At a time when major events are becoming ever more complex and safety aspects ever more important, event organisers are looking for innovative solutions to efficiently manage visitor flows while offering a maximum experience. Kieler Woche, one of the largest public festivals in the world, is an impressive example of how the digital event app UpVisit overcame these challenges.
Our client and its challenges
Kiel Week, one of the largest sailing events in the world, attracts millions of people every year. However, Kiel Week not only has a lot to offer sailors, it has now developed into a city festival with something for everyone: an extensive cultural programme with concerts by international artists, a funfair, theatre performances, an international market with food from all over the world, a children’s programme and, of course, the traditional fireworks display that ends Kiel Week every year.
In order to successfully coordinate the variety of programme items and the numerous venues, the organisation team needed an app that could do more than just provide irrelevant information.
Kiel Week in figures
70
Nations
> 2.000
Events
3-4 Mio
Visitors
With its diverse programme, Kiel Week attracts between 3 and 4 million visitors from more than 70 nations every year. In 2024, there were over 2,000 programme items spread over several days – including 500 evening concerts alone. Until now, it has been difficult for visitors to get an overview and find the events that are of most interest to them personally. It is also difficult for non-local residents to navigate and find their way around, as the programme is spread throughout the city.
Another challenge for the organisers of Kiel Week was communicating safety messages to as many people as possible. In the previous year, there were several safety-critical situations in which areas had to be evacuated or other messages communicated to visitors. Until now, the Kiel Week team lacked a reliable technical solution to communicate quickly in such critical situations.
Many city festivals face the same challenges as Kiel Week
- Visitors expect digital solutions
- Large amounts of information make it difficult to maintain an overview
- Communication must be fast and reliable in emergencies
The digital transformation means that innovative solutions are no longer a nice-to-have, but a must-have for future-proof city festivals. Many visitors are no longer satisfied with traditional communication methods such as printed flyers and the like. Digital solutions can be used more flexibly and are also much more environmentally friendly.
Existing solutions are expensive, risky and take forever.
If events want to offer exciting, multimedia customer journeys, their only options today are to develop them themselves or to rely on agencies – both of which are extremely expensive and time-consuming. This leads to numerous silo solutions that fall short of expectations: There are an above-average number of complaints about poor service or a lack of acceptance among visitors, as well as a plethora of apps that visitors do not want to install for a single visit.
Creating content is tedious.
Large amounts of content are created at events and functions. The amount of content, coupled with a lack of qualified staff to digitise existing material or create relevant new content, slows down the process and increases costs. As a result, digitisation projects are frequently initiated but often stall due to competing priorities.
The UpVisit app proved to be the centrepiece of the digital visitor tour. Interactive site maps provided a clear overview of the event locations, while the integrated event calendar enabled visitors to personalise their planning. In addition, the push notifications enabled flexible and fast security management – a decisive factor for major events in today’s world.
Creating the app for the 9-day festival in 8 days
In discussion with our client, it quickly became clear that UpVisit was the ideal solution to provide information, navigation and security for visitors of Kiel Week.
As Kiel Week chose our enterprise model, the UpVisit team worked closely with the organisers to help them create content and provide personalised features and interfaces.
More than 2,000 programme items during the event week
Challenge: Kiel Week offers thousands of programme items and events. The overview is quickly lost and it is very difficult to find the right events.
Solution: All Kiel Week events were automatically imported into the UpVisit app via the UpVisit interface. Comprehensive search and filter functions make it easy for visitors to find their personal favourite events. Events can be saved to a personal programme in the UpVisit app or exported to the calendar.
Numerous venues spread throughout the city
Challenge: The Kiel Week events take place in many different locations – in the city centre, on the Kiellinie or completely outside, in Schilksee. Visitors from out of town who don’t know their way around need help with orientation and navigation.
Solution: An interactive, illustrated city map in the UpVisit app shows the different event locations and their position. The location of the event is also indicated within each programme item, as well as a link to the most popular external navigation apps.
Safety messages are required in an emergency
Challenge: In the event of an emergency, visitors must be reliably informed about safety precautions such as the evacuation of certain areas.
Solution: Messages can be sent to app users at any time via the UpVisit content management system. Only those users who are at the event or are interested in it are informed. This feature can be used perfectly for reliable communication in times of crisis.
Results
45.362
visitors have used the app
949.950
interactions in Kiel Week Experience
19.130
events have been saved
Over 45,000 visitors used the UpVisit app on site and engaged intensively with the app and its content. In total, there were almost 1 million interactions with the content, events and city map of Kiel Week on all days of the event. The users saved over 19,000 events.
Visitors particularly praised the clear presentation of the programme items and the interactive map.
Why Kiel Week no longer wants to miss UpVisit:
- Helpful and personalised orientation for visitors
- Contact is maintained even after the event
- Valuable insights into visitor behaviour via our analysis tool
- Unbeatable value for money
- Fast onboarding through to go-live and active support with content creation
- Accessible + multilingual solution
‘UpVisit has totally helped our visitors to better organise the variety of events during Kiel Week.’
Alexandra Brecht, Kieler Woche
For event organisers planning for the coming season, integrating an event app is no longer just a ‘nice-to-have’. The use of features such as interactive maps, event calendars and push notifications has proven to be critical to success – and is essential to meet the increasing demands of visitors and security authorities.
Plan your next city event smarter, safer and more efficiently with the UpVisit app. Arrange a demo today and find out how UpVisit can revolutionise your event organisation.
