Aidan Pawson is the Head of Operations at Ticket Arena and Event Genius, a primary ticket seller and event technology supplier based in Leeds, UK. His role includes developing strategic partnerships, programme management, event delivery and ensuring clients are getting the maximum benefits from the company’s products and services. He’s an expert in planning and delivering RFID cashless payments for large-scale events across the globe and has over 10 years of experience within the live events industry.
Moving to RFID cashless payments is a big step for any event. On-site spending is such an important revenue stream that it means the setup of any contactless payment service must be flawless. Any organiser tempted to implement RFID cashless payments without the support of an expert provider is taking a huge risk; there are some horror stories out there.
At Ticket Arena and Event Genius, we know that event managers already have a tough task organising and managing staff, security, logistics, agents, management companies and more, so when it comes to additional ticketing and event technology, as service providers, I believe it’s up to us to help make their lives simpler.
We’ve worked with events of all sizes to successfully deliver RFID cashless payments and know that every organiser has a unique set of priorities, requirements, processes, tools and technology that need to work in perfect harmony to make RFID payments a hit at their event, and it’s this experience which sets us apart.
Unlike some RFID cashless service providers, we provide a full-range of event services that extend into online ticketing, white label box offices, access control, equipment hire, rep selling and more, making it easier for us to integrate RFID payments into your wider customer experience and where required, to create a bespoke solution for your event.
In my view, providing the technology or equipment for RFID payments is only part of what event organisers actually need, and any provider worth their salt should be able to offer a comprehensive planning, training and on-site delivery service. I’d advise that any event manager thinking about a move to RFID payments do their research on the services offered, the providers and their past work.
One particularly large event we work with is a carnival in Asia, where we essentially run a medium sized festival every day for 60 days across the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. In total, we serve over a million customers, something that creates a unique set of challenges and processes that need to be put in place to keep things running simultaneously for such a long time.
When working on these sort of festival sized events, any issue, problem or oversight has a big effect, so it’s important to cover every little detail, confirm the requirements and then test, test and test again to help eliminate any unexpected outcomes appearing once you are open to the public. In fact, including all the testing, planning, set-up and on-site support, the total time that we dedicated to delivering the carnival was over 5000 man hours. That’s the level of detail and support that you need to make sure things run flawlessly.
So while it’s easy for an RFID solution provider to claim that they can increase customer spending by 25%, reduce your staff costs or eliminate cash handling errors with RFID, they can’t always predict the sort of issues that arise when trying to integrate their solution with the other technologies or processes in use at your event.
That’s what you get when you choose to work with Ticket Arena and Event Genius: the whole package. Our event management professionals, project managers, technology and equipment will be with you from the tickets going on-sale to dealing with your customers after your event has closed. It’s an end-to-end service that’s unrivalled.
