimum, $40 per person, that's pretty steep. However, compare it with getting external research done, and money spent on hit and miss advertising. Discover the exact demographic information on everyone interested in your product and services. Isn't that worth the upfront cost, at least once?