Join us at blooloop’s Festival of Innovation on Wednesday 7th December at 3 pm GMT, to find out about the latest innovations in the guest journey. Our speakers will also be looking into the future, highlighting trends and the future of the guest experience
This session is sponsored by our friends at accesso.
Guest journey speakers
Mary Coriano is head of products & corporate portfolio at Merlin Technology. She has been with Merlin for nearly 6 years and started by managing the global rollout of its admission system. More recently, she has been driving their productivity initiatives from a technology perspective.
Since 2020, Coriano has been responsible for the technology strategy and the innovation roadmap for commercial systems (retail and F&B), digital and payments (mobile app, digital signage, car parks, CRM etc), employee systems, data and integration) enterprise reporting catalogue, data warehouse, and strategic integrations).
Before joining Merlin, she spent about 15 years leading business transformation initiatives for EMI Music and then for TFL.
Mary Coriano – Head of products & corporate portfolio at Merlin TechnologyWe came up with the concept around how the theme park of the future is going to look like in the next five years based on existing technology, but also in the next ten years, based on concepts like the metaverse, etc.
Steve Drake is a founding team member of accesso Technology Group, a leading provider of ticketing, virtual queuing, distribution and guest experience management solutions to the global leisure & entertainment industry. The company sponsored the Guest Journey 2022 Innovation Awards category. In his current role as SVP, global initiatives, Drake is focused on growing accesso’s virtual queuing business worldwide.
Prior to accesso, Drake spent the majority of his earlier career in electronics industry management. A passionate advocate for the industry he serves, he carries over 24 years of leisure & entertainment industry experience and has sat on a number of committees for industry associations such as IAAPA.
Kemal Arin is president & CEO of Showtime Pictures, a leading operator of photography concessions at major tourist attractions that has been operating since 1991.
Showtime Pictures entered Purple, the first humanoid photography and customer service assistant robot, into the Innovation Awards. The robot took two years to research and develop alongside a Japanese manufacturer.
It brings a new dimension to attractions, with initial testing showing that 90% of customers wanted to interact with the robot. It takes pictures by automatically tracking guests’ faces, and it is also able to recognise and greet customers through facial recognition. The robot can display the guest’s photos, take payment, print the images or airdrop them.
Mark Locker is the founder and CEO of Attractions.io. Founded in 2015, Attractions.io is a leading creator of mobile visitor apps for the visitor attractions industry.
Before Attractions.io, Mark founded Theme Park Nerd, a “micro-agency” that delivered software projects for the theme park industry in the UK, including mobile apps and websites. Locker has always loved theme parks, and Attractions.io allows him to bring together his three passions: technology, business and the attractions industry.
Attractions.io entered its Guest Experience Platform into the Innovation Awards. Used by Knoebels Amusement Resort, they became one of the first theme parks to leverage the platform’s new wayfinding features that are delivered through the app.
Innovation Awards
The winners of the Guest Journey innovation awards will be announced during this session.
The blooloop Innovation Awards 2022, presented with AREA15 showcase the incredible dynamism, imagination and creativity that drives the attractions business. Our judges are well-known thought leaders and industry experts, who are looking for the most innovative products and projects driving the future of the visitor experience.
The Innovation Awards will be announced throughout the Festival of Innovation. Attendees will be able to browse the Award entries and take part in the Public Vote Award.
In addition, some of our judges and industry leaders will be talking about exciting new trends and operators will share what innovations they really want to help them drive forward visitor experiences.
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