Know-Before-You-Go copy
Wording for your emails, texts, social media and signs
The message changes depending on which pouch you run, because what a guest can and cannot do is different. Use the block that matches your event.
SEMI-FROSTED
Screen stays reachable
This is a phone-free event. At the door you will lock your phone in a pouch that stays with you all night. You will be able to access your phone during the entire event for texts, calls and emergencies, but will not be able to record any photos or videos.
REMIND GUESTS TO
Bring a wallet and physical cards
Switch the phone to silent before entering the venue
Pro tip: bring a bag big enough to fit a 10 inch by 5 inch pouch, and check the venue bag policy beforehand.
FULLY SEALED
No access until an unlocking station
This is a phone-free event. At the door you will lock your phone in a pouch that stays with you all night. If you need your phone during the event, you can find a staff member at an unlocking station.
REMIND GUESTS TO
Text people beforehand to say they will not be on their phone
Bring a wallet and physical cards
Switch the phone to silent before entering the venue
Pro tip: bring a bag big enough to fit a 10 inch by 5 inch pouch, and check the venue bag policy beforehand.
Tell guests this before the day
In an emergency, you can access your phone
Two things are always true. Your phone is always on you, and anyone who needs their phone can get to it.
With the Semi-Frosted pouch they answer through the panel. With Fully Sealed they go to an unlocking station, take the call and re-pouch on the way back in.
In a genuine emergency, staff evacuate everyone first. The pouch never stops anyone from leaving a room.
Put this in the pre-event message. It ends most of the questions.
Where to put the unlocking bases
Placement is what separates a smooth exit from a queue. Bases go at every exit door, at a designated phone zone just outside the main room, and at the customer service or box office desk. For a room over 1,000 people, we map the placements with you before the day.
A guest who needs their phone mid-event steps into the phone zone, taps out, takes the call and re-pouches on the way back in. With the Semi-Frosted pouch most of them never need to, because they can answer through the panel.
Portable, so a base can sit at every exit, phone zone and service desk.
Downloads
Print-ready signs and templates
One download, free, no email required. The Phone-Free Templates pack contains everything you need to tell guests what is happening and brief the people running the door.
Entrance poster · A3, for the door
Unlocking station sign · A3, for the exits and the phone zone
Attendee card · A6, double-sided, for tables, seats or lanyards
Pre-event notice · A4, to send or post before the day
Staff briefing · A4, for whoever is running the door
Social slides · three at 1080 × 1080, for the announcement and reminders
Every file comes twice: a trim-size PDF for email, screens and in-house printing, and a print-ready version with 3mm bleed on all four sides. TrimBox is set inside each PDF, so any printer can pull crop marks automatically. Set in Archivo, RGB colour space, so ask your printer whether they want a CMYK conversion.
Both downloads are live. The zip is 1.2 MB.
Send me the whole kit
Every sign, card, script and template in one email. No sales sequence, and you can grab them above without giving us anything at all.
Name
Work email
Phone
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Compare
Phone pouch comparison: Before The Internet vs Yondr, Lockabl and Phone Locker
Every lockable pouch on the market stops the photos. Only one of them lets your guests answer the phone.
If you are shopping for a phone-free event, you have probably found four companies and a lot of copy that sounds identical. Sealed pouch. Magnetic lock. Phone stays with the owner. All true, all the same.
The real decision is narrower than that, and nobody puts it on their homepage: once the pouch is locked, can your guest still use their phone?
For most vendors the answer is no. The phone is sealed in fabric until someone walks to an unlocking station. That is fine for a classroom. It is a different conversation when you are the one who has to explain it to 600 adults.
If you have been searching for a Yondr alternative, Yondr competitors, companies like Yondr, a Lockabl alternative or a Phone Locker alternative, this page is the honest breakdown of all four.
The difference that actually matters: signal is not access
Every vendor will tell you their pouch does not block cell signal, which is true across the category, but it is not the reassurance it sounds like.
A phone that still has signal inside a sealed pouch will ring and buzz, so the guest who feels the buzz has one option: leave the room, find a member of staff, queue at an unlocking station, take the call or answer the text, and get re-pouched. Multiply that by a few hundred people, and your phone-free room turns into a corridor full of people trying to get out of it.
Another use case that is particularly useful for the Semi-Frosted pouch is non-emergency access: Apple Pay, or texting a friend what section of the concert you are in if you get lost.
Our Semi-Frosted pouch solves all of the problems above, seamlessly, so your guests can enjoy the show without you worrying about unlocking.
Photos and video are impossible.
Both lenses stay covered the entire time.
Calls and texts still work.
A guest can see the screen, answer and speak without leaving the room or finding staff.
Apple Pay and Wallet still work on Semi-Frosted.
Your bar keeps moving. Nobody is unlocking a pouch to buy a drink.
Face ID does not work through the pouch.
For Apple Pay and access, passcode entry works fine.
At our events, 93% of attendees report not using, or rarely using, their phone, while having the option the entire time. Access does not break a phone-free room.
And if you need zero access, for an album pre-release, highly sensitive information leaking or a locked film shoot for example, we have a second pouch for that. The Fully Sealed pouch has no clear panel and only opens at a designated unlocker station.
Side-by-side comparison
Before The Internet
Pouch options
Two. Semi-Frosted (access panel) and Fully Sealed
Camera blocked while locked
Yes, on both pouches
Guest can call or text while pouched
Yes, through the semi-frosted panel, no staff needed
Apple Pay and Wallet in-room
Yes, on Semi-Frosted
Emergency access
Immediate, in the guest's own hand
Zero-access option for secret events
Yes, Fully Sealed
Blocks cell signal
No
Phone stays with the guest
Yes
Run it with your own staff
Yes, self-service rental, we ship, you deploy
Full staffing available
Yes, trained crew, entry and exit stations
Yondr
Fully sealed pouch. No access except at an unlocker station
Yes
No, requires unlocking at a base or phone zone
No
Exit to an unlocking station
Yes
No
Yes
Typically a managed program
Yes
Lockabl
Fully sealed pouch. No access except at an unlocker station
Yes
No, requires the Unlocker
No
Exit to an Unlocker
Yes
No
Yes
Rent or buy, self-run
Limited
Phone Locker
Fully sealed pouch. No access except at an unlocker station
Yes
No, requires the unlocking magnet
No
Exit to an unlocking magnet or cabinet
Yes
Optional signal-blocking pouch available
Yes
Rent or buy, self-run
Limited
Comparison based on each company's publicly published product information as of September 2026. Vendors change their products, so check directly before you sign anything, including with us.
Why go phone-free
Why make an event phone-free?
Phone-free events are growing fast as part of modern live experience. According to recent data from Eventbrite, phone-free events grew 567% globally over the past two years, while attendance for these experiences surged by 913% in the US alone.
The shift is driven by audience demand: 49% of Gen Z and millennials report actively seeking out events that feel less curated and more real.
Going phone-free removes digital distraction, fosters genuine human connection, and transforms audience engagement.
5.7×
Increase in phone-free events since 2024.
EVENTBRITE
83%
Scan-through rate to the post-event photos at our events.
BEFORE THE INTERNET
63%
Of Gen Z say they intentionally disconnect from their devices.
TALKER RESEARCH, 2025
Ready to go phone-free?
Tell us the date and the headcount. A human being will reach out within 24 hours.
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