How can you use mobile services at major events, to provide added value to both visitors and forces? In many metropolitan areas, major events take place increasingly where enormous traffic must be dealt with. Thanks to the increasing spread of Internet-enabled smartphones, mobile services in the organisation of events, as well as in the field of emergency management can make a valuable contribution. How this works in practice, scientists and assistants in order to have the Cologne lights 2010 around the Cologne Hauptbahnhof together with selected visitors tested. The focus was doing the usability and the benefit of new mobile services, which the Institute for human factors and technology management IAT of University of Stuttgart, which closely cooperates with the Fraunhofer IAO, specially designed for use at major events. Mobile devices enable the exchange of photos and short messages, messages by Organizer and Carriers, easy finding friends, as well as the orientation in the event area. With same functionality, emergency messages by the participants as well as warnings and advice also would be possible in public institutions “, explains the head of the field tests, Dr. Heiko Ross nail by the IAT.

The highlight of the concept lies in the narrow technical and organisational teeth of value-added services for event participants with the safety activities of forces. Only if this in the event everyday involved, all involved are can operate intuitively also in case of emergency. This approach was Verkehrs-Betriebe, the Cologne Fire Department, station management, the Federal Police, the police headquarters in Cologne, of the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Sieg and the organiser of the Kolner Lichter discussed the Cologne advance with representatives of the city administration of Cologne. This option was discussed among others, to receive location-based emergency messages with images directly in the control centres. In the next step the concept will be expanded to secure chat rooms for special groups of forces. Mobile services are the central result of the IAT in the joint research project”versed” (security in the public passenger transport (oPNV) at major events), which is funded until mid-2011 by the Federal Ministry of education and research (BMBF) (www.versiert.info). More information under: business /… Tobias Hug, Fraunhofer IAO