BEFuture
Acceleration Programme

Rookoo is developing ExperienceAI: a digital co-worker and Event compagnon that transforms incoming customer inquiries into structured action points, while answering visitor questions in real-time about schedules, booth locations, company information and practical details.

Replacing static apps and brochures, it offers interactive and personalized assistance. With a smart intake interface, CRM/planning integrations and real-time support, Rookoo reduces team workload and boosts conversion. Organizers and exhibitors have more time for personal contact, gain valuable insights, while visitors enjoy a smooth and tailored experience. This way, we make business events more efficient, more human and digitally scalable.

Exhibitly.ai helps trade show and conference organizers boost attendance by generating AI-powered, personalised “Why Attend” reports for visitors.

Using only a job title and company name as input, our tool instantly creates tailored landing pages that highlight the most relevant sessions, exhibitors, and networking opportunities. Our goal is to modernise attendee acquisition with data-driven hyper-personalisation without requiring apps or logins. By improving engagement and making event discovery more accessible, Exhibitly.ai supports organisers in attracting the right audience in a more efficient, scalable way. This innovation aims to revolutionise audience acquisition across the business events sector.

The core challenge our project addresses is the lack of good equipment for guided tours, workshops, break-out sessions, etc.

There are existing systems for tour guides + “Silent Disco” headphones for conference break-outs, workshops, ... But all of the existing equipment is NOT open, and so dangerous (on the road, in public areas), and/or preventing collaboration, networking, interaction. With annoying/irritating/intrusive in-ear or over-ear headphones the event-experience is not ideal.

The existing Bone Conduction headsets are great, but they only allow Bluetooth pairing with a maximum of 2 devices. We need minimum pairing capacity of 1 to 100, even better 1 to 1.000 and range up to 100 meters. Our open-ear Bone Conduction headset for the MICE industry offers a solution!

The Corporate Culture Community project by Seamless Systems GmbH aims to reshape the business events sector with a hybrid platform combining an AI-powered event marketplace and a professional community.

It connects HR and workplace managers with curated service providers, enabling peer exchange and collaboration. We are building a scalable backend with intelligent CRM to categorize providers and support structured data from the start. Community features like forums, real reviews, and feedback tools foster trust and transparency. Later, AI will suggest event packages based on past preferences, improving planning speed and confidence. Seamless Events merges human collaboration with smart automation to enhance efficiency, experience quality, and visibility across the European event landscape.

The goal of the project is to further develop and bring to market our solution for creating and sharing design template widgets for business events such as trade fairs and conferences.

The solution is tailored to address the challenge of decentralized content marketing, which is particularly prevalent in B2B business events. Active participation by speakers, exhibitors, attendees, or partners in the online marketing efforts of the events is highly desirable for both organizers and participants. Achieving this participation while maintaining a consistent brand identity is a multi layered challenge, which our specialized design templates are uniquely equipped to solve.

Relivo enhances business events through AI-driven personalization that engages attendees from pre- to post-event. Our platform delivers tailored content, instant photo galleries, and branded media using facial recognition and smart automation.

Fully GDPR-compliant, it boosts brand recall and event ROI with minimal manual effort. By offering scalable, immersive experiences, we help event organizers maximize impact, simplify operations, and set new digital standards in the business events industry.

EventBird360, developed by H-AERO, is an innovative aerial solution revolutionizing business event management across Europe.

Leveraging our proven lighter-than-air aircraft, the project integrates advanced indoor positioning systems, real-time security monitoring, and robust connectivity infrastructure to address critical challenges in complex event environments. Our aircraft offers precise indoor navigation, overhead surveillance for enhanced safety, and reliable communication even in high-density venues. By delivering dynamic information throughout event spaces, EventBird360 improves visitor experience, streamlines operations, and ensures seamless coordination. The system promotes sustainability, efficiency, and engagement, setting a new standard for modern event management.

Event Gateway makes events easy for everyone whether you’re at the venue or joining online. Our main goal is to connect all participants and make event access simple and smooth.

Event Gateway is an online platform that gives every attendee a personal ID to enter the event and join activities. You don’t need to remember different logins or passwords. Organizers can easily manage the event and see who is attending, all in one place. At the event, you scan your ID at the Event Kiosk. You can instantly join sessions, network, or even talk to people who are joining remotely. Event Gateway helps make events more accessible, interactive, and eco-friendly by reducing paperwork and travel. It brings everyone together, whether they are in the room or online

A unique planning and accreditation module. It basically automates all the essential tasks.

