HIMSS 2011 To Use RFID To Track Attendees This Year-Chip Is In the Name Tag But Booth Tags Would Have Been Fun & Interactive

No doubt this is probably done to promote and bring a higher awareness to spotlight how RFID technology can be used in healthcare and for hospitals in keeping items like wheelchairs and stethoscopes, not to mention more expensive items too, this is a great idea and it works well in many hospitals.  One hospital in the OC, Hoag, has implemented RFID in the ER room so as not to lose patients and know where they are at all times, and they are a pretty big facility. This is excellent and helps find equipment like crash carts for example really fast too. 

This did kind of strike me as being a bit odd though but there is a (partial) option as I understand to opt out.  When I say partial, this protects one from their email address, phone number and other information being given out, but your company name and your name will be available as I understand it, even as you opt out. For conventions and with the push to educate and promote mHealth issues I wonder why they didn’t opt for a more social/optional program that is actually a bit more fun and can get all attendees in the mood for some good old mHealth too, like this program, Booth Tag.  I wrote about it a few month ago.  It’s actually pretty cool and brings 4Square and Twitter into the picture too so someone could be the Mayor of HIMMS.  Besides that to have Microsoft Tags on your booth and other information, how many times have you run out of brochures at a convention or have your material arrive on the day the show closes. 

Microsoft Tags (Booth Tags) Coming to A Convention Soon – Maybe A Healthcare Show?

Booth Tag

When you watch the video, the participants are saying it definitely picked up traffic in the booths.  This technology stands to somewhat put the registration list of scanning name tags out of business perhaps. 

“BoothTag is the next generation of tradeshow marketing, creating immediacy and
personal engagement while leveraging the convenience and accessibility of mobile
phone and barcode technology.”

BoothTag encourages event attendees to seek the exhibitor out and creates an instant rolodex of contacts at any time, archived by show name and date. No business cards to enter into a spreadsheet after a long day at a tradeshow!

It can be integrated right into the registration process and you get real analytics so just add a heat map from Bing if you like away you go.  This makes participation optional and gives real time information to both attendees and the exhibitors if they used their own bar codes to distribute their company information.  It sure beats the heck out of dragging all that stuff around, and I mean the papers, not the free pens and stress balls, those are ok as we don’t’ get those anywhere else. 

If one really wants you can combine the Microsoft Tags technology with RFID and that’s a good thing for a healthcare organization but not sure what it would do at a convention per se.  I’m still trying to get the FDA, Medical device companies and drug companies to collaborate and work together on FDA recalls, but you know it’s that word “collaborate” that everyone talks about but nobody does much of it <grin>. 

Not too long ago the National Conference of State Legislatures tried this out to allow people to scan and get their information at the conference and most of what I have seen in the way of folks in government are in the non participant area of general consumer digital knowledge, so not sure how that worked out.  Actually the link below has more links to additional uses for bar coding too and gosh knows this holiday season coupons were alive and well on cell phones. 

National Conference of State Legislatures Using Microsoft Tags At This Year’s Convention to Allow Attendees to Stay Informed and Engaged

Being this technology with Booth Tags was developed and promoted mobile communications it looked like it could have added to the show and again it has many enticements to add involvement rather than being on a mandatory tracker, plus you design it to give out prizes too.  Oh well, will have to hear about how the RFID stuff works, opt out.  I should also mention that I have seen marketing folks mess up a bit as they did in New York with putting bar codes on trash trucks for people to scan too and that image of someone chasing a trash truck to scan a bar code on it still sticks in my memory in very funny way.

If anyone going to HIMSS this year want to do their own thing, just make up some Tags for the show and that way you will be covered should you run out of “paper” and gee is this not a show about encouraging paperless medical records? <grin> BD

HIMSS will be utilizing RFID technology at this year’s conference to identify individuals’ movement and collect demographic information in select areas of the conference. These will include such areas as the exhibition floor, exhibitors booths, and Exhibitor Solution Sessions. If you do not wish to participate in this technology you will be given an opportunity to opt out when completing your registration.

http://www.himssconference.org/registration/policies.aspx

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