Mobiles and clubs, an extract from a dissertation written by Michael Allport for the School of Design Technology Department of Architecture The University of Huddersfield – January, 2004.

Infiltration among young people is high – 63% of teens own a mobile phone
(Global teen culture – does it exist? 2003). Mobile phones are regarded as a must have item for almost all ages of today’s culture – from youth as a symbol of cooland social tool to adults as a way of business to an emergency life saver. Mobiles are everywhere and unlike email offer direct communication possibilities anytime and any place.

According to Rob Gribbin, Mangering Director of Digital Dance, a technology and
content company aimed at clubs, “Every single promoter in the country has gone, WOW, I don’t have to spend three days stuffing envelopes and sending out flyers, I now have email databases and SMS databases, which I can more or less fulfil for either free or for a fraction of the cost” (Morrison 2003). The SMS text feature on mobile phones has, like email, led to club nights creating databases of mobile numbers in order to text out information about club nights and offers, so that clubbers can be directly informed of events, helping to bring people with similar interests together.
SMS informational texts though, do not exhaust mobile technologies.

Mobiles are also now being increasingly facilitated by club land in other ways.
Several clubs are beginning to introduce SMS ticketing, which has made clubbing
more accessible. Clubbers can buy club tickets through the sending and receiving of a few texts confirming the venue, night and price. Customers then pick up the ticket on the door showing a confirmation text received from the retailer as a security check.
Payment is billed to the caller’s electronic wallet set up the first
time the service was used (Morrison 2003). Mobiles and moreover, media
messaging, are being used by some clubs for photo ID.

The Ministry of Sound is developing a photo messaging system to double-check its guest list.
Those on the list will have to send a photo of themselves to the club. At the door, club staff will have a PDA with a ‘photo guest list’ (Morrison 2003). This way there will be little chance of someone impersonating someone else and ‘blagging’ their way inside.
Within the club itself, SMS is being used in conjunction with large screens to
create elements of interactivity to bring club crowds together and encourage
social activity. Clubbers can send text messages from their handset to a special
number. The text is then displayed on large screen.

One London based company
‘Beautiful Strangers’ uses text technology for their night where subscribers follow a series of directions (sent through text messages) to a secret party. The centre of the party is the ‘FutureSpeak’ projection screen, where people can host fun anonymous conversations by sending texts to the screen; the idea is that people will interact via the screen . Systems like these are becoming popular in many club environments, as the interactivity they offer encourages socialising, and brings people together.