ISE Consulting

ISE Consulting: Experience optimization in trade fairs

Client: Integrated Systems Europe (ISE)
 Project Type: Strategic Consulting – Customer Experience & Brand Transformation
 Team Role: Consultant – Market Research, Visitor Journey Strategy & Implementation Planning
 Duration: March – June 2025
 Location: ESADE Business School, Barcelona

Project Overview

As part of an interdisciplinary consultancy engagement, our team was tasked with optimizing the first-time visitor experience at ISE, Europe’s leading audiovisual and systems integration trade show. The goal was to reimagine the visitor journey for newcomers, helping ISE evolve from a once-a-year event into a year-round experience brand—without exceeding a €300,000 implementation budget.
We worked through the entire consulting cycle, from stakeholder interviews and field research to ideation, budgeting, and implementation strategy—culminating in a high-level presentation delivered to ISE’s CEO and CMO.

Key Deliverables

  • A full AS-IS/TO-BE diagnostic model outlining the current visitor journey vs. optimized solutions.
  • Development of 3 core experience pillars: Confidence, Clarity, and Connection, designed to address pain points across six visitor touchpoints.
  • A portfolio of 40+ initiative ideas, filtered and ranked based on impact-effort ratios, feasibility, and user empathy.
  • A costed implementation roadmap (PMO) aligned with operational and UX priorities.
  • Final recommendations presented in a consulting-style pitch deck with Gantt chart, budget, KPIs, and activation guidelines.

My Contribution

I was actively involved in every phase of the consulting project, bringing together qualitative and quantitative insights to shape strategic outputs. My contributions included:

  • Conducting deep market research through stakeholder interviews, focus groups, and social listening.
  • Performing competitor benchmarking and touchpoint mapping using UX heuristics and persona-based analysis.
  • Ideating and co-developing key activation strategies such as the First-Time Visitor Survival Kit, Smart Agenda, and Travelperk Integration.
  • Collaborating on the initiative scoring system and constructing the final budgeted prioritization model.
  • Supporting narrative framing and co-presenting the final strategy to ISE’s executive board.

Key Learnings & Hard Skills

  • Developed a consulting toolkit, including waterfall methodology, inside-out/outside-in frameworks, and persona-based journey mapping.
  • Gained expertise in market research, stakeholder interviewing, and pain point analysis.
  • Strengthened my skills in budget estimation, initiative prioritization, and cost/impact tradeoff modeling.
  • Practiced strategic communication and storytelling through high-stakes client delivery sessions.

Outcome

Our proposal received strong positive feedback from both the CEO and CMO of ISE, who appreciated the mix of creative ideation and operational realism. Multiple elements of our roadmap were shortlisted for pilot implementation at ISE 2026, and our approach to segmentation and emotional design was cited as a potential model for future experience frameworks.

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