How do you help tens of thousands of people find their way around five pavilions, including hundreds of stands, training rooms, refreshment points, and event areas?
At WMF 2026, Tredo has developed a new indoor navigation feature for Mapdo, The platform that transforms a traditional floor plan into an interactive digital space.
The solution, integrated into the Ibrida.io web app dedicated to the event allowed visitors to find out their location and receive directions to stands, rooms, and points of interest within the fair.
The localization system was based on an infrastructure based on Bluetooth Low Energy technology, using BlueUp Maxi beacons. The combination of BlueUp hardware, positioning algorithms, and the Mapdo platform made navigation possible even within a large, crowded, and complex environment like BolognaFiere.
Background
WMF – We Make Future is the International Trade Fair and Festival dedicated to artificial intelligence, technology, and digital innovation, conceived and produced by Search On Media Group.
The 2026 edition took place at BolognaFiere, encompassing a space of approximately 150,000 m², divided into five pavilions, with over 400 stands and points of interest, dozens of rooms, stages, and themed areas. During the event, the exhibition spaces welcomed approximately 70,000 visitors.
An event of this size offers countless opportunities, but also presents a concrete challenge: enabling every visitor to quickly find what they are looking for, reducing unnecessary travel, delays, and requests for assistance.
Challenge
Within a large trade fair, traditional satellite navigation systems are not precise enough. GPS signals can be weak or unreliable in enclosed spaces and cannot accurately distinguish between corridors, stands, and different pavilions.
WMF therefore needed to create a system capable of identifying the user’s approximate location, calculating the route to a stand, room, or service, and updating directions as they went.
The solution also needed to integrate with the event’s official app, function in a large space with a high flow of people, and, above all, offer a simple and immediate experience even for first-time users.
To address this challenge, Tredo chose to combine Mapdo with a Bluetooth Low Energy infrastructure consisting of BlueUp Maxi beacons via a dedicated app. This technology enabled the creation of a network of digital references distributed throughout the fair’s physical spaces, overcoming the limitations of GPS in indoor environments.
The starting point: the 3D map of WMF 2025
The collaboration between Tredo and Search On had already begun during the 2025 edition of the WMF.
At that time, Tredo integrated an interactive 3D map of the event into the Ibrida web app, allowing attendees to digitally explore the pavilions, view exhibitors, and browse key points of interest.
That initial experience transformed the fair’s floor plan into a clearer and more accessible digital tool.
For the 2026 edition, Tredo and Search On decided to take a further step: not just show where the spaces were located, but actually guide people to their destination.
Solution
Tredo expanded Mapdo’s functionality by developing an indoor navigation system integrated into the event’s 3D map within a dedicated app.
The project combined three main components: the digital representation of the spaces created using Mapdo, integration with the Ibrida web app, and the localization infrastructure based on BlueUp Maxi BLE beacons.
It’s easy for visitors to use. After opening the map from the Mapdo app dedicated to the event, users can search for a stand, room, stage, or other point of interest and select it as their destination.
The smartphone detects Bluetooth Low Energy signals transmitted by the BlueUp beacons installed in the pavilions. Mapdo uses this information to estimate the user’s starting position, calculate the most suitable route, and guide them to the desired location, updating the directions as they go.
The floor plan is no longer a static image to be consulted, but becomes an active interface, capable of connecting people, places, and content.
A network of 60 BlueUp Maxi BLE beacons
To facilitate navigation within the exhibition spaces, Tredo designed and installed a network of 60 BlueUp Maxi BLE beacons, distributed across the five pavilions.
The beacons are wireless devices that periodically transmit a Bluetooth Low Energy signal. They do not directly determine the user’s location or record their movements; instead, they form a reference network that can be detected by nearby smartphones.
The app analyzes the intensity of the signals received from the various beacons and, using the solution’s integrated positioning algorithms, estimates the user’s location. This information is then associated with the digital map to display the user’s location and generate navigation directions.
BLE technology is particularly suited to this type of application because it allows the devices to transmit signals with low energy consumption, ensuring operational continuity and a minimally invasive infrastructure. The beacons can be installed in the spaces without complex structural interventions or wiring.
The choice of BlueUp Maxi beacons allowed the use of devices designed to offer high battery life and stable transmission even in professional environments characterized by large surfaces, numerous physical structures, and a high concentration of people.
The BLE infrastructure therefore represented the connection between the real space and its digital representation: the BlueUp beacons provided the necessary references for localization, while Mapdo transformed this data into a comprehensible navigation experience for the visitor.
BLE Infrastructure Design
The distribution of the beacons was not random. The network was designed taking into account the layout and dimensions of the pavilions, the location of entrances, corridors, and intersections, the expected visitor density, and the presence of structures, walls, and installations that could potentially attenuate or alter Bluetooth signal propagation.
Particular attention was paid to areas requiring greater precision and to coverage continuity along the main routes. The position, distance from each other, and configuration of the BlueUp beacons were defined to create a coherent and sufficiently uniform network across the entire navigation area.
Before the opening of the trade fair, the system was tested and calibrated directly on-site. Tredo verified signal coverage, smartphone response during movement, and localization quality in the various areas, adjusting the beacon configuration and algorithms to correct any interference.
In a trade fair environment, the presence of temporary walls, metal structures, stands, technical equipment, and thousands of people can affect the propagation of radio signals. The calibration phase was therefore fundamental to adapt the BLE technology to the real conditions of the event.
An experience designed around the visitor
Technological development was accompanied by careful user experience design.
In a crowded environment, a map must be accessible quickly, often while the user is walking. For this reason, the interface was designed to minimize the number of steps required and make destinations and routes immediately recognizable.
Through the app, visitors could search for exhibitors and stands by name, consult the event program, locate training rooms and stages, and find entrances, services, refreshment areas, and information points.
The map also allowed visitors to visualize their location, obtain a guided route to their destination, and switch directly from an event or exhibitor’s profile to the navigation function.
The entire technological infrastructure, from receiving the BlueUp beacons BLE signals to processing the location, remained invisible to the user. Visitors simply had to choose a destination and follow the directions shown on the screen.
Results
The introduction of indoor navigation, known as wayfinding, improved the visitor experience, making it easier to navigate a large and diverse exhibition space.
According to the data collected, the use of navigation reduced the average time needed to reach stands and rooms by 35% and contributed to a 28% decrease in requests for directions at desks and information points.
The most frequently searched destinations included training rooms, main stages, exhibitor stands, and service areas.
BlueUp Maxi BLE beacon network ensured the necessary coverage for the system to function along the main transit areas. The infrastructure operated throughout the event without interfering with normal use of the spaces, demonstrating the feasibility of implementing an indoor location service over a large area using compact, low-power devices.
The navigation also promoted a more balanced distribution of traffic flows, helping people discover areas of the fair that would have been more difficult to reach using only traditional signage.
More value for organizers and exhibitors too
Mapdo wasn’t just a service for the public.
For Search On, the platform offered a new perspective on how people experienced and navigated the event. Aggregated and anonymous data on searches and routes can help understand which areas attract the most interest, which destinations are searched for most frequently, and when the main traffic flows are concentrated.
This information also allows us to identify the most difficult-to-reach areas and can be used to improve signage, stand layout, and the organization of future editions.
For exhibitors, being present on the map means increasing their visibility and making it easier for visitors to reach their stand.
The 3D event map thus also becomes a communication and commercial promotion tool.