Humble backstage pass steps into technological future

Even with one recent month that was flat, revenues at Access Pass & Design this year are running nearly 40 percent ahead of last year.

But the likelihood of a $1 million increase in annual sales isn't the biggest reason that Seth Sheck, chief executive officer of the Sparks-based company, is bubbling over with enthusiasm these days.

In the next few days, staff members of Access Pass & Design begin an ambitious four-month schedule of trade-show appearances to launch a technological-savvy version of the backstage passes that have been the company's bread-and-butter products for a decade.

The heart of the next generation of wristbands or passes swinging from lanyards around necks of show-goers, Sheck says, are likely to include RFID chips or the near-field communications technology that drives the use of smart phones as retail payment devices.

If the technology-enabled passes were used at a trade show, for instance, exhibitors would know who had spent a few extra minutes hovering around their display.

And that in turn could become fodder for social-media marketing.

"We're creating a new sponsorship asset," says Sheck.

A simple version of the technology wowed crowds last month at Backwash, a festival of craft beers at The Siena. Attendees tapped their passes created by Access Pass & Design to vote for favorite beers. Voting results were displayed in real time on video monitors.

"I know this is the future. I just know it," says Sheck.

And he figures the past of Access Pass & Design gives it a solid position to take the next step into its technological future.

Launching in 2002 to design and print backstage passes for concert promoters, Access Pass & Design today creates credentials for everyone from major rock stars to Major League Baseball teams.

The pope, too.

The Sparks company has worked with the staff at the Vatican to develop passes that control access at public events with the leader of the world's Roman Catholics.

From that start, Access Pass & Design expanded into printing of drumheads, banners and backdrops through its acquisition last year of the printing division of Minnesota's Tour Supply Inc.

And the company is venturing into the management of a handful of music acts, further strengthening its relationship with event promoters.

The company employs nearly 30 people, and it expects to be building its sales and sales-management team as the new technology begins to take hold early next year.

Long relationships with event promoters help open doors for the new products, Sheck says.

"We're credible. We're steadfast," he says.

To bring the new technology to market quickly, while keeping its options open, Access Pass relies on a network of vendors, many of them tiny software houses, that develop much of the behind-the-scenes technology.

Staff members of Access Pass & Design have put hundreds of hours of research into the technology, Sheck says, and the company is comfortable in its understanding of how it works.

What's less certain is the direction that users trade-show promoters, rock bands, event sponsors will take the technology once it's offered to them.

"We're making steps into this space even though we haven't figured it all out," says Sheck.

Once the company has a better idea of the direction that customers will be taking the technology, it might look to strike formal partnerships stock swaps? outright acquisitions? with key vendors, he says.