Experiential Marketing Platform for Event Organizers
CLIENT
Freeman EMEA
Waverley developed an online floor plan management program for event organizers
"Waverley developed an online floor plan management program for event organizers, exhibitors, and attendees."
Freeman, a century-old global leader in B2B event services, needed to transform their validated MVP into a production-grade platform for event planning. Waverley's full-stack team rebuilt the graphic editor, added B2C e-commerce, optimized performance for 3,000 exhibition stands, and delivered "Blueprint by Freeman"—a comprehensive platform that allows event organizers to design, exhibitors to book, and attendees to plan. The platform now processes complex visual floor plans in real-time with 40% unit test coverage and 900+ manual test cases.
Freeman EMEA
The Client
Freeman started as a decorating company nearly a century ago and has grown into a global industry leader in B2B event services. Serving major exhibitions, trade shows, and conferences, Freeman provides exhibit logistics, design, construction, audiovisual solutions, and strategic event management. Freeman was an early adopter of technology innovation in the event space—the first company to offer online ordering for exhibitors. Waverley helps Freeman deliver their next-generation platform.
Project Analysis
Freeman's MVP demonstrated product-market fit but faced critical scaling hurdles:
Architecture limitations: Built on Meteor with a legacy Galaxy infrastructure, the MVP was costly to operate and lacked decomposition for the complex features exhibitors and attendees demanded.
Performance at scale: Exhibit volume was growing from 500 to 3,000+ stands per event. Adding outdoor features, landscape elements, sponsor logos, and real-time collaboration on floor plans meant exponential increases in Canvas rendering and data processing.
Feature expansion: The MVP lacked B2C e-commerce, file import/export, Salesforce integration, real-time collaboration, and 3D floor plan visualization—all requirements for a market-leading platform.
Quality baseline: Initial test coverage was low (2-3%) with poor test quality. Blueprint needed to be production-ready with high confidence in reliability.
What We Delivered
Waverley became Freeman's full-stack partner, extending their in-house team with advanced and senior-level developers, Salesforce engineers, and QA specialists:
Infrastructure modernization: Migrated from Galaxy to AWS, implemented CI/CD practices, and introduced automated deployment pipelines—reducing infrastructure costs and accelerating release cycles.
Performance optimization: Tackled the 6x growth in exhibit volume through database optimization, data deduplication, and low-level Canvas rendering tuning. Achieved smooth performance even with thousands of floor plan elements.
Graphic editor enhancement: Rebuilt the visual editor for real-time collaboration, improved loading times, added markup for outdoor spaces (landscape features), and enabled sponsor logo/banner placement.
File format support: Implemented import/export for DXF (industry standard CAD format), PDF, SVG, and CSV—enabling seamless integration with Freeman's tool ecosystem and client workflows.
B2C e-commerce: Built a full e-commerce component with Stripe payment processing, shopping cart functionality, invoicing, and flexible payment models.
Salesforce integration: Connected Blueprint to Freeman's CRM, enabling exhibitors to book space and enabling Freeman to track business metrics.
Blueprint Pro: Delivered a complementary 3D floor plan visualization product allowing exhibitors to embed interactive 3D models on their websites and use them in kiosk mode on-site.
Testing investment: Grew unit test coverage from 2-3% to 40%, implemented 900+ manual test cases, introduced automated functional and visual tests using Cypress and Percy, and migrated to TestRail for comprehensive test management.
Outcomes & Impact
Exhibit scaling: Platform handles 6x growth: 500 → 3,000+ stands with consistent performance
Performance tuning: Database optimization, Canvas rendering tuning, data deduplication—maintains responsiveness at scale
Feature completeness: B2C e-commerce, real-time collaboration, file import/export, Salesforce integration, 3D visualization
Test coverage: Unit tests: 2-3% → 40%; manual tests: 900+ cases; automated tests: 300+ cases
Infrastructure modernization: Galaxy → AWS; CI/CD enabled; deployment frequency and reliability improved
Product expansion: Blueprint Pro (3D visualization) and complementary Portal products launched
Conclusion
Transforming a validated MVP into a market-leading product requires balancing aggressive feature expansion with infrastructure modernization and quality investment. Waverley's role evolved beyond development: the team became architects designing for 3,000-stand scalability, QA leaders establishing testing discipline, and product advisors recommending technical solutions Freeman hadn't considered. The result is Blueprint by Freeman—a production-grade platform that enables event organizers, exhibitors, and attendees to collaborate seamlessly. The case demonstrates Waverley's strength in scaling complex web applications: managing performance at scale, implementing sophisticated feature sets, and building organizational practices (QA, CI/CD) that enable long-term product health.
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