There are many negative effects derived from the pandemic, but if we focus on the way in which it has affected companies, it is clear that it has had a particularly serious impact on all sectors related to organizing in-person events. In fact, according to AEVEA (Associated Spanish Event Agencies) this sector has suffered a drop in turnover that is close to 85%.

With the beginning of vaccination, the path towards a progressive return to normality has begun, something that is being experienced with special enthusiasm by this type of companies, at a sector that generates an impact on the GDP of close to 11 billion Euros per year.

This is the case of IFEMA MADRID, which during these months has spared no effort to accelerate the necessary digital conversion of these professional meetings. For instance, it is now especially focused on celebrating a new edition of the International Tourism Fair, Fitur (from May 19th to 23rd, 2021), which is a reference in its sector and, in addition, will be the first European Trade Show of this size that is celebrated in person.

This progressive return to in-person events would not have been possible without the appropriate technological tools that allow these venues to adapt to the new scenario. It is about taking the step towards the so-called smart venue, guaranteeing the safety of the visitor, but also opening a whole range of new applications for the organizing entity.

Innovation and technology

To apply innovation and technology. There is no other secret. Among the security protocols that IFEMA MADRID has established in order to celebrate this event (ventilation systems that allow all the air in the pavilion to be renewed in just 20 minutes, PCR tests and rapid on-site tests…) there is also everything related to the ordering of the flow of attendees and their mobility. Specifically for this, IFEMA MADRID has launched the Wizzie Data Platform (WDP) from Wizzie Analytics, because it allows managing the movement flow of people within the venue. Both the team of the organization itself as well as the event visitors, using various modules of the platform, like geo-positioning, big data and artificial intelligence, among others.

Come and see how it works!

Wizzie Data Platform allows you to monitor all those attending the event, thanks to the ingestion of data from different sources in order to know the capacity on all áreas, as well as the movement flows in real time, which are represented as heat maps. This not only makes it possible to comply with the regulations and the defined anti-Covid control measures, but also serves as a valuable help for the IFEMA MADRID Security personnel, shoudl they have to act in the event of any unforeseen situation.

To graphically explain how the solution operates, we have a large booth at Fitur where we will show, in real time, the heat maps that are generated by the tool, the flow of visitors, the capacity control and social distancing management…

Scalability and artificial intelligence

In addition, and this is an important fact, due to its architecture it is a highly scalable solution, being able to process large volumes of data. We have to keep in mind that we are talking about an event with 41,200 square meters and an estimated attendance of about 70,000 visitors. This same technology will also be used in other large Trade Shows such as the Mobile World Congress, where up to 8,000 events per second can be processed.

Por último, destacar también que la solución implantada aporta una serie de funcionalidades adicionales, como la elaboración de informes históricos personalizados mediante los que es posible analizar lo sucedido en el evento de manera pormenorizada, y evaluar qué medidas funcionan y qué es susceptible de mejorarse.

Another important element of this solution is the use of Artificial Intelligence, that allows the system to be able to learn and detect behavioral patterns, hence making it able to issue alerts in order to anticipate before any incident occurs.
Finally, it should also be noted that the implemented solution provides a series of additional functionalities, such as the creation of personalized history reports that help analyze what happened during the event in great detail, and evaluate what measures work and which one can be improved.