The Tire Cologne: App to regulate visitor flow

The use of tracking apps will help keep trade fair visitors safe, says Koelnmesse. The organiser of The Tire Cologne, which will be held as a one-off hybrid “extra edition” next year in place of the cancelled 2020 event, has shared details of its eGuard indoor positioning system.

According to Koelnmesse, eGuard is an anonymous smartphone app that identifies visitor flows and prevents excessive crowds from congregating. Koelnmesse jointly developed the app with Samsung SDS as a new product for future trade fair events that will “keep the trade fair experience in the age of the coronavirus a safe one for exhibitors and visitors alike.” The eGuard team developed an indoor-positioning system (IPS) that monitors the numbers of people within the halls and their movements, providing its findings to attendees in real time.

“The new app, eGuard, is one element of our effort to ensure professional safety at the highest level while creating an environment in which the spirit of encounter and business can thrive once again,” explains Gerald Böse, president and chief executive officer of Koelnmesse.

“Originally intended as a digital service offer in the trade fair sector, after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic we responded at once and strengthened the system’s security capabilities. Once again, what we have here is not an off-the-shelf solution but a system individually developed to meet the needs specific to Koelnmesse,” adds Taewon Song, vice president of B2B Solution Business Europe at Samsung SDS. The app utilises a combination of geomagnetic field and beacons, and Koelnmesse says this gives eGuard a level of functionality and accuracy far beyond that of previously available systems. The trade show organiser stresses that the app collects no personal data.

Anonymous but mandatory

The data anonymously analysed by IPS will help track movement flows, visitor frequencies, time spent within halls and other positioning data. An attendee using the app can call up a display of the visitor frequency in individual halls. The app compares hall sizes and the number of people present and marks these in colour. App users also receive a dynamic display of their own location. Equipped with this information, each customer can adjust his or her own trade fair visit, if necessary avoiding halls with higher visitor densities or visiting them at a later, quieter time. eGuard gives Koelnmesse a means for preventing or dispersing large groups of people.

Koelnmesse will make use of the eGuard mandatory for all people throughout their stay on trade fair grounds, adding that the app must be “actively running” on their smartphone at all times. It says this is necessary if the app is to deliver accurate information about visitor density.