One of the global leaders in guest and attractions management technology, Connect&Go is a company that has worked with iconic brands and events all over the world.
Working with The Super Bowl, the Vancouver Olympics, Comic Con and SXSW among a host of major names, the company offers a cloud-based platform that aims to improve the end-to-end customer journey while providing an easy-to-use solution for operators.
Currently deployed in dozens of attractions around the world, the platform transacts revenues of several hundred million dollars, serving waterparks, family entertainment centers, animal attractions, festivals, and numerous live events.
Anthony Palermo founded the company in Montreal, Canada in 2012. More than a decade later, Connect&Go has emerged as a global leader in its field. Palermo spoke to Planet Attractions about Connect&Go and how its technology has evolved over the last decade plus.
What is Connect&Go?
“Connect&Go is a full operations management platform. Basically, it's one software that allows you to program your onsite ticketing, your online ticketing, your kiosks for self-serve ticketing, integrated with access control to turnstiles and scanners, as well as your entire food and beverage point of sale for cashless payments. We also offer waiver management and we even have a photo video system that allows you to scan and get your photo, whether on a ride or even with roaming photographers.”
What’s the idea behind the technology?
“As a software platform, it allows you, as an operator, to think about your guest experience and about how all the different touchpoints of their experience connects.
The idea is that if you really take the time to look at your guest, look at their behaviour and see how you can make that experience ten times better by providing them the right product at the right time and at the right price, you're really starting to create a much more valuable experience for them. If they see that value, they become ambassadors of your property.
For us, the idea is how do we empower the operator to have the tools to be able to do that?”
How does the technology fit into the visitor experience?
“We have a philosophy - can we make entering, paying and playing so simple it's almost invisible?
The idea that technology should only be considered after you really understand what people are looking for within an experience. If you're able to survey people, to watch people, to analyse the data, to be able to tell you this is what people are really caring about, this is what they're engaging with. The more that you know that, the more you can say this is where a technology layer is going to come in very handy and, almost invisibly, make that experience that much better.”
How did you first use Connect&Go with consumers?
“So we actually started initially with stadiums. From day one, we were having thousands and thousands of people come into an establishment, so right away, our first venture into the use of this technology from a consumer application was access control, photo and video taking, point systems and cashless payments.
The question was how do we take this to work as an example in the live entertainment industry? So we got very deep into large-scale events.
By the time we got to leisure about five years ago, we had all of this large-scale experience, so when people told us that they had 10,000 people a day coming in and we're used to hundreds of thousands of people within an hour, such as getting into a music festival, it really wasn't daunting.
The technology part was very easy for us. What we needed to do was sit with our clients and understand what they understand about their guests. We're not the experts in their park - we're the experts in this technology. So how can we bring our expertise to make sure we're bringing the right technology to the right place and make sure they have the tools to be able to maximise that guest experience?”
How is your 2023 looking?
“2023 is going to be a massive year for us, not just because we know we've signed a bunch of projects that need to get delivered, but also because we really see this change, this wave that has happened since Covid.
As people are coming back, there was this pent-up energy that we felt in 2021 and maybe into 2022. But we think in 2023 it's different. We think that really it's about having more information, more visibility over your operations and over your guest experience. Technology, like the ones that we continue to innovate and work with, are the ones that can provide that for you so that you can make those really great decisions.”
One of the global leaders in guest and attractions management technology, Connect&Go is a company that has worked with iconic brands and events all over the world.
Working with The Super Bowl, the Vancouver Olympics, Comic Con and SXSW among a host of major names, the company offers a cloud-based platform that aims to improve the end-to-end customer journey while providing an easy-to-use solution for operators.
Currently deployed in dozens of attractions around the world, the platform transacts revenues of several hundred million dollars, serving waterparks, family entertainment centers, animal attractions, festivals, and numerous live events.
Anthony Palermo founded the company in Montreal, Canada in 2012. More than a decade later, Connect&Go has emerged as a global leader in its field. Palermo spoke to Planet Attractions about Connect&Go and how its technology has evolved over the last decade plus.
What is Connect&Go?
“Connect&Go is a full operations management platform. Basically, it's one software that allows you to program your onsite ticketing, your online ticketing, your kiosks for self-serve ticketing, integrated with access control to turnstiles and scanners, as well as your entire food and beverage point of sale for cashless payments. We also offer waiver management and we even have a photo video system that allows you to scan and get your photo, whether on a ride or even with roaming photographers.”
What’s the idea behind the technology?
“As a software platform, it allows you, as an operator, to think about your guest experience and about how all the different touchpoints of their experience connects.
The idea is that if you really take the time to look at your guest, look at their behaviour and see how you can make that experience ten times better by providing them the right product at the right time and at the right price, you're really starting to create a much more valuable experience for them. If they see that value, they become ambassadors of your property.
For us, the idea is how do we empower the operator to have the tools to be able to do that?”
How does the technology fit into the visitor experience?
“We have a philosophy - can we make entering, paying and playing so simple it's almost invisible?
The idea that technology should only be considered after you really understand what people are looking for within an experience. If you're able to survey people, to watch people, to analyse the data, to be able to tell you this is what people are really caring about, this is what they're engaging with. The more that you know that, the more you can say this is where a technology layer is going to come in very handy and, almost invisibly, make that experience that much better.”
How did you first use Connect&Go with consumers?
“So we actually started initially with stadiums. From day one, we were having thousands and thousands of people come into an establishment, so right away, our first venture into the use of this technology from a consumer application was access control, photo and video taking, point systems and cashless payments.
The question was how do we take this to work as an example in the live entertainment industry? So we got very deep into large-scale events.
By the time we got to leisure about five years ago, we had all of this large-scale experience, so when people told us that they had 10,000 people a day coming in and we're used to hundreds of thousands of people within an hour, such as getting into a music festival, it really wasn't daunting.
The technology part was very easy for us. What we needed to do was sit with our clients and understand what they understand about their guests. We're not the experts in their park - we're the experts in this technology. So how can we bring our expertise to make sure we're bringing the right technology to the right place and make sure they have the tools to be able to maximise that guest experience?”
How is your 2023 looking?
“2023 is going to be a massive year for us, not just because we know we've signed a bunch of projects that need to get delivered, but also because we really see this change, this wave that has happened since Covid.
As people are coming back, there was this pent-up energy that we felt in 2021 and maybe into 2022. But we think in 2023 it's different. We think that really it's about having more information, more visibility over your operations and over your guest experience. Technology, like the ones that we continue to innovate and work with, are the ones that can provide that for you so that you can make those really great decisions.”
