Gitex 2020: F&B tech startup Opaala brings contactless food ordering to tech event

F&B tech startup Opaala is teaming up with the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) to enable contactless ordering during Gitex Technology Week 2020 taking place this week.

The global health pandemic brought by Covid-19 has presented new challenges for many restaurants that now require new efficient and hygienic solutions when serving customers. As such, DWTC first partnered with Opaala in August 2020 for the Jimmy Carr show, when the start-up presented its concept offering vendors and visitors an easier solution to ordering and serving food throughout the event.

DWTC has extended the partnership to this year’s Gitex following the success of the pilot where Opaala will be providing a cash-free, contactless, Covid-compliant ordering platform for the event. The platform also eliminates long queues as well as the need for physical menus or receipts.

QR codes that initiate the Opaala digital menu are placed at various locations throughout the event including dining tables, digital screens, and key high traffic areas across the premises for customers to scan.

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Opaala’s ‘Food Court Mode’ brings together seven different restaurants on a single unified ordering platform at the event. Visitors can order from different venues from the same menu-each restaurant receives and processes only the relevant items of its menu for either table delivery or pickup. Guests can then pay with debit or credit cards or ApplePlay. Opaala also offers automatic bill-splitting.

Venues utilising the Opaala online platform can also host daily and hourly specials on their interactive menus and schedule them for future events, which will enable them to organically market their offerings at the time of ordering.

The Opaala food ordering platform can be used across the hospitality and F&B industries, including restaurants, cinemas, hospitals, food courts, in-room, stadiums and event arenas.