Zone restrictions, registrations, approval of different types of accreditation... And the best of all? It puts your crew data in each individual wrist band. Clean and simple. So you're always on top of resources. During 2020 the platform got a complete make over. We listened to our clients' suggestions. And we did a major upgrade by adding: The Stock Manager. It works like a "Track & Trace" for your entire stock. Every allocated item is linked to the personal code on your crew's wrist band. No more lost or disappearing items.

EventPilot: The smart solution for your event planning.

Expert Marketplace's EventPilot is the central platform for companies looking for top speakers, trainers, and coaches. With its AI-powered virtual event assistant, including voice and avatar features, the expert search is efficient and transparent. EventPilot's goal is to simplify event planning through personalized recommendations and spontaneous bookings in real time. The platform provides precise suggestions that are perfectly tailored to the occasion and enables direct booking. EventPilot saves valuable time and ensures that content and personalities are a perfect fit for the event. Companies can quickly find the right experts for their target groups.

GLOBSUS is an innovative online tool that helps (business) event organizers create impactful sustainability plans through a bottom-up approach. Instead of starting from abstract regulations, this approach allows users to select from a curated database of over 150 concrete Sustainable Event Actions (SEAs), each linked to, among others, the SDGs, ESG indicators, and event themes.

These SEAs can be personalized and assembled into a clear, professional PDF report. GLOBSUS makes sustainability planning disruptively easy—but for clarity, it is not intended for CSRD-obligated companies. Federations and local governments can license GLOBSUS—optionally white-labelled—for their users. We are also considering adding VSME indicators to the reporting.

HoloKiosk is a Virtual Reality station as an evolution of an information kiosk.

Attendees can receive an informative and gamified experience about the ongoing event (customizable by the client), the destination they are in (tourism digitalization and accessibility), and also complete interactive questionnaires to collect data (data-driven management). Innovation lies in the fact that this product is an information container that can be easily modified by the client through a content management dashboard on a platform. This tool becomes a commercializable SaaS product, where clients subscribe to the service, operated by tourism bodies and offered to attendees as an enhancement to the event experience.

The HYBRID EVENTS solution will redefine the market by introducing advanced technologies that will transform the current context, breaking down barriers between the face-to-face and digital worlds, opening a space of mixed participation where the two environments will converge.

It is presented as a B2B solution offered to promoters and organizers, to expand the scope of their events by incorporating new remote participants that due to geographical distance, economic reasons, personal limitations, it would not be possible for them to participate in person. An easy-to-implement hybrid that provides a growth opportunity for organizers at a competitive cost, can develop a successful product in MICE, especially in congresses, symposiums, seminars, presentations and corporate conventions.

Immersive Sicily: Redefining Business Events aims to prototype a radically new model for business events rooted in sustainability, cultural immersion, and community engagement.

Through co-creation workshops, artistic direction, and a pilot event in Sicily, we will develop an innovative format combining immersive storytelling, local partnerships, and digital tools to enhance customer engagement. The result is a replicable, high-value experience model that transforms business events into meaningful, place-based encounters with lasting impact.

Inbetween Live is a sociotechnical tool transforming hybrid events through low-tech, privacy-conscious, and playful design. Developed by The Hmm, a Dutch platform for internet cultures, it builds on years of hybrid experimentation.

Now, we aim to make the platform accessible for other organisations, based on research into the needs and priorities of other organisations. Inbetween Live offers interactive tools like chat reactions, emotes, and data-use awareness. Focused on sustainability and inclusion, it avoids high-tech barriers. Alongside the platform, we provide workshops and consultancy to help the cultural and creative sector adopt engaging, future-proof hybrid formats.

The project aims to create an innovative team building format based on augmented reality (AR) and gamification, tailored for corporate groups, incentive travel, and companies seeking unique, customizable experiences in Liguria.

By combining immersive storytelling, interactive challenges, and real-world exploration, the format will offer an engaging digital layer to physical destinations. This new service will help reposition Liguria as a smart, experience-driven business events destination while supporting the sector’s digital and sustainable transformation.

The coat check has remained largely unchanged for decades. Guests must deal with paper tickets and cash payments, leading to long wait times and a cumbersome experience. Itemdrop replaces the conventional coat check with a digital system. Guests use their payment cards for payment.

Our System assigns the card a place in the cloak room, hence the guest does not receive a physical ticket. As soon as the guest returns, itemdrop scans his card and the system tells the employee where the item is located. This simplifies the process, making it faster and more reliable. With Itemdrop, the coat check is no longer a point of friction but a seamless part of the guest journey.

