One label, three different things
Organisers asking for a virtual exhibition platform Saudi Arabia suppliers can deliver often mean one of three things, and the quotes that come back are for three different jobs.
- A venue tour. A 360 or 3D tour of the hall, with the floor plan, stand numbers and technical details. Organisers use it to sell stands; exhibitors and agencies use it to plan without a site visit.
- A stand tour. A 360 capture of a stand after it is built, kept online so the stand works for longer than the show.
- A virtual exhibition platform. A 3D hall in the browser, with booths, live sessions, chat and avatars, so people attend from anywhere. This is the category a virtual event platform Saudi Arabia organisers search for when they want a second, online venue.
All three can sit in one event. They need different teams and different timescales, so separate them in the brief.
The three options side by side
| Venue tour | Stand tour | Virtual exhibition platform | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What the visitor does | Looks around the hall and its floor plan | Walks into a built stand from a link | Attends as an avatar, visits booths, joins live sessions |
| Who commissions it | Venue owners and organisers | Exhibitors and stand builders | Organisers of summits, expos and conferences |
| What it replaces | A site visit, a PDF floor plan | The stand after strike | Part of the travel, or a second audience online |
| Effort | Days on site, days of editing | A short capture after the stand is finished | An event programme: venue, exhibitors, sessions, support |
| Status at Nplay | Available today, part of virtual tours | Available today, part of virtual tours | Nplay Nexus is in development, built on the platform behind our first virtual summit |
Who uses a venue tour, and for what
Sell the dates
A hall that can be walked online is easier to shortlist from another city. Show capacity, ceiling heights, entrances and the real condition of the space.
Sell and plan the stands
Stand numbers as hotspots, each opening size, position and what is included. The same tour helps plan flow and sightlines before anyone builds.
Prepare the stand
Exhibitors check distances to power and entrances, and see where their neighbours stand, without flying in early.
Inspect remotely
International planners and agencies narrow the shortlist, and arrive with specific questions rather than a general look.
What a good venue tour records
Shoot the hall empty and, where you can, in the layouts it is used for: theatre, classroom, banquet and exhibition. Organisers then see what the space can take rather than what it looked like on one day.
Then record what planners usually ask about by telephone. Put each item in a hotspot with a line of text: ceiling and door heights, the loading route and lift access, power and data points, rigging points, columns that block sightlines, and the walk from the main entrance. Add a floor plan with a marker for the visitor's position, and write the tour in Arabic and English. When the hall is refurbished or re-laid, the affected views are re-shot and the hotspots edited, so plan that update before the tour goes live.
Keep the stand after the show ends
A stand is built for a few days and then struck. Capturing it in 360 once it is finished is a short job compared with the build, and gives the exhibitor a link to send to customers who did not attend, to prospects who asked for photographs and to colleagues abroad. Add hotspots for products, brochures and a contact button, and the stand keeps working as a sales tool.
Where the stand is a Halo Box hologram cabinet instead of a built structure, the same content can be reused: the tour and the 3D assets come from one production. For organisers, a simple archive page that links every stand tour becomes a record of the event that exhibitors and sponsors can share, and a preview for the next edition.
When a virtual exhibition platform is worth it
A virtual exhibition platform Jordan organisers consider should add something a venue tour cannot: people meeting. Booths staffed by live chat, an auditorium with live sessions and recordings, rooms for side meetings and a dashboard showing exhibitors who visited and what they opened. That is what our team built and ran for the first fully virtual Arab summit; the case study tells the story, and why virtual events double the venue explains how it fits alongside the physical one.
Be clear about status. Nplay Nexus is the productised version of that platform, now in development on Nplay Core, and Nplay FrontRow, which lets attendees choose seats in a 3D venue, is a concept. We will discuss both as roadmap, and tell you plainly what you can use today. If you are comparing suppliers of a virtual exhibition platform Saudi Arabia organisers can rely on, ask each to show a live event, not a demo video. A sensible path is to start with a venue tour and stand tours this season and add the platform when you have the audience and the sponsors for it.
Before you commission an online exhibition
- Which of the three products do you need, and is the platform a second venue or a one-off?
- Can attendees join in a browser with nothing to install, on a phone as well as a laptop?
- How do exhibitors see who visited their booth, and can they export the contacts?
- What happens to recordings and booths after the event, and who owns the data?
- Is Arabic a first-class language, including right-to-left layout and live support in Arabic?
- What is live today, what is planned, and who is on call during the event?
Virtual exhibition platform Saudi Arabia: frequently asked questions
Is a venue tour the same as a virtual exhibition?
No. A venue tour shows the physical hall, usually before the event. A virtual exhibition is a 3D space people attend during the event. Some organisers use both.
Can you build a virtual event platform Saudi Arabia organisers can use this year?
Venue and stand tours are available now. A full platform is a larger programme, and Nplay Nexus is in development, so we discuss scope and timing in detail before anyone commits.
Do virtual booths replace physical stands?
For most events they add to them: a virtual exhibition platform Jordan exhibitors use gives a presence to firms that cannot ship a stand across a border. Some exhibitors cannot ship a stand across a border, and an online booth gives them a presence. The physical stand stays the place for the handshake.
Can the same tour be used at the event on a screen?
Yes. A tour can run on a large screen or kiosk at the venue, in a headset on a stand, and online afterwards.