Picture the scene: it’s the day of the 56th Super Bowl. Around 70,000 sports fans have to make their way from parking lots to the right entrances at SoFi Stadium. But your entrance is located in a 300-acre precinct filled with shops, offices, residential buildings, parks and open spaces.

How do you ensure the day doesn’t descend into chaos?

Simple: you deploy PAM’s smarter navigation solution and app called ‘Digital Wayfinding’. The Sydney company’s platform combines digital signs with QR codes and live, interactive maps to guide punters quickly and safely through the precinct to their seats. They can also use the platform to find retail destinations, shop for merchandise and discover places where they can post a selfie on social media.

Over the next 5 years, PAM’s technology will guide millions of spectators at the FIFA World Cup in 2026 and the Olympic Games in 2028.

PAM’s journey to the US was facilitated by Austrade. The agency has provided assistance over several years and hosted PAM at its Landing Pads program in San Francisco.

‘If you want someone to open the right doors at the right organisations, Austrade will open it for you,’ says Stephen Minning, Founder and CEO of PAM. ‘They’ve been instrumental in our export journey, and we couldn’t have done it without them.’

Personalising places for people – Smarter Navigation

PAM’s wayfinding solution is an integrated, cloud-based navigation platform. The company was spun out of a project at University of Technology Sydney (UTS), where it developed smart screens, personal wayfinding and foreign language translations. UTS was one of the first Australian universities to adopt smart digital signage on its campus.

From there, PAM started licensing the platform to design companies. It worked with Transport for NSW on the Transport Node upgrade and with NSW to create smart wayfinding for hospitals. It has also worked on 30 projects around the world.

PAM’s journey to the US began in 2017, when it entered and won the WeWork Open Challenge competition. Its prize was a place in the elevate67 accelerator program, hosted by KPMG Australia. The company’s technology generated ‘a huge amount of interest’, says Minning.

To read the full smarter navigation Case Study on the Austrade Website, please click here.