Digitisation minimised major scuffles at International Film Festival of Kerala

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As the curtains of the 21st International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) went down, 250 volunteers and around 100 employees of three homegrown companies, who controlled the events online and offline, gave a collective sigh of relief as no major untoward incidents occurred. The audience got to plan which screen to go to as they could view the crowd in front of them, the total number of seats available and the rate at which they got occupied. Show timing change, important notices and playback of live events made IFFK more interactive. Past incidents where there was vandalism by delegates were avoided.

“Agreed, in some venues like Tagore there have been incidents of delegates becoming restless. The online reservation systems were foolproof. Certain procedural mistakes like letting unreserved delegates inside first were solved this time. More seats and delegates on par with available seats can prevent such situations completely,” said Mr Sajeesh R, Director of V Club solutions one of the three companies that digitalised IFFK. The software to control bookings was provided by Azinova Technologies of Technopark which has been powering IFFK for nearly a decade.

Collaborating with them is V Club, a signage company, and Nischal which provided static TV displays. The next IFFK experience could be enhanced with advance booking systems if KSFDC theatres could refurbish providing a standard numbering system, said background staff. “With lifetime registration, many delegates of the previous year were alerted through email about the opening of the registration. Around 6000 people registered on the first day. This fete would not have been achieved if we banked on registration at offline centres,” said Arun Kumar a volunteer.