Do you attend sporting events live, or is the technology in your house so good that you'd prefer to sit on your recliner and watch the game on your big screen TV? It's a challenge that every professional sports team (as well as movie theaters) is facing in today's day and age. Some NFL teams have brought in a device from FanVision to help augment the experience, but there's more than can be done.
A panel of IT professionals, including the Chief Information Officers from Boston's four major sports teams, assembled to provide a 48-minute discussion on how technology is being used to solve team problems, specifically around the fan experience. Michael Krigsman of ZDNet points out that teams are trying to become more social in order to improve the fans' experience. This revolves not only around ensuring connectivity inside the stadium, but also improvements on ticket sales and handling, customer loyalty programs, and the overall team/fan relationship throughout the season. In particular, Heidi Labritz comments that the Red Sox fan base is aging, so reaching out to a new, younger demographic via technology is vitally important to the team.
While nothing in the presentation is particularly shocking, it's an interesting look into the thought process of using technology to both directly and indirectly impact the customer's opinion of a brand.
Source: ZDNet
