Disneyland now has entertainment for the guests standing in line for amusement park rides. Sometimes it’s playground equipment in a tent to ease parents’ angst and discomfort in the hot sun with impatient babies. They are issued a restaurant-style buzzer to herald their turn to ride. Some watch movies or play interactive games while waiting in line, or enjoy strolling entertainment.
Fairs have known the value of such distractions for a long time, making every effort to provide something to see and do and interact with at every turn. It’s a feast of fun.
Arenas, stadiums, theaters and performing arts centers are just as proactive. Feld Entertainment instituted the All-Access Pre-Show at Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus performances years ago, offering all ticketholders access to entertainment on the floor one hour before showtime. Ticketholders arrive earlier and parents do not have to cope with restless children waiting for the show to begin.
We are now experiencing, full-bore, the fan who needs constant interaction and distraction. One very effective and business-friendly method of positive interaction is through food and drink concessions. Fans today are not just buying tickets, buying food and watching the show. Fans are experiencing the event and a big part of that experience is in the food and drink.
Thus our inaugural Venues Today Silver Spoon Awards. Six innovative approaches to the fans’ food experiences are reported in this issue. But there are so many more. The nominations were numerous and most impressive and in future issues of Venues Today and our weekly e-newsletter, VT Pulse, we’ll be sharing more of those ideas that can make the experience at your venue more memorable.
Even convention centers are in on the interaction game. Last month, I attended the Tessitura users conference in San Francisco and IAVM’s VenueConnect in New Orleans. Both conventions stressed interaction. Tessitura even has the All-Volunteer Rock Band, made up of users, that entertains at the closing banquet and rewrites songs from the 1960s with Tessiturian lyrics.
Jack Rubin, Tessitura president, called it the “supernova of sharing of ideas” with lots of “snackable content.”
VenueConnect gave back to the community with its first Legacy Project, which not only benefited a New Orleans neighborhood with home improvement projects carried out by venue-industry executives, but also involved conventioneers in a networking opportunity that was a distraction from the normal conversation starter: “When did you get here?”
Everywhere we turn someone has something new to enhance the experience and generally it comes in small bites, perfect for individual consumption at a mass gathering.
God grant you many years to serve snackable content.