Parmley Rides Off To Intellitix

Greg Parmley’s Guinness Record-setting motorbike ride around European festivals has led to him joining the company that sponsored him.

Parmley has edited the ILMC’s IQ magazine for the last six years and now is joining Serge Grimaux’s Intellitix as head of global communications.

In the summer, the ticketing pioneer was Parmley’s main sponsor for a 5,500–mile trek around 26 festivals in 13 counties in 30 days, including 20 on the European mainland.

It earned him an entry in The Guinness Book Of Records for “The Most Festivals Visited In 30 Days,” a journey recorded in a series of blogs for the Daily Telegraph and in a short film for Virtual Festivals.

His chosen method of transport was a BMW R1200R and his effort attracted such attention – and the bike so much admiration – that one Slovakian pension owner was happy for him to garage it in his bar overnight.

Parmley no doubt needed the rest, having taken 10 hours to make the journey from Malta Festival in Poland to Slovakia’s Pohoda Festival – about four hours longer than he’d estimated.

“Europe up until that point had well-kept and good-quality motorways, but in parts of Poland they just ran out,” he said. “The state of the roads was pretty dire in places – sand, gravel and patchy bits of tarmac, which is OK on four wheels but can get a bit wobbly on two.”

He and Grimaux, who prefers a Ducati 1198 SP to a Triumph, discovered a mutual love of motorbikes and madcap adventures, which appears to have sowed the seeds for Parmley joining Intellitix.

A year ago Grimaux, who has a global ticketing business with Ticketpro and a track record as a promoter both independently and with Live Nation, started Intellitix to advance the idea that radio frequency identification (RFID) technology can make it much quicker and easier to get punters into a big gig.

It also offers a cashless payment system and seemingly limitless market research opportunities.

In 2010 and 2011 it rolled out across a few major European shows, but last year made significant progress in the U.S. by running the access control systems at major outdoor events including Coachella, Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits.

In 2011 in North America it activated more than 1 million RFID chips without a hitch.

“I firmly believe that RFID and cashless technology will radically change the event-going experience for the better over the next few years and I’m excited to be a part of that transformation,” Parmley said of his new appointment.

The role involves managing the Intellitix brand including marketing, sponsorship, PR and communications.

IQ is yet to announce who’ll replace Parmley, who previously spent four years writing for Audience followed by two years editing The Hit Sheet. He will continue his work with ILMC.