NextKon Expo – how to build your virtual exhibition
Entrance, foyer, exhibition hall, lecture hall and booths as images to click through – with documents, videos, links, live stream and chat. This guide explains how organisers and exhibitors work with it.
- Getting started: access and your first exhibition
- How an exhibition is structured
- Images (rooms and booths)
- Hotspots
- Video on the screen
- Chat in a room
- Publishing
- Duplicating for your next event
- Exhibitors manage their own booth
- Sharing and embedding your exhibition
- Login and password
- Frequently asked questions
1. Getting started: access and your first exhibition
- Create a free account at nextkon.de/konto and confirm it.
- In “My NextKon”, open the NextKon Expo tile: there you'll find the demo exhibition and can try things out yourself using the demo logins for an organiser and an exhibitor.
- For your own event, we set up an exhibition for you – empty, from our template or as a copy of an earlier one –
and activate your account as an organiser. You then open it via “Go to Expo admin” in your account,
without a second password (address:
expo.nextkon.de/admin/).
2. How an exhibition is structured
| Element | What it is |
|---|---|
| Exhibition | Your event, with a title and its own address. |
| Images | Every room (entrance, foyer, hall, lecture hall) and every booth is an image. One of them is the start image. |
| Tab bar | Images that appear as tabs at the top (e.g. Entrance · Foyer · Exhibition · Lecture hall). Booth images are reached via hotspots. |
| Hotspots | Pulsing dots on an image: they lead to another room or open documents, videos, links, texts or images. |
| Publish | Visitors only see your changes once you publish. |
3. Images (rooms and booths)
- Add image – ideally in 16:9 format (e.g. 1920 × 1080 pixels). The admin automatically scales down very large files when uploading, so the exhibition loads quickly even on mobile connections.
- Set as start image – this is where your visitors land first.
- In an image's menu (cog icon): chat on/off, embedding, start image, delete image.
- All images share the same aspect ratio – so the exhibition looks seamless and nothing jumps when switching rooms.
4. Hotspots
Open an image → “＋ Add hotspot” → click the spot in the image → choose a type. Every hotspot has a label that appears on hover.
| Hotspot type | Effect |
|---|---|
| Navigation | leads to another image (e.g. from the foyer to the hall, from the hall to a booth). Select the target image. |
| File download | upload a PDF, Office file etc. – visitors open or download it. |
| External link | opens a website (e.g. a product page or appointment booking). |
| Image pop-up | shows an image in large format (poster, product photo). |
| Text info box | a short text, e.g. opening hours or contact person. |
| Video / live stream | opens a video or live stream in a window (player address). |
| Video field | plays a video directly in the image – on a projection screen or a monitor (section 5). |
Move hotspots by dragging them. A hotspot can be turned into a video field and vice versa.
5. Video on the screen
A video field places a video in exact perspective onto a surface in the image – the projection screen in the hall, a monitor on a booth, the TV in the lobby.
- Create a hotspot as a “video field” and drag the four corners onto the corners of the surface (“Reset corners to rectangle” helps if you want to start over).
- Choose a source: video file (MP4), video file as a silent loop (e.g. the lobby TV) or live stream / player embed.
- Optionally add a “Show video full screen” button – ideal for the lecture hall with a live stream.
6. Chat in a room
In an image's menu, choose “Enable chat”: visitors see the chat for exactly this room at the bottom right – for example for questions to the panel in the lecture hall. How moderation, questions with upvoting and pre-moderation work is explained in the chat user guide.
7. Publishing
Everything you change is initially visible only to you. An orange marker shows “unpublished changes”. Click “Publish” and visitors see the new version after about a minute. This lets you prepare everything calmly and release it all at once.
8. Duplicating for your next event
“Duplicate” creates a complete copy with all images and hotspots – the fastest way to your next edition or next year's event. Afterwards, simply adjust the title, dates and any booths that have changed.
9. Exhibitors manage their own booth
You decide for each sponsor or exhibitor:
- Plug & play: the exhibitor gets their own login and sees only their booth. They add documents, videos, links and texts themselves. You decide whether they may also publish on their own.
- We take care of it: we set up the booth and coordinate the content directly with the exhibitor.
We set up exhibitor logins on request (name, email, which booth).
10. Sharing and embedding your exhibition
- As a link:
https://expo.nextkon.de/?messe=<your-exhibition>– we'll send you the exact link when we set it up. - On your website: as a window (iframe) on your event page, for example behind your registration:
<iframe src="https://expo.nextkon.de/?messe=your-exhibition" style="width:100%;aspect-ratio:16/9;border:0"
allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Runs in the browser on PC, tablet and phone – no app, no plug-in.
11. Login and password
The Expo admin uses your NextKon account. Change your password in your account under “Your details” – it then also applies to the Expo admin. Forgotten your password? Reset it at nextkon.de/konto.
12. Frequently asked questions
How many visitors can the exhibition handle?
Tested with 1,000 simultaneous visitors without a single error; more on request.
Where do I get the images?
From your own photos, renderings by your stand builder – or we create rooms and booths for you in the style of your event.
Where is the data stored?
On Amazon Web Services servers in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Can I test everything calmly beforehand?
Yes – changes only become visible after “Publish”, and you may change the demo exhibition in your account as much as you like (it is reset every night).
Who can help me?
Write to support@nextkon.de – reply usually within a few minutes, in English or German. In person: TS Veranstaltungstechnik, +49 7161 30 47 49 0.