The Girl Scouts of Northern California leveraged mobile ticketing for its recent Winterfest 2012 event to streamline registration, efficiently manage check-ins and increase sales.

Winterfest was the last big event for the Girl Scouts’ 100^th year celebration in 2012 and the Northern California region was expecting a large turnout. Attendees were able to register online and automatically receive a QR-coded ticket to their email that could be scanned at the event for entry.

“The event was at a remote location (the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds) and GSNorCal wanted to use their own technology without having to spend a lot of time one infrastructure setup,” said David Mimeles, vice president of sales and marketing at Doubleknot, Saratoga, CA.

“They also wanted to make it easy for their volunteer leaders,” he said.

IPhone scanners
The Girl Scouts of Northern California worked with Doubleknot Inc. for the mobile ticketing solution.

By emailing the QR-coded tickets to attendees, this eliminated the need for attendees to physically visit the local scout office for the purchase.

The system also automatically sent reminder emails with the tickets two days before the event.

During the Winterfest 2012 event in December, tickets were scanned at the door by staff members using iPads and iPhones running Doubleknot’s Mobile Check In application.

The program worked so well that the Girl Scouts of Northern California are planning more mobile ticketing for other events.

Driving convenience
Mobile ticketing is quickly growing across several sectors including mass transit and movies with strong success. This is because of the ease and convenience they provide for users who have their phones with them at all times so they do not have to remember to bring a print ticket with them.

For example, Fandango recently reported mobile ticket sales increased 171pc year-over-year (see story).

Live events are another area that is increasingly embracing mobile ticketing.

For example, last summer Live Nation introduced an Android application that lets consumers buy concert and event tickets wherever they are. In addition to the Android app, Live Nation also has an iPhone app (see story).

“Doubleknot clients (Girls Scout and Boy Scout councils around the country) are starting to adopt mobile check-in technology both for its ease of use in admission and attendance tracking, and because it shows to their constituents that they are a technologically advanced organization, so they are easy to work with,” Mr. Mimeles said.

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York