Case Study: Event platform for Frankfurt Book Fair

The story

The 76th Frankfurt Book Fair took place from 16 to 20 October 2024. At this year’s event, Frankfurt Book Fair was able to continue the growth trend of previous years. With 115,000 trade visitors (previous year: 105,000) from 153 countries (previous year: 130 countries) and 115,000 private visitors (previous year: 110,000), it grew both as an international business fair for the publishing and media industry and as a festival of reading. More than 4,300 exhibitors (previous year: 4,100) presented themselves in the halls and more than 7,500 media representatives (previous year: 7,000) reported on the more than 3,300 events on the trade and public days.

A new event platform called ‘Frankfurt Connect’ was launched to transfer the Frankfurt Book Fair experience to the digital world. adventics GmbH supported Frankfurt Book Fair in the selection process and implementation of this event platform as well as during the go-live and operation.

Jürgen Boos, Director of Frankfurt Book Fair, describes the objectives of the event and the associated event platform as follows: ‘What do we want at the Frankfurt Book Fair? We want to exchange ideas across national borders. We want to present our products and services. We want to revitalise old contacts and forge new business relationships. From now on, we will also support all these wishes digitally: with Frankfurt Connect as the digital backbone for our community’.

Contact us

Dr. Lars Schmitt

Team Lead Consulting

Tel: +49 89 4444 33 186

Background and initial situation

The Frankfurt Book Fair, the world’s largest and most prestigious event of its kind, attracts thousands of exhibitors and hundreds of thousands of trade and private visitors from all over the world to Frankfurt am Main every year. In addition to holding the physical event at the Messe Frankfurt exhibition centre, the organiser is always keen to use digital channels and innovations to extend its international reach, thus ensuring and promoting networking opportunities between publishers, authors, agents, media professionals and participants. Not least due to the increasing digitalisation of the trade fair and publishing industry and the pandemic-related challenges of the early 2020s, Frankfurt Book Fair 2024 decided to introduce an event platform for the first time to accompany the event in October 2024.

CHALLENGE AND KEY OBJECTIVES

The main challenge was to unite the different requirements of various players and stakeholders and achieve the following goals:

1. increase the year-round, global reach:
All users should be provided with a holistic offering that goes well beyond the face-to-face event and gives the industry a digital home all year round. As a result, Frankfurt Connect can be described as a lively community that reflects the cohesion of the industry and that enables, encourages and promotes exchange and networking.

2. improving networking and matchmaking opportunities:
Expand digital networking between authors, publishers, agents and other stakeholders through innovative networking and matchmaking tools. The platform should enable users to get in touch with each other easily, exchange relevant information and pursue common interests. Targeted recommendations can be made and personalised content provided.

3. optimisation of event and data management:
Automation and simplification of the management of exhibitors, speakers and events, (internal) processes, as well as the bundling of a wide variety of data in a database. New, user-centric insights and information are gained, which not only help the organisation team to adapt and further develop the event, but also to get to know the participants themselves better and improve their trade fair experience.

4. creating new, additional revenue opportunities:
The platform will generate year-round revenue through the sale of various value-added digital packages and advertising placements. This ‘new’ marketing package thus also offers exhibitors greater added value through year-round visibility.

The solution

The decision was made in favour of ExpoPlatform’s digital event platform – an intelligent, AI-supported all-in-one platform for live, virtual and hybrid events and 365 communities, which covers the functional requirements set out above and at the same time offers the option of customising certain features, such as

an interactive hall plan;
an event calendar that allows exhibitors to create, categorise and edit events themselves;
various digital offers for exhibitors, depending on the package booked;
the opportunity to network through functions such as messaging, appointment organisation (online and on site) and the uncomplicated exchange of contact data via badge scan;
or a modern event app as an essential companion during the event.

The solution not only enables a more efficient and interactive trade fair experience, but also promotes the continuous networking of participants beyond the trade fair, while offering exhibitors extended opportunities to increase their presence.

Implementation

adventics GmbH accompanied the entire process from strategy consulting and requirements analysis to selection, implementation and live operation. The overall project management played an important role during the implementation phase, which can be roughly divided into three sub-projects:

1. configuration of the platform, for example the creation of a test environment to familiarise users with the functions and configuration options as well as a simulated closed operation with test data for training and testing purposes. This was followed by the final transfer of the configuration to the production system and the go-live.

2. configuration of the app, including the creation of a test version of the app to familiarise users with the configuration options. Among other things, the menu structure and the colour scheme of the app were defined. Finally, the event app was published in the App Store (iOS) and Google Play Store (Android).

3. continuous tasks, including the development and/or redefinition of internal processes and work steps, interfaces and procedures as well as general project management in consultation with the various parties.

Our services

Digital Strategy & Transformation

Now is the time to think about tomorrow. In particular, trade show companies that keep an eye on future trends, new technologies and expanded business models, as well as the competition, can be successful in the long term.

Event Tech Solutions

We help with the selection, introduction and operation of digital solutions. From individual solution modules such as registration, lead tracking and community management to integrated platforms.

Digital as a Service

Many event tech modules only unfold their effectiveness when they are booked and used in large numbers by exhibitors. This is where we help with our customer-oriented sales and support teams.

Download Case Study