Trash to Fashion Awards

Waitakere City's School Trash to Fashion® Awards

Stressed staff, aggressive parents, holdups and delays – were some of the reasons why the organisers considered barcodes for their Trash to Fashion® Awards this month.

The Schools'Trash to Fashion Awards is a Waitakere City Council partnership with Keep Waitakere Beautiful Trust.  As the name suggests, students take waste items and turn them into garments and costumes that they compete to get into the final show - a professionally choreographed theatrical performance with themes that highlight environmental sustainability.

 
As the show has grown over the years, so has the problem of keeping track of hundreds of children and helpers, when they arrive, and when they leave.  

The organisers from the Waitakere City Council approached us looking for a way to make the process easier, more accurate, and quicker.  In previous years movements in and out of the venue was slow as each child was manually registered in and out.  Impatient parents often got angry with the delays and the smooth running of the whole event was hampered by this important job.  Romil Fernandez, Barcode Products’ solutions specialist put together the solution using MS Access, preprinted barcode labels and a number of barcode readers.
 
“Each year, we have had to deal with a bottleneck at the door as we manually kept track of the children arriving and leaving the venue, and who they left with.  Not only did it slow down the transition from one group to the next on the rehearsal schedule, but it also caused some very impatient parents to be quite intolerant and at times abusive to the people who were monitoring the movement of the children - even though the process was done for the safety and security of the children.” said Jeannette Aldridge, the event organiser.
 
“This year, with Barcode Products help, we were able to create an ID card that was worn by each child with an individual barcode on it, so we were able to simply scan them as they arrived, and when they left - even if they were only leaving to go to the toilet. There were no lost children, no grumpy parents, no bottlenecks, and we knew at all times exactly who was in the venue and when they left. The whole process was completely smooth.”
 
“The difference this made to the stress levels of all those responsible for the event was tangible. Instead of being a bit fraught, the whole process was a pleasure.”

If you need to track people, documents, tools, - just about anything – call us on 0800 86 227 263 or email Romil for ideas.