The Ohio Library Conference is an annual gathering of library professionals. It attracts vendors from libraries and community businesses and organizations that support them. As a technology partner of 5 area libraries in Ohio, we are always excited to attend!
As with any conference, there is always a challenge in directing foot traffic to specific booths on a busy convention floor. We wanted to create a fun way to engage guests at the event and network with libraries and businesses. We reached out to other vendors to ask if they would like to be part of a scavenger hunt using NFC tags. This “gamification” of technology would encourage attendees to visit different booths and interact with their services both online and in-person.
We got ten interested vendor participants, and, to stay on theme, we contained the NFC tags in hollowed-out books. Guests went to a participating booth and simply tapped their phone to the book, and their phone received a hint about where the next booth on their quest would be. Some vendors included interactive elements like polls about which book series the reader prefers to keep users engaged.
To incentivize participation, we displayed a leaderboard of participants. This allowed attendees to compete in the tag hunt based on their library affiliation. We also displayed the results of the Favorite Series poll on the leaderboard, which encouraged attendees to engage with the tag hunt.
Vendors and casual event-goers alike were excited about the results of the tag hunt. They had a fun time while navigating the booths, and they asked our team a lot of questions about other potential applications for NFC tags. The leaderboard encouraged friendly competition and promoted camaraderie among participants, further enhancing the overall experience.
