Introduction
Why adding a floor plan enhances event navigation, satisfaction, ROI and monetization
Integrating a floor plan into your event is essential for facilitating smooth navigation and enhancing the overall attendee experience. A detailed and accessible floor plan helps attendees efficiently locate exhibitors, sessions, and meeting points, saving valuable time and reducing the stress often associated with navigating large event spaces. This efficiency is crucial for maximizing attendee engagement with exhibitors, as it allows more time for meaningful interactions rather than being spent on logistics.
Furthermore, the use of floor plans offers significant data collection opportunities. By tracking attendee movements via heatmaps, organizers can gather behavioral data that is invaluable for future planning. This data can be used to adjust booth placement and flow to optimize traffic to high-value exhibitors, potentially increasing booth pricing based on proven traffic metrics. It also assists in creating more effective floor layouts in future events, improving the overall attendee journey.
Additionally, this behavioral data enhances targeted marketing efforts. For instance, if certain areas consistently draw more traffic, event organizers can charge a premium for these locations or offer them as exclusive sponsorship opportunities. This strategic use of floor plan analytics directly ties into an event's monetization strategy, offering a dual benefit of improved attendee experience and increased revenue potential.
Overall, adding a floor plan is more than just a navigational tool; it's a strategic asset that enhances participant satisfaction and engagement, plus it contributes to an event's financial success by enabling a deeper understanding of attendee behaviors and preferences.
What are the available methods to add a floor plan to your event
Event organizers can choose from three methods to integrate a floor plan into the event app, in order of preference:
Preferred Interactive Solutions: Utilize a fully integrated interactive floor plan as Mapspeople or ExpoFP for optimal user experience.
Alternative Interactive Solutions: Integrate any other interactive floor plan solutions via a web view.
Static PDF File: Embed a static PDF file directly in the app.
Preferred Interactive solutions: how to implement Mapspeople or ExpoFP?
Overview
MapsPeople (also named MapsIndoors) and ExpoFP provide seamless integration across Swapcard's Web, iOS, and Android applications. These platforms ensure an easy setup and smooth navigation experience for event attendees.
ℹ️ Before adding a MapsPeople or ExpoFP floor plan to your event, ensure that the Interactive Floor Plan add-on is included in your contract. If it isn't, contact us for details on pricing and setup. You'll also need to have a CAD file (.dwg) of your floor plan ready.
How to add a Mapspeople or ExpoFP floor plan to your event
Log into your Studio account
Navigate to the Event Builder menu
Click on Create Page
Select Floor plan
5. Define the button's name, color and background, which will redirect users to your floor plan, as for any page you add into your event menu.
6. Choose your provider (MapsPeople or ExpoFP) and enter the required information to link your floor plan to the event:
For MapsPeople: Venue ID and API Key.
For ExpoFP: Venue URL.
NB: As for any pages of your event, you are able to define which group can see or not your floor plan, in the Visibly tab when editing the Floor Map.
How to redirect from sessions location to your MapsPeople or ExpoFP floor plan?
Redirecting sessions to a map helps participants easily find where a session is located. A "See on map" button will be available on the session details page, opening the map directly to the correct location.
Steps to Set Up:
1. Create a Custom Field:
Go to your session settings and create a custom single-choice field named "MapsPeople" or "ExpoFP," depending on which provider you are using. (Note: The field name must be exactly "MapsPeople" or "ExpoFP.")
2. Populate the MapsPeople or ExpoFP custom field:
For each session, add the same value found in the default location field to the MapsPeople/ExpoFP field. You can do this in bulk by following these steps:
Export the existing session list.
Copy the data from the Location field and paste it into the MapsPeople/ExpoFP field.
Reimport the updated file.
3. Ensure Location Consistency:
Each location in the MapsPeople/ExpoFP field must match exactly with the name of the Point of Interest (POI) in Maps Indoors CMS or ExpoFP. The names must be identical for the map redirection to work properly.
Example: If the Maps Indoors CMS shows the location as "24 Tech Stage", but the MapsPeople field in Swapcard says "24 Stage," the redirection will fail.
Note: The custom field "MapsPeople" or "ExpoFP" will not be visible in the session details since its value is already shown via the location field.
Once set up properly, participants can click directly from the session page to easily find the session's location on the map.
