Customized, quick and economical event websites

Fiera di Rimini and Fiera di Vicenza, two large players in the Italian trade fair sector, form Italian Exhibition Group (IEG), Italy’s most important exhibition & convention provider. The goal of the project was to optimize the management of many of the websites in the group and to make the creation of new sites quick and economical.

Business Needs

An efficient and reliable digital solution was vital for the client. IEG was looking for a strong management tool able to collect and connect an immense amount of data in a very short time. The required application had to safeguard against the risk of any potential system crash and be easy to customize in order to satisfy the needs of any future exhibition. The main objectives of the project were to respond to the needs of buyers and exhibitors and organize fairs in the quickest and most accurate way possible. The new system was designed to save both time and money while improving the organization’s productivity.

Pimcore Solution

Pimcore partner Extera advised Italian Exhibition Group to use Pimcore. The system solved all of their main needs. Through Pimcore, Extera was able to provide light and flexible code which allowed the team to tune the site’s entire information technology architecture. Software including New Relic and Load Impact was used to test the system and point out which parts of the code could possibly cause a deadlock in any operation. Through Pimcore it was possible to design a highly adjustable interface in just three months, allowing the team to easily replicate the core features of the service and adapt to the specific needs of additional events.

Business Results

The quantifiable benefits were clear soon after the launch of the first event. Buyers and exhibitors rushed to the site in order to catch the best opportunities, making two thousand simultaneous requests within the first two hours. The framework held, it was a success. A very adaptable caching system was essential to provide the required services and cut out any unnecessary load. People were able to speed up their negotiations and close more meeting requests faster. As a result, the administration managed to focus their resources on other tasks increasing their productivity and providing more efficient assistance.