As far as Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS) alumna Suzanne Eikmans is concerned, plastic tokens to pay at festivals can be banished for good. With her Festival Wallet app, you can just whip out your smartphone and pay digitally among the hurly-burly of the festival. Eikmans recently picked up the VivA Visionista Award for up-and-coming entrepreneurial talent.
You would have thought an app like this would already exist, Suzanne Eikmans thought when returning from a festival to find a stockpile of forgotten plastic festival tokens in her pockets. They cost a lot of money but were now completely useless. It must be possible to solve this problem with an app, she brainstormed that evening with her boyfriend. And so the idea for the Festival Wallet was born.
When following the Media Business Studies specialization while studying Media, Information, and Communications at AUAS, as a study assignment together with three fellow students, she set up a media business based on an app to replace the plastic festival currency.
Campaign office
The idea was hatched out by the group of students during this Media Business Studies specialization; its further development would represent a significant next step. Suzanne had so much faith in the idea that she decided to take on the challenge. She found a campaign office – MassMovement – to help make her dream reality. This agency already had experience with large businesses such as Disney and Renault and drew up a plan for the development of this app. Suzanne was then able to find investors to back her idea.
Now, the Festival Wallet is a handy solution for festival visitors. You install the app on your telephone and load an amount of money into it. No more queuing at the token machines, and paying for your drinks is considerably faster. Just scan your order using the app and it will immediately deduct the amount from your ‘Wallet’. You can also pay together: you just fill the wallet using the group app. And any money left over will be transferred back.
Launch on King’s Day
The app is being tested and modified in the coming period at smaller festivals, leading up to a big launch on King’s Day. At which festival during that bank holiday the app will be launched Suzanne is keeping under her hat for the moment.
Although the app is still in further development, the potential of Suzanne Eikmans’ idea is already being recognized. AUAS presented her as up-and-coming talent at the Creative Business Cup in Copenhagen, where she represented the Netherlands in an international group in November 2017. She didn’t win the award there, but in the meantime, she has been presented with the Viva Visionista Award at the VIVA400 elections for the most ambitious female entrepreneur.
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