How William Reed embraced indoor navigation to deliver data-driven, sustainable events
The Client
With a history dating back to 1862, William Reed is one of the food and drink industry’s most renowned event organisers and publishers, hosting globally recognised events. Attracting over 50,000 attendees and thousands of exhibitors every year, their events are platforms for industry networking, knowledge sharing and showcasing innovation.
The Challenge
Events like the UK Food & Drink Shows and The London Coffee Festival draw large crowds. With a historic reliance on brochures and printed maps, which are not only damaging to the environment, but also under-utilised and costly, William Reed were looking for a sustainable solution that wouldn’t compromise the high standards of their events.
Additionally, the complex layouts and numerous exhibitors made it difficult to explore the event efficiently, causing confusion for visitors and missed engagement opportunities for exhibitors.
William Reed also had a lack of insight around visitor behaviour, such as the way visitors explore and engage with the event, which parts of their shows were most congested, and which exhibitors received the most interest.
The Solution
The partnership between Sitka and William Reed began with a trial at the UK Food & Drink Shows in 2023. Following its success, William Reed decided to introduce indoor navigation and digital show guides at subsequent events, including The Restaurant Show 2023, The London Coffee Festival 2024 and the UK Food & Drink Shows 2024.
Sitka’s comprehensive solution included:
Indoor Navigation
Blue dot navigation, simplifying event exploration for visitors. With an interactive map and search function, visitors could easily locate exhibitors, live events and amenities.
Digital Show Guide
A comprehensive hub of information, from a live event schedule to exhibitor directory and product listings, replacing printed brochures and maps.
Exhibitor Exposure
Exhibitors could upgrade their business listings within the digital show guide, providing them with greater exposure and generating an additional revenue stream for William Reed.
Visitor Insights
Unprecedented insights into attendee behaviour, including foot traffic heatmaps providing a birds-eye view of movement and visitor flow through the event. Visitor engagement analytics for the show guide provided insight into views of products and exhibitors, bookmarks and search queries.
The Result
Reduced Environmental Impact
Embracing the digital show guide and indoor navigation significantly decreased the environmental footprint of William Reed’s events, enabling them to dramatically reduce their use of printed materials.
Previously, William Reed produced 10,000 printed show guides and maps for The UK Food and Drink Shows. By implementing a digital show guide and interactive map, they have significantly reduced print costs.
“We’re committed to delivering more environmentally-conscious event experiences through sustainable practices such as taking our event guides digital. In embracing new technology, we are providing our customers with a future-focussed event experience that minimises our impact on the planet. Together with Sitka, we are paving the way for the future of sustainable events.”
Data-driven Decision-making
Sitka’s platform delivered William Reed with invaluable insights into visitor behaviour. Heatmap data provided a detailed picture of how visitors interacted with the event space, highlighting hotspots, congested areas and lesser-explored zones.
This deeper understanding empowered William Reed to make data-driven decisions for future events. For example, leveraging heatmap data from the UK Food & Drink Shows 2024, they were able to analyse traffic flow, identifying areas of congestion, which has enabled them to optimise the show layout for 2025.
With 2.3 million attendee behaviour data points captured at a single event*, engagement analytics highlighted levels of exhibitor demand, product interest and popular live events. Armed with this knowledge, William Reed can tailor future events to better meet customer needs and support popular exhibitors to select prime locations for maximum visibility and foot traffic.
Additionally, with Sitka’s support William Reed can fine-tune exhibitor sponsorship packages to maximise revenue opportunities and provide more value to exhibitors.
Improved Exhibitor ROI
Sitka’s indoor navigation capabilities helped exhibitors to reach the right audience, attract higher quality leads, and spend more time speaking to potential customers, ultimately improving their on-site sales campaigns.
“I would happily recommend the use of the app. I think it's the first app for a show that I've used consistently throughout the time I've been there.”
An Elevated Visitor Experience
Sitka’s solution transformed the event experience for attendees, serving as a full event companion. Its intuitive and efficient navigation slashed the time spent searching for specific locations and minimised visitor confusion by making it easy to find specific points of interest. The digital show guide empowered them to plan their day more effectively and build more meaningful connections. This meant more time to spend engaging with all that the event had to offer.
“You normally find you get a paper pamphlet, and you lose it or don't really look at it. Whereas with the app, you’ve got all the information in one place.”
The Future
For Sitka and William Reed, this partnership marks the beginning of a transformative journey that is shaping the future of events. Tackling the challenges of attendee navigation and the environmental impact of large-scale events, we’re offering more than just a solution – we’re providing a superior event experience through seamless navigation paired with a comprehensive digital event companion.
“The success of our partnership highlights the transformative potential of indoor navigation technology within the events industry, with William Reed leading the way for organisers. As technology advances and attendee expectations evolve, together we are positioned to further elevate event experiences, setting new standards in the industry.”
* UK Food & Drink Shows 2024
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