How to set your default zoom level and orientation (For MapsPeople only)
Go to the Data tab within your floor plan's settings.
Here, you can set the default zoom level and map orientation:
Zoom Level: Choose between 1 (global view) and 21 (street view).
Orientation: Set the map orientation with 0 degrees pointing north.
A preview of the map will help you visualize the properties selected. Please keep in mind that the preview is related to the map displayed on the web and the result on mobile may differ due to screen size.
How to enable Indoor Positioning to your MapsPeople or ExpoFP floor plan
Indoor Positioning enhances navigation by showing a live location indicator on the map. Geofencing allows sending notifications to attendees based on their location within the venue, which is excellent for engagement and potential monetization: by letting your main exhibitors sending specific communication when attendees are close to their booths.
Indoor Positioning and Geofencing notifications can be provided by two Swapcard partners: Crown Connected and IndoorAtlas. They also offer other features such as Heatmap.
Indoor positioning only work if you are using a MapsPeople or ExpoFP floor map.
Before starting to implement Crowd Connected or IndoorAtlas solution, please make sure that Indoor Positioning add-on is part of your contract. If not, please contact us for more information on pricing and setup.
How to setup Crowd Connected
Crowd Connected can be directly set up from Studio:
Go to Pages & Menu in Event Builder section
Edit your Floor Plan button (that you've previously implemented)
At the bottom of the Data tab, click on Enable indoor positioning, and fill your Crowd Connected's Appkey, Token and Secret (learn here how to get these credentials from your Crowd Connected Account).
Then, in order to send geofence notifications, you need also to set up the Swapcard integration in your Crowd Connected account.
Integrating alternative interactive floor plans than Mapspeople and ExpoFP
If you're using another interaction floor plan solution than Mapspeople and ExpoFP, you can still embed it into your event as Web View.
How to add your alternative interactive floor plan (other than MapsPeople and ExpoFP) to your event?
Go to Event Builder in Studio, and then Pages & Menu
Click on Create page, and select WebView
Define the name, color and background of the button that will redirect to your map, as for any page you add into your event menu.
Finally, paste the URL of your floor plan in Website input, select Embedded iframe and click Add page.
How to make redirection from exhibitors profiles and meetings pages to your alternative interactive floor plan?
In order that users can be redirected from an exhibitor page or a meeting page to the floor map (other than MapsPeople and ExpoFP) on the right location, you will have to provide for each location the link to your interactive floor plan that's focusing on the right place.
In Studio, go to Locations in Meetings section, and for each location you should paste in Location URL input the right link to your interactive floor plan.
For sessions, you will have to create a custom field with format URL, to store the link to to your interactive floor plan, then users can be redirected from a session page to the floor plan.
How to make redirections from your alternative interactive floor plan to exhibitors profiles?
While navigating the floor plan, the user might click on a specific booth, and you will need them to be redirected to the exhibitor profile page in order to see more details about the exhibitor, start a chat conversation with them, or send a meeting request.
For this, you will need to add on your third-party interactive floor plan a button for each booth to redirect to the exhibitor profile. The link for the button should be built as below:
https://{appDomain}/event/{eventSlug}/exhibitor/{exhibitorId}
· appDomain: by default is app.swapcard.com, but it's depending if you have a branded app and a white-label domain.
· eventSlug: is the slug of your event, that you can find below your event name in General information in Studio.
· exhibitorId: is the unique id per exhibitor, that you can find in Studio when editing on exhibitor or by exporting your exhibitor by Excel file.
Adding a static floor plan with a PDF file
If you prefer a non-interactive floor plan, embed a PDF or image file directly accessible from the event menu by creating a Web View page. If your file is hosted online, you can link to it directly; otherwise, have a look on how to hosted it simply with Google Drive.
Integrating a floor plan into your event enhances attendee navigation and boosts overall satisfaction. It helps participants easily find sessions and exhibitors, while giving organizers valuable data for improving future layouts and optimizing traffic flow.
Whether using interactive solutions like MapsPeople or ExpoFP, or a simple PDF, a floor plan streamlines the attendee experience and creates new opportunities for event monetization. Ultimately, it's a strategic tool that drives engagement, improves event efficiency, and increases both attendee and exhibitor ROI.
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