technology Technology In Business by: Mark Sheldon, Managing Member/Chief Operations Officer, PCB Entertainment
I
n the past 10 years we have seen major changes in the festival business. Most people just think of the “experience” they are having at a music festival. Patrons want ease and
great vibes. As a festival owner, we strive to provide an amazing experience for our fans. Part of that experience is making the events user friendly, whether that is using a mobile app., cashless transactions, touchless entry, or free Wi-Fi. Beyond the fan experience, we use technology heavily on the operations side of the festival. Technology offers our team the ability to communicate and collaborate on several projects at any given moment. Using technology opens many facets to our festival, allowing for a more well-organized event, while keeping our staff and fans in constant communication. A company we are all familiar with, Google, which offers a suite of products called Google Docs Editors Suite. Our festival relies heavily on Google Sheets, Google Forms, Google Drive, etc. to perform our day-to-day tasks. We use Google Sheets
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team and take the necessary steps towards bettering the festival and the fan experience. This not only leads to better organization and communication, but it provides a historical reference when working on the next year’s festival. Organizing an event of this magnitude requires a variety of essential technology. When marking the festival grounds for the location of the tents, stages, vendors, sponsors, etc., we use iPad devices with photos from previous years. These photos are created by using a professional drone that takes thousands of photos, and then stitches the photos into a single image using proprietary software. This type of image creates a fast and incredibly accurate reference from years past. Without these images or tablets, we would rely solely on blueprints, creating a more arduous build out of the festival grounds.
for our marketing content calendar, ticket tracking, marketing
Early on in our festival development, we partnered with a Mobile
stats, etc. Our team collaborates with one another within these
Application developer to build our festival mobile app. on both the
documents to build effective and detailed files. Using this method,
Apple and Google platforms. It is vital we formulate a plan for how
we are able to access the documents using any of our electronic
we want to utilize the mobile app to provide the best experience
devices, and work from anywhere that the internet is available.
for our fans. We take many things into consideration when devel-
Often when building the festival, our team will keep a working doc-
oping our mobile app. Safety is a crucial aspect of our mobile app.
ument for “Improvements” and following the close of the festival,
We can reach fans swiftly using Push Notifications in the event of
we will discuss the items as a team. From there, we can work as a
an emergency. Whether that be an evacuation due to lightning,
BAY BIZ / FALL 2021
