SIX Payment Services (SIX), a European leader incashless payments and official partner of this year’s Vienna Life Ball hasenabled the mega event to be cashless for the first time in its history. TheLife Ball is one of the world’s most recognized annual AIDS charity events, forwhich Vienna’s prestigious town-hall and City Hall Square was transformed intoa huge festival location on June 10th.
Gery Keszler, the founder and CEO of the Life Ball,said: “We are delighted that SIX Payment Services enabled us to make thisyear’s Life Ball a completely cashless event. Since the event’s inception in1993, we have aimed to improve year on year, and this year’s introduction of anentirely cashless environment is a demonstration of our continual commitment toinnovation. With the support of SIX Payment Services all our guests were freefrom having to worry about where to keep their purse or wallet – and insteadwere able to completely enjoy the evening and focus on the great cause.”
For this special night, 110 cashless point of sale(POS) terminals installed, configured and serviced by SIX, were spread acrossthe whole Life Ball arena, 30 top-up stations and 80 terminals at the variousbars across the venue.
In addition to providing the terminal infrastructurefor the star-studded society event, a special wristband for contactlesspayments allowed the 4.000 guests to buy refreshments, pay for numerousactivities such as the event’s tombola and also make charitable donations.
The cashless wristbands, which were all linked toindividual entrance tickets, were set up so that they could be loaded prior tothe event, and could be ‘topped-up’ during the evening by means of a debit orcredit card at one of the top-up stations. Guests at the ball were also able topay by credit or debit card throughout the event, meaning neither the guestsnor organisers needed to worry about time-consuming cash handling.
Thomas Grabner, Managing Director of SIX in Austria,added: “We have a long and proud association with the Life Ball and were keento ensure that our expertise added something new and different to the eventthis year. Providing cashless payment solutions for events of this scale is oneof the core competencies of SIX in Austria. With 3,780 people attending theevent, reliable, fast and secure payments were vital and we expect thatcashless events will be increasingly common in the future. We were delighted tosupport such a great cause and look forward to continuing our partnership formany years to come.”
SIX Payment Services is a proud long term partner ofthe Life Ball, and as part of its support of the event, provided all the POSequipment, services and costs, free of charge.
Life Ball facts: Life Ball is one of the world’sbiggest annual AIDS charity events, taking place at Vienna´s town-hall andCity Hall Square which is a sight in itself. Ever since its debut in 1993, theannual event has been committed to removing taboos and constantly fightingagainst HIV and AIDS, as well as addressing socio-political issues surrounding thevirus.