The Hutchwilco New Zealand Boat Show

Driving foot traffic and visitor engagement with an automated, multi-location Scan to Win platform

Day three of the Hutchwilco NZ Boat Show at Auckland Showgrounds, Saturday 16 May 2026. Photo: Stephen Barker / Barker Photography. ©XPO Exhibitions

Maximising floor exploration while managing high-stakes prize draws

Drawing over 20,000 to 31,000+ visitors each year, the Hutchwilco New Zealand Boat Show required a solution to maximize attendee engagement across all six exhibition halls. The organiser needed a simple, highly reliable system to encourage visitors to explore the entire event floor rather than clustering in primary spaces.

Furthermore, with a Grand Prize boat package worth over NZ$380,000 on the line, XPO Exhibitions needed absolute confidence in the fairness, accuracy, and security of their competition tracking—eliminating manual processing while guaranteeing every qualified entrant seamlessly completed all necessary show checkpoints.

The solution

Seamless interactive tracking and instant qualification

To drive attendee movement across the event floor, Lüp provided an end-to-end online ticketing and interactive "Scan to Win" competition platform. Six strategically positioned QR scan stations were installed across the exhibition halls, linked directly to the central Lüp Portal.

As visitors moved through the show, the system tracked their progress in real time, automatically validating each check-in and granting visitors access to a self-service portal to review which remaining stations they needed to visit. Once all six locations were scanned, attendees were automatically entered into the Grand Prize draw. Lüp’s onsite team supplied all hardware, network infrastructure, and live technical monitoring throughout the event to guarantee uninterrupted uptime and a smooth visitor experience.

The results

High-volume engagement, elevated exhibitor value and automated compliance

By turning attendee foot traffic into a seamless, interactive journey, XPO Exhibitions successfully increased visitor movement into every corner of the Auckland Showgrounds, providing exhibitors across all halls with significantly greater exposure.

The robust Lüp system effortlessly managed peak visitor flows during the 2026 event, handling tens of thousands of scans with zero technical downtime. By automating the verification and entry process for the NZ$380,000+ Grand Prize, organisers eliminated manual data processing, ensured 100% accurate qualification, and delivered a highly engaging experience for attendees from arrival through to the final draw.

Customer profile

As New Zealand’s premier trade and consumer event organiser, XPO Exhibitions runs many of the country's largest shows. Their iconic Hutchwilco New Zealand Boat Show at the Auckland Showgrounds attracts tens of thousands of marine enthusiasts annually, featuring major exhibitor displays and a high-stakes Grand Prize draw.

Services provided by Lüp

Integrated online and onsite ticketing, registration, and entry management systems.
Interactive Scan to Win activation platform deployed across six custom QR scan stations.
Self-service visitor progress-tracking portal for real-time validation and qualification.
End-to-end onsite hardware, technical configuration, and live monitoring.

31,000+

ATTENDEES ENGAGED VIA AN AUTOMATED INTERACTIVE COMPETITION PLATFORM AT THE 2026 EVENT

Lüp has been the ticketing agent for our major consumer exhibitions for the last 7 years. Lüp was the only ticketing provider on the market at the time that could provide the solution we were looking for that offered a multi-use platform with many benefits!

It’s not just a ticketing solution, it allows for data collection, lead generation, sponsorship opportunities and more. Plus Lüp comes with a great customer service team to deliver the onsite solution as well as pre-show and post show support.