The University of California Berkeley recently equipped student presentations at the Interdisciplinary Research Conference with QR codes, resulting in an 81 percent response rate.

The Interdisciplinary Research Conference took place on April 29 and included 89 unique QR codes that were placed on students? presentations and business cards. The University of California Berkeley worked with Hipscan on this initiative.

?Students placed the QR codes with the poster, so they were able to engage with the presenter by scanning and continuing to migrate through the conference,? said Eugene Jackson, BIRC project developer at University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA.

?QR codes are unique and proliferating but many are still unaware of their value ? it peaks people?s interests and is an engaging thing that they can do something with,? he said.

Scanned interest
This year?s event marked the University of California Berkeley?s third Interdisciplinary Research Conference. According to Mr. Jackson, the event brings in 275 to 325 registrants.

In total, more than 4,600 pieces of collateral were tagged with mobile bar codes at the event.

Three hundred consumers attended the conference with Hipscan claiming that 50 percent of attendees were able to scan the mobile bar codes around the event.

Each of the 92 presenters were given a mobile bar code that they could use to connect their presentations with additional information.

For example, participants placed a mobile bar code on business cards. When scanned, the QR code directed users to a mobile landing page with information on the participant.

Consumers can also store the contact information by being prompted to download the Hipscan vCard application. Once stored, users can save contact information ? including name, phone number and email address ? directly to their devices.

Mobile learnings
Using QR codes at a live event is a great way to educate consumers on the technology with demonstrations.

In particular, the University of California Berkeley case study is a good example of how QR codes can be used to give users relevant content. By handing out business cards, interested consumers have a way to directly contact the presenter if they are interested in learning more.

Additionally, the event?s demographic, which is most likely skewed towards consumers in their early twenties, tends to be early adopters.

For presenters, mobile bar codes can be used to quickly add information into their presentations that might not be available elsewhere.

University of California Berkeley is not the only college campus experimenting with mobile.

Recently, Shippensburg University rolled out a mobile intiative to let students pay for cafeteria items using NFC technology (see story).

According to Hipscan, the key to mobile bar codes is being able to easily adjust content to change campaigns quickly.

?The goal is to build templates for most scenarios by picking a template and getting it out quickly to switch campaigns,? said Bobby Marhamat, founder of Hipscan, Menlo Park, CA.

?A lot of people do not know the benefits of [mobile bar codes] if used correctly, so we are showing people what they can do,? he said.

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York