During the recent Patreon on Tour conference in New York city, a discussion arose about promoting Patreon at personal appearances. It was tough, one creator complained, because setting up a laptop to process pledges was cumbersome — and expensive. And, it didn’t always work so well.

“Why are you bringing a computer to a show when literally every one of the attendees is walking around with their own in their pocket?” replied another creator.

Why, indeed?

Let’s talk about two ways to convert Patreon pledges at comic conventions and other personal appearances…

QR codes

We first talked about QR codes way back in 2011. In fact, I shared a handy tip on using QR codes to promote Patreon campaigns in 2014. However, it hasn’t been until recently that both Android and iPhones built QR-scanning into their cameras. Now that this particular hurdle has been crossed, this technique should run smoothly.

Simply build a QR code to point to your Patreon page. When an interested person uses their digital device to read the code, they’ll be taken directly to your page. If they sign up, you can even give them a reward on the spot — in person!

Think of what a powerful enticement to drive Patreon pledges this could be at a comic convention!

NFC business cards

Some printing companies — like Moo  — are offering NFC business cards. This is a business card with an NFC chip embedded in it that will trigger a digital action when it is tapped on the user’s smartphone. Android phones have had NFC capabilities for a while now, and Apple’s iOS 11 has finally brought iPhones into the game.

They’re expensive, but remember — you don’t have to give these away in place of regular business cards. You can keep one or two at your table and re-use them. Best of all, the chip can be programmed and then re-programmed. So, you can use them in several different ways — from opening up your Patreon page on the smartphone’s Web browser to, say, downloading an app.