Lapsula Bookings aims to connect business event attendees with authentic local service providers in industries like beauty, wellness, and leisure.

We are developing an AI-powered digital directory that provides personalized recommendations based on attendee profiles and enables seamless online booking in just a few clicks. This user-friendly platform enhances the attendee experience by making it easy to discover and book local offerings, driving economic benefits directly to local businesses and enriching the overall business event ecosystem for both attendees and host cities.

La Vitre is an immersive telepresence solution combining conversational AI, a 2m touchscreen, and real-time interaction to transform professional events.

It enables remote speakers and experts to engage naturally with audiences, while visitors access personalized, multilingual information instantly. Exhibitors can boost their presence without travel. By enhancing accessibility, reducing carbon emissions, and improving engagement, La Vitre sets a new standard for sustainable and inclusive business events.

Memento is an AI-powered photo platform that turns event photos into strategic engagement tools.

Using facial and logo recognition, it instantly delivers the right photos to the right people through personalized galleries. This boosts organic reach, enhances the participant experience, and maximizes impact for sponsors and partners. Deployed across 2,500+ events, Memento helps organizers unlock the full value of their visual content—turning every captured moment into a driver of connection, visibility, and long-term brand equity.

The inwink project aims to take its existing event application to the next level by making it more inclusive and accessible.

Already used at major trade shows, the solution will evolve into an intelligent event companion designed to meet the needs of all participants, including people with disabilities. Our approach combines AI-driven features (personalized journeys, recommendations, chatbots) with enhanced digital accessibility standards and large-scale testing with event organizers. The goal is to deliver a seamless and fair experience for every participant while helping organizers increase the value of their events and driving the business events sector toward greater sustainability and inclusivity.

Nascent aims to transform networking at business events through a science-based and data-driven matchmaking platform that creates more effective, personalized and human-fit-driven connections.

Focused on co-founder matchmaking within the startup ecosystem, Nascent leverages a scientific algorithm and soft skills assessment to generate optimal pairings based on both personal and professional attributes. Developed as a spin-off from UHasselt University, the platform enhances networking efficiency by matching participants beyond surface-level criteria, helping them form meaningful and lasting connections. With its hybrid-ready design, Nascent supports both in-person and digital matchmaking, ensuring broad applicability across the business events sector.

OpenGate XR is a user-friendly webapp where users can easily upload digital content (images, videos, and 3D models) from a smartphone or PC and instantly view it in their Meta Quest 3 headset in Mixed Reality.

Developed by Metagate, the platform aims to make business events more immersive, sustainable, and engaging. OpenGate XR reduces costs and environmental impact by cutting physical logistics. Already tested at international events, it enables even small teams to access advanced technologies. The project aims to grow into a scalable SaaS platform for events, museums, and institutions across Europe.

The objective of the project is to work on a small-scale pilot of an online community management tool namely ‘The Pavilion for People’ to validate the concept that exhibiting in events and talking to communities can be done in a low carbon and inclusive way.

A community of young ocean professionals will use The Pavilion for People prototype to enable the community to share Mission SeaOrbiter's solutions and ideas on ocean scientific exploration and protection in an exhibition format without building physical exhibition booths or requiring travel to a place-based event.

MOB’s Positive Makers with PERS is a loyalty-driven platform that turns hybrid events into scalable, high-value experiences by linking attendees, organizers, and local partners; participants discover events and partner businesses through an AI chat, earn points for actions (e.g., attending events or purchasing memberships), and redeem them for exclusive experiences or local products/services, while organizers gain personalization, gamification, and secure data via a blockchain-based system that supports open integration and governance; the model strengthens community ties, boosts the regional economy by giving visibility to local businesses, and increases recurring revenue for participating organizations through ongoing engagement.

run.events Event Intelligence Cloud seeks to help event organizers unlock the true power of AI—not with gimmicks like chatbots, but with real, measurable value. Within in the project, we are developing features for AI Matchmaking and AI Expo Agents.

The smart backend (Event Intelligence Actors) processes and stores event data, while its frontend (Event Intelligence Agents) delivers real-time insights. These suggest the right people, sessions, or products to each user—highly boosting engagement and networking quality. Built on secure, EU-based infrastructure, this innovation sets a new industry standard, empowering events of all sizes to personalize experiences and drive sustainable digital transformation.

