Technology makes case for 100,000 attendance
The Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce has known for a long time that the Carlsbad Village Faire, held on the first Sundays of May and November, is the largest one-day street fair of its kind in the nation based on the number of vendors.
When it came to estimating how many people it drew, however, the Chamber always had to rely on a bit of guesswork, since the Faire doesn't track admission to the tens of thousands that attend each year looking for unique gifts, a family-friendly atmosphere and a fun community tradition.
Now, however, technology, and Chamber member AirPatrol Corporation, a Sysorex Company, the Chamber has a more accurate count, one that validates the figure of 90,000 to 100,000 that the Chamber has used.
Using the "pings" that cellphones emit as people move them around, AirPatrol has determined that 71,717 people attended the last edition of the Faire, which was held on Nov. 2, 2014. Brian Roth of Kennedy and Associates, which operates the Carlsbad Village Faire for the Chamber, noted that the figure doesn't include children or adults who don't carry cell phones and that the survey did not account for the entire area of the Village Faire.
"These results pretty much authenticate what we've always said," Roth said. "When we have vendors that ask how many people come to the Faire, we can tell them with authority that we have 90,000 to 100,000."
In addition to giving the Chamber and Roth a true count of attendees, the technology provided information on how people traveled through the event, the most popular areas and how long they stayed.
AirPatrol used a technology named ZoneAware. Sensors catch the signals that mobile phones send out, or "ping", when they're searching for cell towers or Wi-Fi networks, something that phones do every six to 30 seconds. Each phone has a unique identifier that allows the technology to track it as it moves through a sensor-equipped area. According to the company, because more than 90 percent of adults now carry mobile phones, these provide a "non-intrusive and highly accurate" way to count people, as well as measuring the flow of traffic and determine which areas are the most popular. The technology is only counting the "pings" that a phone gives out anonymously, and the technology can't read what a phone is actually doing.
"This is great information to have," said Ted Owen, president and CEO of the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce. "We have always suspected that we have a lot of people, but previous figures were based on numbers provided by the police department, which were based on estimates. Now we have a more exact count and we couldn't be happier. Qualcomm Stadium has a 70,500 capacity for football, and we're comparable to that."
AirPatrol counted 71,717 visitors to the Village Faire between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Its survey also found the following:
• Visitors spent an average of 41 minutes in the most popular areas of the Faire.
• Those who visited between 9 a.m. and noon stayed nearly 30 percent longer than those who visited between noon and 3 p.m.
• Attendance peaked between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. with 16,628 visitors in the central portion of the Faire.
• Only 42 percent of the devices counted were smartphones (such as iPhones or Android-based phones).
"AirPatrol provided not just a total number of attendees, but highlighted areas of maximum exposure as well as when it occurred. What a revelation! Now, whenever asked about attendance, we can provide a factual number," said Roth. "We always thought we were one of the largest one-day street fairs anywhere and now we know!"
Sage Osterfeld, chief marketing officer for AirPatrol, said the Carlsbad Village Faire gave the company a large enough attendance to prove that its technology works to provide population counts for large events.
"This was the first time we used the technology to count people," Osterfeld said, noting that the technology was first developed for security-related purposes for companies that want to be able to detect phones brought into its R&D facilities, where they are usually forbidden.
Osterfeld said the event validated the technology, which AirPatrol has since used to count people at a grand prix and at festivals that last up to a week.
"We were really pleased," Osterfeld said. "We were able to do it here in our hometown and prove that it works at a large scale and now we're taking it out to other venues."
The Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce has known for a long time that the Carlsbad Village Faire, held on the first Sundays of May and November, is the largest one-day street fair of its kind in the nation based on the number of vendors.
When it came to estimating how many people it drew, however, the Chamber always had to rely on a bit of guesswork, since the Faire doesn't track admission to the tens of thousands that attend each year looking for unique gifts, a family-friendly atmosphere and a fun community tradition.
Now, however, technology, and Chamber member AirPatrol Corporation, a Sysorex Company, the Chamber has a more accurate count, one that validates the figure of 90,000 to 100,000 that the Chamber has used.
Using the "pings" that cellphones emit as people move them around, AirPatrol has determined that 71,717 people attended the last edition of the Faire, which was held on Nov. 2, 2014. Brian Roth of Kennedy and Associates, which operates the Carlsbad Village Faire for the Chamber, noted that the figure doesn't include children or adults who don't carry cell phones and that the survey did not account for the entire area of the Village Faire.
"These results pretty much authenticate what we've always said," Roth said. "When we have vendors that ask how many people come to the Faire, we can tell them with authority that we have 90,000 to 100,000."
In addition to giving the Chamber and Roth a true count of attendees, the technology provided information on how people traveled through the event, the most popular areas and how long they stayed.
AirPatrol used a technology named ZoneAware. Sensors catch the signals that mobile phones send out, or "ping", when they're searching for cell towers or Wi-Fi networks, something that phones do every six to 30 seconds. Each phone has a unique identifier that allows the technology to track it as it moves through a sensor-equipped area. According to the company, because more than 90 percent of adults now carry mobile phones, these provide a "non-intrusive and highly accurate" way to count people, as well as measuring the flow of traffic and determine which areas are the most popular. The technology is only counting the "pings" that a phone gives out anonymously, and the technology can't read what a phone is actually doing.
"This is great information to have," said Ted Owen, president and CEO of the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce. "We have always suspected that we have a lot of people, but previous figures were based on numbers provided by the police department, which were based on estimates. Now we have a more exact count and we couldn't be happier. Qualcomm Stadium has a 70,500 capacity for football, and we're comparable to that."
AirPatrol counted 71,717 visitors to the Village Faire between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Its survey also found the following:
• Visitors spent an average of 41 minutes in the most popular areas of the Faire.
• Those who visited between 9 a.m. and noon stayed nearly 30 percent longer than those who visited between noon and 3 p.m.
• Attendance peaked between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. with 16,628 visitors in the central portion of the Faire.
• Only 42 percent of the devices counted were smartphones (such as iPhones or Android-based phones).
"AirPatrol provided not just a total number of attendees, but highlighted areas of maximum exposure as well as when it occurred. What a revelation! Now, whenever asked about attendance, we can provide a factual number," said Roth. "We always thought we were one of the largest one-day street fairs anywhere and now we know!"
Sage Osterfeld, chief marketing officer for AirPatrol, said the Carlsbad Village Faire gave the company a large enough attendance to prove that its technology works to provide population counts for large events.
"This was the first time we used the technology to count people," Osterfeld said, noting that the technology was first developed for security-related purposes for companies that want to be able to detect phones brought into its R&D facilities, where they are usually forbidden.
Osterfeld said the event validated the technology, which AirPatrol has since used to count people at a grand prix and at festivals that last up to a week.
"We were really pleased," Osterfeld said. "We were able to do it here in our hometown and prove that it works at a large scale and now we're taking it out to other venues."