Tech
Tried and
tested
ITE Group partnered with Crowd
Connected to gain real-time
information about visitors on the show
floor at Bett, EN finds out more
F
or many years there has
been an ongoing debate
around event apps. Opinions
among organisers vary
wildly, from those that swear
by them to those that swear
they will never use them.
ITE Group sits in the
former camp when it comes
to its expansive education
technology event Bett.
“When you have an event
of that scale, having an
easy way for our UK and
international visitors to
navigate the show and map
all the information they need
is really important,” event
director Eve Harper tells EN.
“We want to ensure that we
keep innovating and giving
our visitors and exhibitors an
improved experience.”
As part of the company’s
ongoing Transformation and
Growth (TAG) programme,
it has been investing heavily
in improving its events,
including looking into
the use of technology to
map visitor footfall and
movement.
“There are so many
different technologies and
they’re changing very fast
at the moment,” explains
Pippa Brook, head of project
delivery. “It’s about looking
at what the options are,
trying and testing things
and seeing what the best
solutions are that can work
together.”
This is where location
intelligence platform Crowd
Connected comes into the
picture.
Around five years ago,
CEO James Cobb was
frustrated by a lack in the
data he could gather about
an event he was involved in
running.
“I was always looking to
use data to try to improve
the event and run it better,”
he tells EN. “I had lots of
data from ticketing and there
was lots I could do before
the event. I could look at
ticket sales data and that
could help drive marketing
decisions. I could even look
at ticket sales data and
postcode analysis to try to
inform traffic planning.
“But the problem that I
had was that when it actually
came to the day of the event
and when we actually opened
the gates in the morning.
There was very little we
could do but effectively cross
our fingers and hope.”
By the time issues
involving crowd
management came to light
at the event, it felt more like
firefighting than prevention.
Out of that frustration,
Crowd Connected was born.
“The very first event we
“We don't get 100 percent opt-in rates, we
get data from people who have chosen to
buy into the system”
– James Cobb
42 — May