Showroom is a virtual event platform for hosting conventions and recruitment fairs. I led a team of six people in developing, hosting and pitching the platform at the 2021 Intelligent Plant Inform Prize. You can watch our video advert and demonstration on YouTube!
Events are represented in 3D using a Unity application where attendees can walk around and talk to each other, just like in a multiplayer video game. Event hosts are able to schedule events, send out tickets and customise their event’s layout. They can also pick exhibitors to showcase products or services. Exhibitors can make their own stalls before an event using the built-in Stall Editor, and they can even add interactive blocks that link to websites.
One of the major selling points of Showroom as a way of running events is that it makes analytics about stall visits really easy to gather. We implemented a basic system for viewing statistics about how long people are spending in each stall, but it could easily be expanded to also consider what people are spending the most time looking at, or how many clicks each interactive block is getting. This sort of information would be really helpful for exhibitors.
