Finance explained through play: the FLiP2Go educational coach

An extraordinary education facility on wheels was completed by the NEOPLAN Individual team in March 2019. Since then, the FLiP2Go coach has been touring throughout Austria. The travelling world of experience was commissioned by Erste Bank Austria, the Austrian Regional Savings Banks and the Viennese coach operator Dr. Richard Linien. The coach should enable children and young people to learn about handling money and to acquire knowledge around the topic of finance. This is where the name comes from – FLiP stands for “Financial Life Park”.

Anyone stepping onto the double-decker coach dives into an amusement arcade in motion, with subdued colours and a futuristic lighting concept featuring LED underlit interior linings on the windows and alternating ceiling lights. A total of seven multimedia and interactive game stations await the kids over both decks. In separate, individually lit cabins, the children either play together or against each other at the respective stations of the FLiP game, which lasts around 100 minutes in total. At the “World Trip” station, for example, the players can see on a virtual ship voyage what influence they can have with their consumer decisions in a globalised world and how complex global production chains are. And the station “Market Trade” shows how supply and demand can determine prices.

Each cabin is equipped with a high-performance gaming PC and an UltraHD multi-touch display that can be sunk into the stainless steel table. High quality hi-fi equipment provides optimum sound. “The challenge with FLiP2Go was to integrate the wide-ranging multimedia equipment of the individual stations and the media control system – made up of a central computer with Intel i7-7700, UMTS router and WLAN access point, amongst other things – into the NEOPLAN Skyliner,” says Heinz Kiess, Head of Sales & Marketing at the Bus Modification Center in Plauen, Germany, where the vehicle was converted. The necessary server racks were installed in the luggage compartment, located alongside a standby genset with external cooling system.

On the lower deck of the luxury coach there is also a barrier-free game station for wheelchair users, a cloakroom and a check-in counter encased in safety glass. This is where the multimedia journey through the world of experience on wheels begins for visitors. Up to 32 children can play at the stations in the NEOPLAN Skyliner FLiP2Go coach at the same time.

To see which games are available and whether the coach is making a stop near you, click here: