Planning and organizing a convention is a huge undertaking. A seemingly endless amount of decisions have to be made in collaboration with exhibitors as well as suppliers before the event can take place - every single year.
The client, Agentur von Thülen, was tasked with organizing BMW's internal IT convention, which saw dozens of major suppliers fly to Munich once a year to showcase their latest developments and network.
To start the project, we analyzed all the different tasks that were currently being done mostly manually and then sat down with the client to find the best way to fit them into a software solution that served both them and their exhibitors.
The final product was a Laravel application that digitized and partially automated every single step of this process, from the exhibitor signing up and choosing their booth, all the way to sending them the final invoice after the convention ended.
Along the way the app enabled and reminded the exhibitors to enter all their information online and make sure to meet the deadlines, ensuring a much smoother process than in the years prior.
As a result, the number of phone calls and emails needed throughout the year was reduced drastically, freeing up more time for more important tasks.
View of the admin panel where the client could manage all the deadlines and reminders needed to keep their planning process on track.
The new app allowed the exhibitors to take control and change their information without waiting for feedback from our client.
Tasks like adding additional personal to the company's booth, sending in their files to be printed on posters, or adding furniture to their stand were all done in minutes.
For anything more complex or where the exhibitor needed permission, a support ticket system allowed them to communicate with the organizers right in the app.
One very important feature was an interactive way for each exhibitor to add their content to the exhibition catalogue, a printed booklet handed out to everyone at the convention.
Instead of sending back and forth Word documents with each party, they were now able to freely edit their content on the convention app and instantly see how everything would look once printed.
One important feature was an obvious warning when the content ended up to be too long for the available space, something that had caused a lot of headache in the past.
A custom PDF creator allowed the exhibitors to freely fill their page(s) in the exhibition catalogue.
Another eye catcher was the custom developed booth configurator. Here each exhibitor was able to select from a fast list of furniture and decoration and arrange them to perfectly fit their needs.
Not only did this make it easy for the exhibitor to visualize and plan their space, the client was also able to export a list of all the required furniture for the entire convention with the click of a button.
The booth configurator allowed exhibitors to drag and drop furniture and create the perfect booth layout for their needs.
At the end of the day, both the client and the exhibitors enjoyed a much smoother process when planning the next convention.
Note: For privacy reasons all screenshots contain only dummy data. This application was created while I was running an agency called Webographen GmbH (later Designbase Studio). Design by Felix Brodbeck.