While conference organizers often welcome social media interaction at their events, making it easy for participants to snap, tweet, and share by providing hashtags and photo opps, some meetings need to keep what’s shared—confidential corporate information and sensitive strategic business decisions, for example—locked up tight within the four walls of the meeting space.
No one wants to be the smartphone police—and really, how can you ensure that you get every phone and recording device short of strip-searching people? But it’s also not realistic to assume everyone will play by the rules just because you say so.
Enter Pop star Alicia Keys, who has gotten sick of debuting new tunes in concert, only to find 
garbled and blurry videos recorded on cellphones making their way around the social sphere. While fans would likely get more than a little outraged to have their phones confiscated and stored in a locker or some such, Keys’ security peeps are handing out gray, rubbery pouches made by Yondr. You drop the phone into the pouch, security locks it, and you carry your pouched phone into the show. If you need to use your phone, just step outside and they’ll unlock it for you. Read all about it in this Washington Post article.
In the article, some fans seemed pretty miffed at having to be separated from the use of their phone, if not the phone itself. Others seem to think gee, what a concept: to actually be in the moment at the show, instead of constantly recording and transmitting and translating and documenting the moment.
When I first read about it a while ago, I thought it was a terrific solution for meetings that need to stay secure. Sure, your attendees should know better, but this pouch gives you a way to, as a former president used to say, “Trust, but verify.”
