PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--VenueNext announced today the market availability of its technology platform that gives fans an entirely new way to experience live sports, music and entertainment events, and transforms the way venues use technology to improve their business and operating performance.
For fans, VenueNext’s context-aware app provides instant and seamless connection to everything a venue has to offer, just by using their smartphone. Now fans have convenient access to everything they need for their events in one place - mobile tickets and parking, food and beverage ordering, live event and multiple angle instant replay feeds, turn by turn directions in venue, and much more.
For venues, VenueNext’s platform unifies the entire infrastructure ecosystem. For the first time, venue owners and operators have access to a sophisticated new set of tools that yield better and deeper insights into event-goer behavior, and provide unprecedented real-time control and response abilities for event operations teams.
“We asked ourselves two questions when we started VenueNext,” said John Paul, Founder and Chief Operating Officer at VenueNext. “How can we significantly improve the live event experience for fans, and how can we improve the business for venue owners and operators.”
Paul continued, “We want to delight fans and become the nerve center for all live events. Today, venues have systems that exist, but they are disjointed and isolated. We’ve created a way for these systems to talk to each other so that fans have a completely seamless and much better experience than ever before. And because of our platform’s ability to connect fans with the stadium, venue operators and event producers can take full advantage of the flood of data and analytics collected by our unifying technology to create a smarter venue.”
The VenueNext/Levi’s® Stadium App Enjoys Early Success
For the past year, VenueNext collaborated closely with the San Francisco 49ers and Levi’s® Stadium to elevate every aspect of a fan’s experience at the world-class sports and entertainment venue, starting with the recently released Levi’s® Stadium App for iOS and Android. During the first five events, fans have responded well to the app with adoption and usage rates that far exceed industry benchmarks to date.
Beyond sports, VenueNext intends to forever change live events like concerts, conferences or theme parks -- wherever people pay to be entertained at an event or facility, consume food and beverages and purchase merchandise.
VenueNext Platform Overview
VenueNext’s context-aware apps, the first of which is the Levi’s ® Stadium App, allows any ticketholder with a smartphone to have instant access to everything a venue has to offer, including:
- Mobile Ticketing/Access: Fans add tickets and parking once to the app, for season long convenience, accessing the venue, parking lot and their seat with their smartphone.
- Food & Beverage: Fans can order for ‘express pick up’ through their phone or they can order directly to their seat, so they never have to miss a moment of the live action again.
- Wayfinding: Fans get turn-by-turn directions to parking spots, seats and anywhere else in the venue. Also, they can see lines and wait times to the nearest bathrooms and concession stands at any time during an event.
- GameCenter: Fans never miss a moment again as they get instant replays, live event feeds, live commentary and all player news from their seat or anywhere in the venue.
- Loyalty: Fans can link their Faithful 49 accounts to earn and redeem yards by using the app.
VenueNext Canopy gives venue operators unprecedented real-time control of all aspects of the entire operational ecosystem both inside and outside their venue – from current parking and ticket entry status to real-time food and beverage inventory management.
The VenueNext Wisdom Data & Analytics Dashboard provides venue operators with intelligence reports that enable them to make well-informed decisions that ensure a great fan experience, improve operational effectiveness and uncover new revenue opportunities. Through the dashboard, they can now compare game-over-game and season-over-season venue performance, and focus in for more in-depth analysis of a specific area such as merchandise sales integration and point-of-sale system performance. With Wisdom’s revealing insights into fan behavior, venue operators can categorize fans by favorite event experience, frequency of ticket upgrades, or a variety of event preferences to create a smarter, more effective CRM system.
“I believe what VenueNext has created is unprecedented in the world of sports and will start the next wave of technology for live events,” said Al Guido, Chief Operating Officer at the San Francisco 49ers. “Their platform enhances the Gameday experience for our fans and provides the team with unlimited data that we use to streamline our business operations. VenueNext’s app teaches us more about all of our fans, not just season ticket members, so we can better tailor offerings and experiences to each individual fan.”
Seamless Integration with the Logistical Fabric of a Venue
A critical part of delivering a superior live venue experience is seamless integration with the logistical fabric of a venue. VenueNext’s technology unifies the venue’s technical and operational infrastructure - including critical third-party vendors - which means the company is able to build on existing infrastructure investments and increase functionality without any interruption. To date, VenueNext has forged strong partnerships with major venue ecosystem players like Aruba Networks, Micros, Ticketmaster, Centerplate and Skidata.
About VenueNext:
VenueNext is a technology company on a mission to set a new and much higher standard for live event experiences for both fans and venue operators. VenueNext is the company behind the Levi’s® Stadium app, a context-aware app that for the first time connects fans with everything the venue has to offer. VenueNext’s platform unifies the venue infrastructure ecosystem giving venue owners access to an entirely new suite of sophisticated software tools and services that enhance business. Founded in 2013, VenueNext is backed by the Aurum Partners LLC and other funds affiliated with the owners of the San Francisco 49ers. VenueNext is based in Palo Alto and New York. For more information, go to www.venuenext.com.
