The hygiene requirements for swimming pools, agreed upon by the Sports and Pool Department of the City of Bonn require special precautions. To ensure that visitors are accurately tracked, the city was looking for an online ticketing system that is easy for visitors to use. The company behind this ticket system is Vivenu. Its founder Simon Weber can look down on the imposing diving tower at the Rüngsdorf outdoor pool from his apartment when he is at home. Although this is not often the case in corona times, Weber admits.

The ticket system was developed to allow advance booking, meeting the requirements of corona regulations. And it is not only being used in Bonn public swimming pools. Vivenu has received inquiries from public and private swimming pool operators all over Germany. "Every day we receive enquiries from cities and municipalities all over Germany who would like to use our product to reopen their swimming pools in compliance with the regulations," explains Weber.

Born in Koblenz, he studied economics at the Goethe University in Frankfurt. It was there that he met Simon Hennes, who in turn was already a friend of Jens Teichert from his primary school days. Teichert studied business informatics at the TU Darmstadt. Weber, Hennes and Teichert are the entrepreneurs behind "Vivenu Full Service Ticketing". They implemented a customer-friendly ticketing system, which is used throughout Germany not only in swimming and sports facilities, but also in basketball clubs such as the Dragons in Bad Honnef-Rhöndorf and Ratiopharm Ulm and other clubs. Their new ticket system is also being used for the current Bonn car concert series as well as the local Green Juice Festival.

"For the current volume of orders we can quickly implement the existing health concept," say the makers of the ticket system. The sensitive data of the contracted partners are secured in accordance with basic data protection rules. If someone books a ticket and then becomes infected with corona and only notices after visiting the event or venue, the health authorities can, if necessary, start a targeted search for other persons who may also have been affected. "We are also currently working on special ticket systems for museums and libraries during the corona times,” say the developers.

The fast growing company is urgently looking for qualified product developers in order to increase the product's capacity and maintain high customer satisfaction.

Weber disagrees with the concerns initially expressed by swimming pool visitors that senior citizens in particular are at a disadvantage when booking tickets because they do not use a PC or mobile phone. During the first days the system was in place, he had seen how older visitors used the booking system. Visitors interviewed at the outdoor pool were pleased because the three different swimming periods from Monday to Friday (two on the weekend) were very well organized at the ticket office.

To book an online ticket, please visit: www.bonn.de/baeder

(Orig. text: Alfred Schmelzeisen / Translation: Carol Kloeppel)