Scientific Crowd Analysis by sci-an GmbH is a platform for both business events and exhibitions that captures real-time feedback via Voice and Chatbot Surveys.

Organizers receive comprehensive statistics, SWOT analyses, sentiment ratings, and tailored recommendations through an interactive dashboard. As part of the beFuture grant, our project aims to build a comprehensive, cross-event insight platform for corporate event evaluation and optimization. This includes developing a modular suite of tools that support real-time feedback analysis, in-depth post-event evaluation, and trend discovery across multiple events. By working closely with event organizers, we ensure the platform addresses real-world needs.

Sentigrate aims to develop a service to connect people at events quickly through NFC in order to boost interaction.

Using interaction data, visitors will be linked to like minded individuals using smart algorithms. A map will show near-real time interactions for venues and organizers. All of these together will allow for more rich interactions, visuals and analytics at an event. Sentigrate wants to package this as a software development kit, instead of developing this into an app. This will allow other parties to integrate with these systems, allow for quick dispersion as an SKD-as-a-service model.

Spaces360 addresses venues with a smart CMS creating In-depth Venue Event Content for event planners.

With the project we seek to develop a lightweight CMS. The output is targeted on education for Event Planners as an interactive Web App which finally replaces the Banquet portfolio PDF. A Venue Sales Tablet Apps (iOS+ Android) + Attendees Mobile App (iOS + Android). Additionally it integrates Prismm a 3D venue planning tool. The future of event planning is being revolutionized by AI-driven technologies, and spaces360 is at the forefront of this transformation with In-depth Venue Event Content.

Sparkup redefines B2B events with an interactive and green live video platform that helps organizations deliver video experiences that are more human and more engaging, while significantly reducing the carbon footprint of video streaming in virtual and hybrid events.

We developed an ultra-low latency, energy-optimized live video platform, combined with modern real-time audience engagement tools, to recreate the richness of in-person interaction, foster large-scale participation and keep servers lean in live broadcasts, company events and more. Built-in analytics reveal real-time attention and energy saved, turning engagement sustainability into an actionable KPI. With up to 80% less energy per view and +40% engagement, Sparkup sets the new standard for virtual and hybrid B2B events.

SYNARYO is a smart collaboration platform that helps business event professionals manage complex events more efficiently and sustainably.

We are developing a digital environment that integrates real-time teamwork, AI task automation, and 3D digital twin tools to support every step of the planning process. Teams will be able to co-design spaces, assign responsibilities, and monitor resource use in one place. The goal is to improve coordination, enable more sustainable decision-making and reduce waste. DCODE is designing and developing the platform in Torino to raise the standard of coordination across the European business events sector.

Thinkboard is a browser-based app that enables inclusive, real-time participation during workshops and events.

Without needing an account or installation, anyone can join instantly via smartphone to contribute ideas, feedback, or drawings. The platform is fully device- and OS-independent, making it easy to use for all attendees. Thinkboard helps facilitators engage every participant equally, ensuring that diverse opinions and ideas are captured and visualized live. This promotes collaboration, boosts interaction, and enhances the overall quality of discussions in business events.

Ticketr is an innovative platform automating event listing and optimizing booking for the MICE sector and public events.

It addresses key challenges: poor online visibility for organizers across diverse channels and fragmented booking experiences. Ticketr centralizes event data, automates dissemination to relevant platforms, and integrates direct booking, offering a seamless purchase journey. The solution aims to boost online discoverability, streamline booking, increase sales, and drive the digital transformation of the event industry in Europe.

The project aims to develop a cloud-based Virtual Reality platform that transforms corporate events into immersive, inclusive, and interactive experiences in the Metaverse. Using the Apulia region as a pilot, INNOSTART will create 3D virtual environments featuring multilingual support, gamified team-building, and digital twins of real venues. Through design, prototyping, testing, and a pilot event, the project will deliver a scalable, sustainable solution that reduces costs and emissions while enhancing engagement and accessibility in the business events sector.

Virage AI is transforming Business Events with Visitors [AI], a multilingual, always-on assistant built first for WhatsApp, and deployable on other messaging platforms like LinkedIn, Telegram, or WeChat.

Acting as an intelligent concierge, it answers questions, collects feedback, and enables workshop booking and personalized suggestions—directly in the apps participants already use. For organizers, it sends real-time notifications, post-event surveys, and AI-powered matchmaking. Visitors [AI] also helps build qualified visitor databases for targeted follow-up, redefining attendee engagement.