If you're organizing a large-scale event, it's important to ensure visitors can easily find their way around.
Location-aware floorplans are the new technology introduced by ExpoFP together with Crowd Connected. This tool is designed to help attendees navigate any size event, anywhere in the world, with no barriers to access.
The process is simple — you receive as many QR codes as you need to spread around the event. We recommend displaying them at entrances, outside theatres or around seating and food outlets. Each time someone scans the QR code, they open the floorplan and the map zooms in to their current location. No more scrolling around and looking for nearby landmarks to locate yourself. Instantly search for your destination and get a route marked from where you are standing.
This tool was first introduced in February 2023 at the annual international gaming and gambling event ICE London. ICE London 2023 took up the most floor space of any event held at ExCel London and attracted a record-breaking 40,000 unique visitors.
The importance of event wayfinding
A significant challenge for event organizers can be ensuring that visitors are able to easily find their way around the show. Attendees can struggle to locate their next meeting, the booth they hoped to check out or even essential venue amenities. This can lead to wasted time, missed engagements and dissatisfied participants. As a result, business is lost, and the overall value of the event is impacted.
This can be a particular problem for first-time visitors, who can find themselves lost in an unfamiliar environment. And being able to locate specific exhibitors quickly is crucial for managers and other high-ranking corporate officers with limited time. If these individuals leave without achieving their agenda, everyone loses.
Show organizers always aim to keep attendees and exhibitors coming back. Otherwise, they would need to invest significantly in attracting new customers, which can cost 5–10 times more than retaining existing ones.
Until now, the cost of implementing effective navigation inside indoor venues has been seen as a barrier. Popular digital solutions like Google or Apple Maps cannot be used to guide guests indoors because they are unable to map the event layout.
Clarion Gaming's ICE London 2023
Clarion Gaming, the organizers of ICE London, recognized that show navigation could be a potential issue for the 2023 show. Previous visitor surveys revealed that the enormous size of the event could make getting from place to place difficult.
Andy Ventris, ICE Event Director, explained, "ICE has the biggest footprint of any exhibition at London's ExCeL, so navigation can be challenging, especially for first-time visitors who are unfamiliar with the show."
Clarion Gaming turned to us and our partner Crowd Connected to provide an innovative solution for an event that didn't have a downloadable mobile app.
Event Navigation Made Simple
Now, any event can have interactive, mobile-optimized wayfinding technology that is easy to implement at a low cost. QR codes are displayed in various places around the show, including entrances and key intersections. Scanning a QR code opens the digital floor plan with the current location highlighted — without the need for an event app.
Rebecca Davis, ICE Operations Manager said, "ExpoFP and Crowd Connected understand the pressures a show team are under in the immediate build-up to the show. Their collaborative approach and can-do attitude was brilliant — they made it super easy for us."
The Results
For the three-day duration of ICE London 2023, 40,000 attendees were able to use the location-aware floorplan to navigate around the event. Visitors used it enthusiastically, with over 16,300 floorplan views generated and each user typically searching the map 4.5 times. Over 750 points of interest at the venue were mapped out, including booths, show features, meeting points, transportation and food outlets.
Event Director Ventris concluded, "The technology delivered excellent results exactly as I hoped — even without a mobile app. I was delighted with how well it worked and how visitors loved having the ability to locate themselves on the show floor easily and quickly.
"We’re back at ExCeL for ICE 2024, and I'm looking forward to working with ExpoFP and Crowd Connected for visitor navigation and unlocking visitor analytics. This valuable insight can help us continue to deliver a great show for our exhibitors and visitors."
Operations Manager Rebecca Davis added, "I'd recommend Crowd Connected to any organizer looking to make their show easier to navigate."
Contact Crowd Connected today to see how location-aware floorplans can be easily integrated at your next show.