Technology in Action

This past Wednesday I attended the BizBash Event Style Expo at the Javits Center. The Expo was filled with some really cool and interesting companies, as well as a lot of fun and interactive exhibitor booths. While I was walking around I kept seeing these hand held black box-type things that people kept holding up to one anothers badges. I quickly realized that these objects were scanning that barcodes on each attendees badge, collecting the information associated with their name in BizBash's registration system.

Earlier this semester, Denise blogged about a tool called Mingle360. This device is used by pointing one's own MingleStick to anothers, creating a wireless connection between the two that allows the exchange of information such as name, company, position. It basically acts as an electronic business card. It's the perfect networking tool, as it is easy and efficient and helps reduce paper waste from printing business cards!

The tool being used at BizBash, however, was a little different. As I went from booth to booth, the exhibitors would scan the bar code located on my tag and receive all my information that had been entered into the computer system upon my registration. Though I wasn't able to find out the name of the barcode scanner being used at the event, I did some research afterewards and found many products similar to what I had seen at the trade show.

One such product is called the Gizmo. Advanced Expo Solutions International makes two versions of the Gizmo, the Gizmo Jr. and the Gizmo PLUS. The junior version of the product is the size of a car key and is easy to operate. The PLUS model is larger and takes the look of a Blackberry or PDA. The PLUS can record data from bar codes as well as store photos, document images, and audio files. Event planners can rent these to have onsite for exhibitors to use to capture data of individuals for prospective sales, or to capture data from attendees to create or add to an email listserv.

It was really cool to see technology in action at an industry event. And, it has made me wonder if buisness cards will truly become obsolete in the near future.