Summary

Once a year, the Rival Design team would be asked to imagine the future of live events. This was a 2-week war room style workshop that allowed our designers to pause what they’re working on, think beyond technical limitations of our product, and let their creative muscle take control. It was an opportunity to be visual story tellers again.

• These concepts would inspire the greater Rival team and remind everyone why we joined this mission.

• They helped the design team break from day to day norms, and allowed us to think big.

• The final concepts would then be used by our CEO in his investment decks.

Above: A more fluid experience for posting tickets (or any item) for resale.

Left: “Selfie-ID” biometrics at sign-up with the purpose of allowing a “VIP” experience for fans around the venue.
Above: By knowing a fan’s identity, in-venue experiences can be a personalized, along with targeted up-sell opportunities.

Prototype

Initially, by using Amazon’s Rekognition open source software, the Rival RAD team (Research & Development) was able to build a proof of concept that allowed us to bring the idea of identity based customer service, to life.

The prototype was so impactful, we ended up investing more into the program and writing our own biometric identity ML engine.

Part 1: Its the second half, and a once sluggish game is getting heated. There’s a lot of unsold hot dogs at the concessions, and that could mean lost revenue. A Venue Ops employee opens up the Game Day Offers tool in EC, and targets a section in the stadium for a promotion: Discount on food and drinks if they upgrade their seats.
Part 2: A fan taps on the offer and begins using the AR feature inside the stadium browsing available seats. They then tap on the seat and complete the upgrade. Once upgraded, an AR wayfinding view pops up guiding them to their new seats.

Prototype

Here we see prototypes for both the handheld scanner and the suite scanner. The Rival handheld scanners were designed to present a fan’s identity allowing a ticking operator or seat usher to verify the person’s identity as well as any information that might assist them in finding their seat.

The suite scanner is meant to allow fan to enter a suite without having to reach in their pocket for a ticket each time. This will also allow that fan to easily grant access to a visiting guest by simply sending an invitation link to that guest, in which they take a selfie to add themselves to the suite.

“The District” as we called it, was our most forward thinking concept of all. A mission control for venue operations. The trend with new stadiums and arena development has been that they are much more then just that. The Inglewood Stadium for the Los Angeles Rams will be a campus that also house hotels, bars, restaurants, retail, and a smaller theater venue. It is meant to be a destination year round. For something at that scale, we can scale that concepts we’ve developed at Rival to go far beyond venue access and concession up sell.

Scenario: A VIP fan is flying in to town, and they’re staying at one of the hotels on campus. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to push them offers to the steakhouse next door, and coordinate concierge to make sure there is a drink waiting for them along the way? Let’s say they end up spending a premium at the steakhouse, why not upgrade their seats, as you know this might be a good way to build a lifetime relationship with this fan.