Four reasons events teams around the world are using what3words
I spent the weekend with the what3words team at Goodwood Festival of Speed. It was a brilliant, high energy event. We exhibited at the festival’s Future Lab, with our booth sitting alongside a cocktail-making robot and a VR race car experience. It was great to talk to both newbies and longer-term fans about our technology and to see them enthusiastically interacting with what3words.
Why was what3words invited the Festival of Speed?
what3words solves the challenge of communicating location on event sites.
Goodwood is a country estate of nearly 12,000 acres and was populated with hundreds of attractions this weekend, from F1 race cars to vintage sports cars and even Wacky Races vehicles. Finding specific features was tricky when there was so much going on.
To help visitors find their way around the Festival of Speed more easily, Goodwood worked with what3words to identify important 3 word addresses around the site, from the racing start line to first aid points and car parks. For example, the 3 word address ///sides.decoded.heightens marked the 3m x 3m entrance of the Future Lab.
Goodwood is one of many events around the world adopting what3words to coordinate setup more smoothly, increase consumer engagement and improve their medical and emergency responses. Here’s how:
1. Smoother event setup
Coordinating an event successfully is hard enough without teams, vendors and equipment deliveries getting delayed in search of the right place.
Events often take place in areas without street addressing, with limited mobile data coverage and few fixed landmarks. Finding and communicating precise locations can be difficult and frustrating, which can make setup challenging for everyone involved.
Event managers generally resort to describing locations in lengthy detail, though this is time-consuming, error-prone and inaccurate. Think: ‘You can set-up about 100 yards away from the big white marquee… no, not that side, near the oak tree... no, not that one...’
To make event setup easier, more organised and efficient, event companies and apps like aHeadsup and Whatupintown are using what3words to collect addresses for key locations during setup.
Specifying both the event location and important spots around the site more accurately means that equipment suppliers, performers and food vendors can get to where they need to be more easily, minus the confusion.
2. Faster emergency response
The benefits of what3words go beyond setup. With the complexity of large events, security, medical and emergency response teams need to know what is happening and where at every moment. Communicating the location of an incident in a simple and accurate way can make all the difference in an emergency.
To respond to incidents faster, security, medical staff and emergency response teams like FMS at major events like Glastonbury and the Super Bowl are using what3words.
Three words are much easier to communicate than coordinates over the radio, and take the guesswork out of ‘where’, enabling teams to identify exact locations within seconds.
3. Helping visitors find their way
The simplicity and accuracy of 3 word addresses extends to participants too.
To make sure visitors can find them easily, get there on time and have a great experience, events around the world are increasingly advertising their precise entrance with their unique 3 word address.
On-site attractions are also communicating their precise location with 3 word addresses to make sure visitors find them – from food stalls to stages and facilities. At Lourensford market, each vendor has a unique 3 word address sign, while at Towersey Festival, each marquee, campsite and car park can be found using their corresponding 3 word address.
Visitors can simply type the unique 3 word address into the free what3words app to find their favourite attractions.
Festival-goers are also using what3words to find a 3 word address and arrange meeting points, by sharing a 3 word address and navigating there via the free what3words app.
4. Improving visitor engagement
To increase visitor engagement, events like Playtime Festival aren’t just using 3 word addresses to help visitors get from A to B, but are creating what3words scavenger hunts too. This is a great way to get participants to become more involved, meet new people and enjoy themselves while exploring different parts of the festival.
At the Festival of Speed, visitors could interact with a what3words tech display to find their 3 word address and create their own co-branded personalised cards to take home, a nice memento of the event.
To learn more about what3words for events, check out our events hub or get in touch.
Rowing Coach | Sail & Powerboat Instructor | (CFAV) CCF RN Officer.
5 年The way forward. The mind runs riot with the variety of events whether it be sporting, adventurous or cultural that would benefit from this.
Freelance Traffic Resource Manager.
6 年Total Brilliance! :)