How Ten Thousand Hours created

meaningful conversations in a crowded marketplace

"Our biggest competitor always has a larger presence, with more space to showcase products and consequently more visitors to their exhibition stand. How can we attract more footfall, initiate dialogue and hold meaningful conversations this year?"

Augmented Reality
Exhibition
Design
Project Management

Our client was planning to attend a European conference for the third year running and facing the annual battle for attention with their competitors in the exhibition area of the event. Traditionally, competitors with bigger budgets had been able to purchase bigger stand space and subsequently attract more visitors.

Our client's stand space was moderate. A space that could host a number of products but not a huge number of visitors at any one time.

Only a handful of visitors could view products and interact with the stand personnel at the same time.

Limited space meant limited products and limited conversations.

The products are excellent. But the current set up of a-product-on-a-plinth to view and pick up with an explanation by a company representative, restricted access to products and information for attendees. A visitor may approach the stand interested in the product but found it was already in use and stand personnel otherwise engaged in conversations. Would the visitor wait or go elsewhere; I think we know the answer.

Ten Thousand Hours explored how we could increase access to the products, increase the ease of access to product information and increase the number of active participants at, and around, the stand at any one time.

The products have so many unique characteristics not visible to the naked eye. Technological innovations that a visitor would be unaware of unless they could hold a conversation with personnel on the stand. There are only so many personnel on the stand, so the number of meaningful conversations available during a day or exhibition session, is governed by the number of people and the duration of each conversation.

Our solution was to create opportunities for visitors to the stand to interact with the product, obtain facts and figures about the product and become educated, at a level they decide, without having to wait in a queue.

We used HoloLens technology and augmented reality to allow every visitor the opportunity to pick up a product, deconstruct its component parts and interact with individual elements to learn more about the innovation, design, benefits and usage. HoloLens headsets were made available on the stand, alongside the physical product, allowing visitors to select their experience.

It couldn't just happen with a click of a button. Our design team created accurate 3D models of the products, created intricate components from CAD designs, programmed seamless animations and interactive functionality to deconstruct the models; whilst our project management team worked with the client to create appropriate content to add into the experience.

The inclusion of the augmented reality experience increased visitor numbers to the stand, allowed for greater 'dwell time' and led to more meaningful conversations between clients and customers.

And for the first time the focus of the attendees shifted from the competitor to our client.