Although you could have obtained a gym membership and checked it out. Or just showed up and asked nicely to see the system in use. If you introduced your pelf as "someone who wants to make check-in systems easier," I bet you'd get some info.

I have had several experiences like this: I get asked to build software and hardware systems for trade shows, and I get to attend to implement the technology. What I learn during the first show rivals all the meetings and handed-down info from the stakeholders. I am actually very excited about my projects now that he second occurrence is coming up for some of them.