Virtual Expo

A university hosts its annual research expo on Flat.social. Thirty research groups each get a booth with billboards showing posters, NPC assistants summarizing their work, and a grad student ready to discuss findings. Visitors walk the hall, stop at projects that interest them, and ask questions through spatial audio. A professor from another department wanders past a booth, overhears a conversation, and walks over. That encounter leads to a cross-department collaboration.

That's a virtual expo that creates the same serendipity as a physical one.

Online expos usually mean a webpage with a list of exhibitor profiles and a "schedule a meeting" button. There's no floor to walk, no booths to browse, and no chance encounters between aisles. On Flat.social, your expo has a spatial layout. Exhibitors build booths with visuals and info. Visitors explore at their own pace, stopping where something catches their eye and walking past what doesn't. The conversations feel real because they start the way conversations start at any expo: someone walks up.

Tips for Expo Organizers

Making your virtual expo run smoothly on Flat.social:

1. Design for foot traffic. Create wide aisles between booths so visitors naturally walk past multiple exhibitors. Dead-end layouts trap people. A loop or grid pattern keeps everyone moving and discovering new booths.

2. Stagger exhibitor demos. Coordinate with exhibitors so live demos happen at different times. Post a schedule on a billboard near the entrance. This gives visitors a reason to keep coming back to the floor throughout the day.

3. Create a networking lounge. Set aside an area with no booths, just open space with spatial audio. People need somewhere to chat about what they've seen. A lounge with a zen meditation zone is a popular choice for longer expos.

4. Brief your exhibitors. Share a quick guide on setting up billboards, NPC characters, and audio isolation zones. Exhibitors who prepare their booths in advance create a much better experience for visitors. Run a 15-minute setup walkthrough the day before.

5. Use a virtual conference platform format for keynotes. Switch to a Conference room layout for opening talks, then release attendees onto the expo floor.

Tips for Expo Visitors

Getting the most out of a virtual expo on Flat.social:

Browse first, then dive deep. Walk the entire floor once before stopping at booths. Get a feel for what's there. Then go back to the 3-4 booths that caught your eye and spend real time there.

Click every NPC. The NPC characters at each booth contain exhibitor info. It's the fastest way to understand what a booth is about without committing to a conversation. Think of them as the brochure rack at a virtual trade show.

Walk up to people. If you see an avatar standing at a booth, walk over. Spatial audio means your conversation stays between the two of you. There's no "unmute in front of 200 people" anxiety.

Join speed networking. If the organizer runs networking rounds, join them. You'll meet more people in 10 minutes of structured intros than in an hour of wandering. Combine that with organic networking events between sessions for the best results.