RFID, The Cashless World in Music Entertainment
With a vast market just within the Asian region alone, cashless payment is still considered a new mode of buying in Asia and fast becoming the coolest solution for the commercial market. James Kane reveals Sandpiper’s newly launched app – the iGO, their future plans and how this new solution meets client’s needs.
With a vast market just within the Asian region alone, cashless payment is still considered a new mode of buying in Asia and fast becoming the coolest solution for the commercial market. James Kane reveals Sandpiper’s newly launched app – the iGO, their future plans and how this new solution meets client’s needs.
Sandpiper Asia Director Talks About RFID technology
With its recent merger with Sandpiper Asia, GoGorilla’s founder James Kane new found role is anything but mundane. Since the start of the partnership, they have merged GoGorilla’s RFID tech solution with that of Sandpiper’s to provide cashless payment solutions to entertainment events including ULTRA, MediaCorp, Rainforest World Music Festival, Singapore Jazz Festival, Illumination, Future Music and many more.
GoGorilla made a bold and monumental impression at Road to Ultra held at Marina Bay Sands last year by implementing the use of the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) payment method, which took the festival experience up a notch – one of the first few cashless music festivals in the region.
Q: Congratulations for joining Sandpiper! How has this merger benefited GoGorilla and Sandpiper in terms of resources combined?
It’s been great. We have the support of the group as a whole in its resources, knowledge, and ability to scale the projects GG has been developing. By acquiring us SDP gains a fast track to enter the ASEAN market.
Q: The iGo app is certainly a more direct and easily accessible approach towards how users like to spend during and after the event/festival. Now that this technology is gradually appearing in many festivals and events, what would make them swap from using cash to taking credit from a chip on their wrist?
That’s a great question, if it’s any indication, with the social media backlash on a recent festival that relied on paper receipts for F&B collection, it’s apparent the market is expecting a more fluid, customer friendly solution. Locally the market is already used to using stored credits for transport, campus entry, F&B outlets, etc, so it makes sense for them to expect nothing less when they attend events.
Regionally, we activated over 300,000 RFID wristbands from Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia. We’ve had always been here providing experience and execution behind the brands that use our services. Now with the introduction of our iGo platform, we will expand from being just B2B focused, to adding the B2C platform.
By giving the event goers a complete solution to buy the online tickets, pre-topup prior to entry, and spend on site, we feel they will have a better overall experience. By setting up their e-wallet/ pre-topup, and downloading iGo, we will enable them to take the unspent balance to partner venues/ events. The goal is to connect the fragmented events and party industry.
James Kane founded GoGORILLA in 2012, and quickly gained traction with its innovative RFID solutions for large-scale events, concerts, sports, and shows. GoGorilla was acquired by Sandpiper AG in 2016.
Q: You are providing services for recent events such as Grand Prix Singapore and Slush Singapore, tell us how is the technology being integrated/used by these two events?
We do provide white label registration and scanning systems for SGP fringe events, while larger activations are still being explored. We are proud to be part of SLUSH SG, providing the ticketing platform via iGo Ticketing, onsite ticket fulfilment and credentials printing.
Q: As iGo launches to providing a service for the event as mentioned above, what is iGo’s plan in the next 6-12 month period? (what other events are involved, etc.)
Initially, its first role is for the event organisers and venue operators to use as a platform for news feed, ticket sales, and marketing. We have heard the constraints and requests from organisers for a platform that is scalable for their needs whether it be small to medium event they can run themselves, to a full on festival/ event/ show that would require onsite cashless support from Sandpiper. We are offering “Low to No” signup fees to list them on iGo.
From the consumer’s side, we will continue to open up the latest events with discounts, newsfeed, and F&B deals. iGo is more of a lifestyle support tool to get the most out of your local scene.
We are supporting several upcoming events, but until iGo App launches we are bound to wait for the event owners to do their own announcements.
