Connect&GO, a chief in guest encounter engineering and wearable RFID engineering for gatherings and sights, is searching back on ten a long time worth of milestones and know-how improvements, as it celebrates a key anniversary. Established in 2013, the agency pioneered the use of RFID know-how in are living occasions all-around the earth, just before heading on to make a flexible all-in-a person administration system for the points of interest market.
“The journey of the past 10 years has definitely been inspiring,” states Dominic Gagnon, Join&GO CEO and co-founder. “We are humbled to have worked with some of the most significant models in the earth, with every single partnership teaching us some thing new about the special worries that operators encounter in producing a seamless guest working experience.”
The company’s integrated technologies remedies have helped strengthen the two profits and engagement at some of the world’s largest gatherings, this sort of as Formulation 1, the Olympics, the Super Bowl, Comedian Con, Visa, Osheaga Songs and Arts Festival and lots of a lot more.
Boosting visitor engagement in the situations planet
Hook up&GO started when Gagnon, a serial entrepreneur with a qualifications in promoting and gatherings, and Anthony Palermo, an expert in RFID technological innovation, joined forces to provide a way of growing visitor engagement at Montreal’s Saputo Stadium in Montreal. This initial venture, entitled “The Critical to the Stadium,” introduced jointly RFID media, access manage, cashless payments, image and F&B integrations and more.
“The concept right away took off,” claims Palermo, “Within the to start with couple of months we experienced partnered with the largest new music pageant in Canada and the largest tech meeting in Canada, and within just a issue of decades, the Connect&GO platform experienced run obtain manage, cashless payments and experiential activations on almost every single continent all-around the entire world.”
Right after assisting to create the occasions business, the co-founders then produced a very important move toward sights like concept parks, water parks, zoos, and relatives enjoyment centres, realising the need for these a platform in the sector.
“The sights sector is a little at the rear of other industries pertaining to their use of technologies. We find that several venues use several devices that absence customization and really do not communicate to a person a further. Info is siloed and challenging to obtain, main to long traces, sluggish and inefficient procedures, and absence of investing,” states Gagnon. “This triggers friction for visitors and for functions groups that are already stretched skinny in an era of staffing shortages.”
Link&GO proceeds to innovate
In 2018, the agency embarked on a new mission—to produce a new flexible, quick-to-use points of interest administration system that would give operators very important actual-time information, enabling them to improved travel profits and optimize customer engagement.
The workforce expanded the performance of its main modules (access handle, cashless payment, and experiential activations) by developing a sturdy place-of-sale ticketing program with built-in eCommerce, period move administration, and other capabilities. The Konnect platform, a cloud-based mostly administration platform supposed to switch up to 10 unique techniques, was formally introduced in 2020.
In get to acquire all visitor information in a person locale, Konnect brings together cashless payments, issue-of-sale, food and beverage, RFID access handle, and eCommerce tickets in a seamless way. Operators may perhaps offer you prospects a frictionless way to shell out on RFID units or with QR codes thanks to its distinctive details ecosystem and virtual wallet technologies. The platform seamlessly backlinks the full visitor practical experience with info flowing freely in real-time thanks to a lot more than a dozen integrations to vendors like Alvarado gates, Intercard, and ActiveCampaign.
“Having obtain to integrated, actual-time information is a video game-changer in the sights business,” suggests Palermo. “It generates so lots of possibilities to deliver greater ordeals, increase ROI and foster much better connections with guests.”
A vision for the long term of attractions
With 17 million pounds (CAD) raised in its most recent Series A fundraising spherical, Join&GO has grown its employees by employing 31 new workforce just in the very last 18 months. A broad selection of water parks, spouse and children entertainment centres, zoos, and vacationer locations all throughout the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Europe consist of Link&GO technologies right now.
“Our objective is to aid attractions operators embrace technology that can assist remedy the suffering points of nowadays although unlocking new prospects to expand guest engagement, earnings and ROI. We’re thrilled to have assisted our customers carry out just that more than the past 10 decades and cannot wait for the upcoming 10 years,” claims Palermo.
“We set out to construct a platform that will definitely disrupt the attractions business, and we know that adjust will not transpire right away,” provides Gagnon, “We are committed to aiding our clientele acquire the initially steps toward a related experience, and to encouraging them expand and evolve for many a long time to come.”
Very last thirty day period, Hook up&GO announced the launch of a new e-book, made to enable household amusement centres to fix a few popular suffering points with following-era technologies.
