This article is about the Proxi admin app at app.proxi.co.
A conference map, expo map, trade show floor plan, or career fair map answers the three questions every attendee has: where am I, where's the booth I need, and what's happening right now — with no event app to download. Here's the build, plus the exhibitor passport that career expos and trade shows use to guarantee booth traffic.
1. Put the Floor Plan on the Map
The signature move for indoor events, step by step:
In the map editor, open Shapes & Overlays and expand Image overlays.
Upload your floor plan (a clean PNG or JPEG export works best — trim white margins first so the edges are meaningful).
The image drops onto the map with corner handles: drag the middle to move it, the handles to scale and rotate, until the hall's real walls line up with the venue's building footprint underneath. Zoom way in for the final nudge.
Use the overlay's opacity control if you want the base map to ghost through — or keep it opaque for a pure floor-plan look. Pick a Minimal or Blank map style in Display → Map style so nothing competes with the plan.
Now every booth pin you drop lands on the actual floor plan — attendees see the hall layout, not empty streets.
2. Add the Booths
Zoom in and double-click each booth location — the precision is booth-level once the overlay is placed. Or Import your exhibitor spreadsheet and drag pins into position afterward.
Add a Short code field for booth numbers ("A12") and switch on Numbers on markers — the map now reads exactly like the printed floor plan, but searchable.
Set Category to your tracks or zones: "Exhibitors, Sponsors, Food, Sessions, Registration & Info, Restrooms" — each with a marker via Edit marker, and turned on under Filters → Field filters (fan Category out so the zone chips sit across the top).
Turn on the search bar — Filters → Search bar → Show search bar, placeholder "Find a booth or company…". The Search this map mode matches any field, so attendees can type a company name, a booth number, or even a keyword from the exhibitor's description. Leave wider-web suggestions off; nobody at an expo needs them. "Find the booth I need" is the whole product.
Each exhibitor's card carries their description, website, and photos — a mini profile that outlives the badge-scan.
3. Put the Schedule on the Map
Add a Date & time field for sessions, demos, and stage times, then turn on the date filter with "Hide past events" — mid-afternoon, attendees see what's still ahead, not the morning keynote. Room-by-room session locations become map pins like everything else.
4. The Expo Passport: Guaranteed Booth Traffic
This is the play that made LAUSD's career expo work — hundreds of attendees visiting booths because the game asked them to:
Create a Passport from the same collection. Every booth (or just sponsors) becomes a check-in stop with QR Code Check-in. Print the codes from the Places tab's Export Codes menu — three formats: ZIP — Individual Images (for your designer), PDF — One Per Page (clean sign per booth with the QR, location name, and code), or PDF — Branded (styled pages with your logo, cover image, and a registration link — print-and-go).
Award: "Visited 15 Booths" with a completion message for the prize-drawing table. Sponsors' booths get bonus points — that's a sellable line item in your sponsor deck.
Attendees join via the QR on their badge or lanyard card, or the join code at play.proxi.co — perfect for a registration desk script.
Afterward, per-booth check-in counts go straight into your exhibitor wrap-up report: "your booth had 212 verified visits."
5. The Legacy Program: Send Attendees Downtown
Conferences increasingly want to leave something behind for the host city. Build a second map or passport of local restaurants, coffee shops, and attractions near the venue — attendee free time becomes downtown foot traffic, and your host-city partners get the receipts. It's the same build as the sip-and-stroll guide, pointed at conference-goers.
6. Distribution
QR on badges, lanyard cards, session-room signage, and the registration desk; embed the map in the event website and the know-before-you-go email. Set the Save to home screen details so "add the map to your phone" replaces "download our event app" — and update pins live all week (booth moved? drag it) with every change instantly on every phone.
Worth a read on the Proxi blog: how to build a conference map, embedding a conference agenda on your website, conference legacy program ideas, and two case studies: LAUSD's career expo and Deeper Learning Latin America.