The progress of radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology into the global exhibition industry has taken a pause for thought, as tech pioneer Fish Technologies announced its withdrawal from the tradeshow market.
Fish’s market exit comes after unsuccessful attempts to break into the UK exhibition industry by installing its technology in several large exhibition venues, none of which came to fruition. The company blamed risk-averse venture capitalists for its decision to pull out of the UK, but sold its entire tradeshow and conference market business in the US to event measurement and analytics firm Alliance Tech (AT). The company instead plans to focus on experiential consumer brand projects. Fish and AT will cross-licence their products, allowing AT to use Fish’s Real Time Measurement System alongside its ‘passive’ measurement technology.
“We are disappointed we were unable to raise the investment necessary to permanently install our technology backbone into UK venues,” said Fish Technologies CEO Michael Gilvar. “This was a difficult market to raise capital and after spending over a million pounds promoting the venture, we have decided to focus on those markets that provide immediate and proven returns.”
Reasons why
David Pearson, MD of UK exhibition consultancy Fine Thinking, said Fish’s technology was valuable but hadn’t been taken to market in the right way.
“What they did was go to the venues first but without a commercial model behind it, it didn’t work,” he claimed. “In Europe and the US, venues run their own events, but in the UK they don’t. The mistake Fish made was not properly addressing the difference between the two models.
“The registration companies could have helped Fish with access to the organisers, and promoted it to the exhibitors to justify the increase on stand price.”
Pearson also blamed excessive caution on behalf of UK organisers prevented take-up. “They didn’t get the support they needed from organisers who want innovation but never invest in it,” he added.
According to UFI’s Delphi Study into global exhibition trends, RFID is expected to have a significant future as a tool for entry systems, ticketing, guidance systems and onsite communications. Although the technology was due to be field-tested at Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) at the UK’s Excel London exhibition venue, the trial fell through.
“They kept pushing the install date back,” said DSEI exhibition director Duncan Reid. “Obviously we keep a close eye on who is using new technology but I wasn’t aware of anyone actually trying it out.” Reid speculated that with high hardware costs, the technology is likely to be bumped out by increasingly sophisticated smartphone applications. “Within two years everyone will carry an iPhone or a BlackBerry,” he said. “What you’re better off doing is trying to create a solution that works across all those systems. If you base your solution on a technology that is already on the marketplace, you’re on to a winner.
“Technology changes so quickly,” he added. “They came to the market a couple of years ago, and almost already that technology is obsolete.”
Austen Hawkins, MD of the UK-based Association of Event Organisers, agreed that detailed, readily-available visitor data would be an asset for the industry, but believed up-front set-up costs hindered RFID uptake. New smartphone-based applications are increasingly offering a cheaper alternative, he said. “With GPS technologies evolving at such a quick rate, it might bring us the solutions for additional data capture,” he said.
Alliance Tech president and CEO Art Borrego says his company will take a more holistic approach: “Our approach is to focus on B2B events where the objective is demand generation,” he told EW. “We plan to offer customers the option of RFID Passive, Active and RTLS solutions based on the technology that best fits the scenario, environment and reporting objectives. Our focus is on helping identify sales opportunities, qualify, prioritise and nurture opportunities that are not quite ready for sales follow-up.”
Although the UK market may be an especially difficult one to break in to, the high costs of installing the extensive Fish hardware is making smartphone apps look more and more appealing to organisers.
