FAIRness in Event Accreditation Systems

Accreditation systems play a critical role in managing access, personnel, and logistics during large-scale events. Although many organisers have shifted from spreadsheets to web-based solutions, challenges such as fragmented data flows, manual entry, and unclear governance remain. These issues raise operational and legal concerns, particularly under regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation. The FAIR principles were designed to provide a framework for improving data quality and reuse. However, current accreditation practices show limited alignment. This study investigates how centralised and decentralised data architectures could support FAIR-compliant accreditation systems in the event industry. Three existing comparison frameworks are discussed to assess their suitability for this purpose. The results indicate that while these frameworks highlight necessary design trade-offs, none fully address the operational, legal, and stakeholder-specific needs of event accreditation systems. Based on the results, five design considerations are proposed. The study concludes that hybrid and context-specific architectural solutions, combined with sector-wide alignment on data standards and governance, offer the most viable path forward. These findings provide a structured theoretical foundation for improving accreditation systems using FAIR-aligned design principles and informed architectural choices.