Congress trade fair: interactive, real and fully digital

The main stage in the large congress plenum of the ECC in Berlin glowed a mysterious blue colour. All those present and the online visitors were eagerly awaiting the start of the 25th CCW. At first, dynamic yet restrained music played. Then there was a roar like the launch of a rocket, and the image film of the congress trade fair began! The bass boomed for around 40 seconds, and the rich sound emphasised the message from the organisers of the congress trade fair, Management Circle AG: "This is where you hear it first!"

For the 25th anniversary of the congress trade fair, the organiser had chosen a topic that is of great interest in the contact centre industry: "Unite human and artificial power". During the four conference days and three trade show days, there were 280 presentations on the topic. Around 7,400 participants from 41 countries and 215 exhibitors from 20 countries attended the event on site or connected virtually.

Daniela Bopp, Senior Conference Manager at Management Circle AG, welcomed the visitors with a brief look back: "What did the world look like when CCW - then called CallCenterWorld - started? Google had just seen the light of day, Amazon was launched in Germany and the German edition of Harry Potter was published. At the time, I thought Harry Potter was the most exciting story. But today we know that a whole new power has risen in the world of Google and Amazon: generative AI!" A veritable firework display of exciting and innovative topics and presentations then followed on the main stage.

Innovative event platform

But there was also a lot to experience behind the scenes of the congress trade fair. We are talking about the digital event platform, which was programmed by Coders Unlimited - part of RYZE Digital. Thanks to modern technology, online and offline experiences were optimally interlinked on the platform. For example, the entire event programme and the hall plan were available to visitors digitally at all times. To access the platform, participants simply had to scan the QR code on their visitor badges.

Participants used the online matchmaker to find suitable dialogue partners. They were asked to fill in their personal profiles on the platform before the start of the congress trade fair. Among other things, they could select specific areas of interest or upload a photo. It was also possible to integrate links to appointment calendars so that other participants at the congress trade fair could book meeting slots directly. Using various search filters, it was possible to search for suitable dialogue partners, bookmark them and check whether someone was currently online.

"You can think of Matchmaker a bit like a dating platform. Using the algorithm we programmed, visitors were given suggestions as to who might be a potential conversation partner. Anyone could then make contact using the chat function. Simple, quick and uncomplicated. We wanted to make it easier for attendees to talk to each other and also build a bridge between the online visitors and the participants on site," explains Petra Scherff, Project Manager at Coders Unlimited. The new feature was very popular: A total of 5,077 logins were recorded on the platform.

Expertise and content on demand

The comprehensive offerings for exhibitors to present their expertise on the event platform were also attractive. The so-called Company Space could be edited by the exhibitors themselves at any time. "We created it like a small website within the website. Depending on the exhibitor package selected, the companies then had the option of uploading PDFs, podcasts or videos. It was particularly important to us that the content was easy to maintain," reports Petra Scherff.

Opportunities for exhibitors to analyse visitor data have also been integrated. "Among other things, the Lead Centre makes it possible to analyse which content was used by which participant on the company profile. Exhibitors were also able to scan the QR codes on a visitor badge and call up the stored contact information," explains the project manager, who ensured that everything ran smoothly at the congress trade fair.

She also organised the communication with visitors and exhibitors. "Here we linked our TYPO3-based platform with the HubSpot CRM system," reports Petra Scherff. This link meant that all mailings could be processed via HubSpot. "We sent mailings to a total of 68,543 recipients," explains the project manager.