We built the app that organised the visits at IPV's open day

The Department of Electrical Engineering (DEE) at Instituto Politécnico de Viseu (IPV) runs the DEE Open Day, a day when groups of visitors tour the campus and the stands of the dozens of companies taking part. With nearly a thousand people in the same space, the route kept jamming: groups left standing outside busy stands, with no way of knowing which ones were free. The DEE asked us for an application that would bring order to the visits, in real time. We built it to fit the event.

The challenge

At an open day this size, the problem isn't a lack of content, it's coordination. Dozens of stands, dozens of groups and a single day. With no real-time information, each group moves blind: it reaches a stand, finds it busy, waits or gives up, and tries again further along. The result is queues, wasted time and a less rewarding visit, both for the visitors and for the companies that came to be seen. The DEE wanted the groups to flow smoothly and every minute on campus to count.

The solution

We built a responsive web app, designed mobile-first and shared by QR code, with no install and no app store in the way: point the camera and you're in. Each group leader had access to the app and, on reaching a stand, reserved it; at that instant, the other groups saw that stand turn busy and could pick a free one instead of waiting. The app also showed where to head next, so no one stood idle outside an occupied stand.

Underneath, it all ran over websockets: the moment a group reserved or released a stand, the state updated on every phone, with no page reload. The scope was deliberately focused on that event, so we built exactly what the day needed and nothing extra to weigh it down.

The result

On the day, nearly a thousand visitors moved through the campus with a clear view of what was free and what was taken. Groups stopped waiting blind: instead of getting stuck at a busy stand, they moved on to the next available one and came back later. The visit was smoother for people and more productive for the companies present, which received groups more steadily across the day.

It was a solution built for one specific event, with a deliberately narrow scope. But it captures what we do: when an SME or an institution has a need no off-the-shelf product solves, we build the software to fit that exact problem.

A bespoke project by the enbia team for the Department of Electrical Engineering at Instituto Politécnico de Viseu: the real-time app that organised the visits at the DEE Open Day.