An international contest

Guidebook entered an international contest held to develop a mobile solution for the 12th most livable city in the world — Fukuoka, Japan. This brought a number of challenges to bear. Fukuoka ranks 2nd in the number of international conventions held in Japan, which means its mobile solution has to be multilingual. Furthermore, as Fukuoka is so diverse in terms of attractions and tourist spots, its mobile city guide must easily lend itself to self-guided exploration, enabling convention attendees to step outside their convention halls and discover the entire city. We’re both excited and proud to report that after countless hours of careful preparation and prototyping, Guidebook’s standalone app has been selected as Fukuoka’s city solution! Of course, this is both a great honor and a huge undertaking. Unlike Guidebook’s other clients, Fukuoka is a sprawling city with a population of over 1.5 million. Instead of focusing on just speakers and exhibitors, which are useful primarily for conference attendees, the Fukuoka mobile city guide will have to perform useful functions for both tourists and Fukuokan citizens alike.

Guidebook's goals for Fukoka

• Create a center of information for Fukuoka’s history and culture, providing listings of not only conventions, but also otherwise easy-to-miss cultural festivals, art shows, and parades
• Increase international traffic to and understanding of major tourist attractions and centers of commerce, such as the Canal City Hakata, Hakata Station, and Fukuoka Art Museum
• Drastically improve convention experiences for international visitors by bringing them the full force of Guidebook’s convention guide experience
• Facilitate communication and transparency between the Fukuokan government and Fukuokan citizens
• Reduce paper waste (and money needed to get rid of it), as well as digitize paper materials — a thirty-six-page study, for instance, becomes much more usable, and much less wasteful, when it’s digitized

Again, it’s a big effort — but we’re confident that we’re up to it. After all, our developers have designed our technology to be extremely flexible, and we regularly analyze thousands of our existing projects to find ways to improve future ones. Fukuoka may be our first city solution, but it’s definitely not our first time at the rodeo. We’ve done everything from salsa exhibitions to university orientations to pharmaceutical conventions, and jumping into city solutions like Fukuoka is just the next step forward. Guidebook’s mission has always been to connect people with places— and to be able to do that on a city-wide level is an incredible opportunity. There’s so much we can do for Fukuoka, and for the world beyond. We can’t wait to get started.