With tens of thousands of tech executives, researchers and investors descending on Shanghai for the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) from July 17–20, city authorities have rolled out an all-digital entry system designed to streamline—and tightly control—access to four exhibition venues. According to a July 16 notice on the official conference website, every visitor must download the “Hi WAIC” app, generate a colour-coded QR admission pass and undergo facial-recognition verification at pre-screening points before entering. Screenshots of codes are explicitly rejected, a departure from many other Chinese trade fairs. International delegates unfamiliar with China’s “super-app” ecosystem will need to install the software in advance and ensure their mobile numbers can receive Chinese SMS verification—a step that has tripped up some foreign attendees in past events. Onsite staff will provide manual passport checks if biometrics fail, but organisers warn that manual lanes will be slower. Children under 12 may attend only on July 20 and must hold a full-price ticket. The measures sit alongside temporary traffic restrictions around the Expo Centre and West Bund venues between July 17 and 20. Ride-hailing drop-off zones, shuttle-bus loops from four metro stations and designated parking lots have been published to help visitors navigate. The city is encouraging arrivals to travel outside peak hours and to monitor crowd-density alerts pushed via the app. For multinational companies sending delegations, the new system offers both conveniences and compliance obligations. The digital pass links to each attendee’s identity document, reducing badge-pick-up queues and enhancing security. But data-privacy teams should note that facial images are processed by local service providers. Firms subject to EU GDPR or other extra-territorial privacy rules may need participant consent forms and data-transfer assessments. Shanghai has tested app-based admission at smaller expos, but WAIC marks the largest real-world deployment before China’s new National Digital Identity Standard comes into effect next year. Observers say the conference could become a template for future high-level events, making mastery of China-specific digital-access protocols an essential skill for global mobility managers.
