Using wristbands to further secure your events

Skiddle talks to club promoter John Pugh about why wristbands used in conjunction with the right ticketing provider could be the difference between the the success or failure of your event.

Regularly using Skiddle to promote events, for the last 13 years John Pugh has been organising events in his home town of Maidstone that have featured the likes of Carl Cox, Zane Lowe, Pete Tong, and local boy-done-good Nic Fanciulli to name but a few.

Speaking as Promotions Manager for Kent clubbing hot spot, the Source Bar, Pugh said: “Whether using Tyvek wristbands, or my personal preference, vinyl wristbands, identifying who’s paid, who’s a VIP and who’s gone out to get another 20 quid from the cash point, is essential to running our parties securely and profitably.” This statement got us intrigued so we thought we’d dig bit more!

How do security wristbands support your events?

“Whilst we’d prefer people to purchase their tickets in advance, we still get a significant amount of at-the-door trade. Using wristbands enables our team to get the punters in quickly and once they’re partying, easily establish the status of their pass, who’s paid and who can go where.

Many of our events reach capacity early on in the night, so if there’s someone inside who hasn’t paid, in place of someone in a queue outside waiting to pay – then that’s lost revenue.”

What considerations do you make when buying wristbands?

“Price is always a consideration but the quality and ability to custom print on the wristbands is essential for security. We always print dates and logos on them and make sure we rotate the colours frequently. The down side to this is that we can’t use any leftovers, but it pays for itself when you stop people trying to get in with the same wristband the following night.

If we have a bigger budget or a major club brand, we might demote the Tyvek wristbands in choice of vinyl wristbands. Sometimes, for VIPs we’ve even used fabric wristbands – these are not only more secure, but punters are more inclined to keep them on long after the event, which further promotes the club.”

Working in conjunction with Skiddle

Wristbands are a great way to work out who’s in the event once they’re in, this can operate in conjunction with the security afforded by choosing the right ticketing partner. Skiddle supplies paperless e-tickets, paper tickets as well as providing events with our event entry management solution: RapidScan, these solutions provide the most effective entry security systems which can be, although don’t necessarily have to be backed up by identifiers such as wristbands.

For more information on making your event secure with Skiddle please visit: The Promotion Centre.