IAA Transportation 2024 in Hanover

The Task

IAA Transportation was a varied undertaking for XFAIR. Our customers’ requirements included classic services such as hotel and staff management, stand information systems and meeting room administration — plus printing and personalising name badges, building a reliable network and setting up access control. One customer also needed a way to run their merchandise shop. In addition, solutions for promotional item distribution and visitor flow measurement were requested.

Implementation

There was a lot to do in the run-up to IAA Transportation — with an average lead time of around two months.
The EMS shop system, which we set up for one of our four customers’ merchandise shops, included not only providing two POS systems with card payment terminals and barcode scanners as well as receipt printers, but also importing the names, images and prices of the products sold in the shop into the XFAIR database. Sales staff received thorough training on using the shop system, as strict legal requirements apply when dealing with monetary values. As an additional service, we handled the daily cash takings. Afterwards, the customer received an XFAIR reporting pack with a summary of all relevant key figures for internal analysis.
For another customer, we started by importing staff records into our in-house Event Management Software (EMS). This information was used not only for personalised name badge printing, but also for sending personalised information, such as shuttle times. Thanks to XFAIR’s My Event App, this information could be accessed centrally in one solution. Further features included chat, displaying hotel and meeting room bookings, and a phone book. The check-in solution was also integrated into the My Event App. The imported data could also be accessed by staff at the information desks, enabling visitors to be connected quickly and efficiently with the right stand staff. Our technical team equipped this information desk with three fully featured workstations. At the meeting rooms, they installed digital displays showing each room’s occupancy. A highlight of this collaboration was a pilot project on visitor flow measurement, which was installed, implemented and evaluated by XFAIR for the first time.

The third customer chose to send trade fair invitations by importing staff data into the XFAIR system. These invitations also included the link to the online registration. Staff could then register independently and complete the information forms created to the customer’s specification — including initiating hotel bookings managed via EMS. During the trade fair, the information desk team could access the stored information to connect visitors with the appropriate stand staff. We equipped this customer’s information desk with five workstations including a telephone system and the necessary system access, and handled meeting room bookings on request. To ensure that only authorised personnel could access these meeting rooms and the promotional materials distribution area, we set up two access control options: firstly, the My Event App could scan a QR code mounted at the door, and if authorised, the door lock would open. Secondly, for example, catering staff could hold their RFID-tagged name badges against readers to gain access to specific areas. In addition to name badges, the catering crew also received smartwatches that responded to the pagers installed in the meeting rooms. This enabled stand staff to take care of guests’ refreshments during meetings without interruption. Of course, orders could also be placed directly using the XFAIR Catering App, which was integrated into the My Event App. Further My Event App features included chat, the phone book and document handling.
For the fourth and final customer, we implemented another online registration with invitation sending based on imported staff data. Here, the XFAIR Customer Care team managed hotel administration. We also equipped the information desk with workstations and printers and provided a network. In meeting rooms managed via EMS, we set up conference spiders so that meetings could also be attended digitally.

Our Services

Hardware:

• 2 POS systems

• 2 card payment terminals

• 2 barcode scanners

• 2 cash drawers

• 2 all-in-one touch PCs

• 3 information desks

• Printers

• >2 receipt printers

• 1 mail-to-print

• 3 back office / information desk printers

• Name badges

• Visitor flow measurement

• Wi-Fi network

• LAN cabling

Software:

• Online registration

• Hotel management

• Stand management system

• Promotional item distribution

• Shop system

• Visitor flow measurement

• Meeting room administration including displays

My Event App with:

• Access control

• Check-in

• Catering

• General information

• Phone book

• Chat

• Hotel information

• Meeting rooms

• Messages