The biggest bottleneck at your event isn’t your ticket scanner. It’s the folding chair. 🪑
If you want to see the “friction” in a modern event, look at the security gate at 9:00 AM.
Thousands of fans lugging awkward, heavy chairs across gravel. Security teams manually unfolding every single one to check for contraband. Bottlenecks. Frustration. Exhaustion—before the event even begins.
The “Bring Your Own” (BYO) era is a relic that costs organizers in three ways:
1️⃣ Safety: Mismatched chairs block fire lanes and egress paths.
2️⃣ Speed: Personal chairs slow down security entry by 2x.
3️⃣ Experience: Starting a fan’s day with a chore is a bad first impression.
In our latest newsletter, we discuss the transition to a “Managed Seating Environment.” It’s time to retire the heavy bag and embrace the “Seat Economy.”
f you want to see the “friction” in the modern event experience, go to the parking lot of a major air show or festival at 9:00 AM. You will see thousands of fans struggling to lug heavy, awkward, folding chairs across gravel and grass. By the time they reach the security gate, they are already tired and frustrated. This “Bring Your Own” (BYO) culture is a relic of the past, and it is one of the biggest hidden costs to the modern event organizer.
The “BYO” model is inherently flawed. For the fan, it’s a physical burden that starts and ends their day with a chore. For the security team, it’s a nightmare. Every single personal chair must be unfolded, searched for contraband, and vetted for safety. This creates massive bottlenecks at the gate, leading to long wait times and a poor first impression of the event. Furthermore, personal chairs are often bulky and varied in size, which makes it impossible for site managers to plan an efficient layout or ensure clear egress paths for safety.
At conCHAIRto, we are advocating for a transition to a “Managed Seating Environment.” By providing standardized, sponsor-led seating on-site, organizers can remove the “chair-lugging” burden from the fan entirely. This isn’t just about comfort; it’s about “Frictionless Entry.” When fans know that high-quality seating is available at the venue, often for free thanks to our sponsorship model—they leave their own chairs at home. This creates a streamlined entry process that allows security to move people through the gates at twice the speed.
The benefits of phasing out “BYO” seating include:
- Enhanced Safety and Compliance: Uniform seating ensures that fire lanes stay clear and that there is a predictable flow of foot traffic throughout the venue.
- Aesthetic Superiority: Instead of a “junkyard” look of mismatched, broken personal chairs, the venue maintains a clean, professional, and branded appearance.
- Data and Control: When you provide the chairs, you control the “inventory” of the crowd. You know exactly where people are sitting, for how long, and which areas of the venue are the most popular.
The “BYO” era is a sign of an event that hasn’t fully matured its guest experience. We believe that a world-class event should provide for its guests’ needs so they don’t have to provide for themselves. By removing the “Hassle Factor” of the personal chair, we aren’t just making the day easier for the fan; we are making the entire event safer, faster, and more profitable. It’s time to retire the heavy bag and embrace the “Seat Economy.”
The “Bring Your Own” era is a bottleneck for your security, a hazard for your site flow, and a burden for your fans. Moving to a managed seating model isn’t just a “nice to have” it is a logistical necessity for any world-class event looking to scale. Faster gates, happier fans, and better branding starts with a smarter seating strategy.
Because the best views are the ones you can enjoy sitting down.
Is your gate flow being slowed down by “Chair Chaos”? Head over to conCHAIRto.com to see how our frictionless entry model works. Reach out to our team today to get a custom seating plan for your 2026 season.
