Exploring space syntax on entrepreneurial opportunities with Wi-Fi analytics. Mashhadi, A., Acer, U., G., Boran, A., Scholl, P., M., Forlivesi, C., Vanderhulst, G., & Kawsar, F. Proceedings of the 2016 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing - UbiComp '16, 2016.
Exploring space syntax on entrepreneurial opportunities with Wi-Fi analytics [pdf]Paper  abstract   bibtex   
Industrial events and exhibitions play a powerful role in creating social relations amongst individuals and firms, enabling them to expand their social network so to acquire resources. However, often these events impose a spatial structure which impacts encounter opportunities. In this paper, we study the impact that the spatial configuration has on the formation of network relations. We designed, developed and deployed aWi-Fi analytics solution comprising of wearableWi-Fi badges and gateways in a large scale industrial exhibition event to study the spatio-temporal trajectories of the 2.5K+ attendees including two special groups: 34 investors and 27 entrepreneurs. Our results suggest that certain zones with designated functionalities play a key role in forming social ties across attendees and the different behavioural properties of investors and entrepreneurs can be explained through a spatial lens. Based on our findings we offer three concrete recommendations for future organisers of networking events.

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