Oktoberfest - usually the most beautiful season in Munich

As is well known, September in Munich is all about the Oktoberfest. But this year, everything is, unfortunately, a little different. Like so many others, the Corona crisis hits the Oktoberfest, and everyone involved particularly hard. Even though the cancellation in 2020 was necessary and responsible, it hurts, especially in these weeks. No beer, no sugar roasted almonds, no roller coaster, and no partying. Unfortunately. We can comfort ourselves a little with No-Wiesn mugs and T-shirts (all proceeds will be donated to charity) or a controversially discussed series (Oktoberfest 1900). And then, the "Wirtshaus-Wiesn" is a small scale substitute in compliance with the current legal hygiene regulations.

As a Munich-based company, we are deeply attached to the Oktoberfest. And this is not only because we have been developing and operating a reservation system for the Oktoberfest marquees since 2016.

We digitally map a reservation office's entire processes: from table availability, online reservations, and invoice dispatch to meal voucher management and on-site admission management. We, too, regret that the Oktoberfest cannot take place as planned, but now we have to look ahead.

Reliable contact tracking for corona-compliant event planning

We are positively looking into the future and already preparing for the Oktoberfest 2021. Of course, we are adapting our software to the current requirements. The Oktoberfest and other event formats will be under specific hygiene conditions for quite some time to come and present the organizers with unique challenges.
What we're doing now is extending our system with the possibility to track all reservations (even down to the individual guest)

Digital guest solutions simplify contact tracking. The guest list keeps track of all the event participants, and through digital check-in, it is contactless and DSGVO-compliant documented when guests arrived.

For larger events, separate check-ins can be set up for parts of the event so that in case of infection, it is possible to trace which guests may have come into contact with each other.
If the check-in is done via a QR Code Scan, neither pen nor paper is necessary - clearly, the more hygienic solution and more discreet than open lists in which guests can register.

Not only during the check-in process does digital contact tracking prove its worth. As soon as it is vital to identify who sat with whom in a room or at a table and could have become the contact person of a potential Covid-19 carrier, there is no need to sort and sift through a jumble of paper notes or lists. In a digital guest list, rooms, people, check-in times can be filtered according to the configurations and requirements. In this way, important and time-critical information is available within a few minutes.

With AirLST, we offer a reliable and innovative system for guest and reservation management that can also react flexibly to short-term challenges - such as new security concepts and hygiene measures. Since it is currently impossible to predict how the virus and the corresponding countermeasures will develop, dynamically adaptable ideas, systems, and tools are essential. This gives organizers planning security and expands their scope of action.

We are looking forward to September 2021, when it will finally be "O'zapft is" again, and we can also restart in the matter of Oktoberfest. Until then, we will still be gathering more experience with hygiene-conforming events and will rely on close and dynamic cooperation with event professionals from all sectors.