To wrap up our amazing week at ACTIVE World, we put our customer superheroes in the spotlight. I was honored to moderate a panel with leaders who power incredible activities.Dana Zilinski from the Chicago Park District walked us through how they left paper-based registration and an unstable ACCESS database behind in favor of ACTIVE Net, a fully hosted online solution for park registrations.It was no small feat for the the largest municipal park manager in the U.S. Seriously, can you imagine using spreadsheets to manage participation at 280 staffed park recreation centers, over 500 baseball fields, 26 indoor and 51 outdoor pools, 71 fitness centers, 22 artificial turf fields, 8 gymnastic centers and 2 conservatories? Thankfully, this is a thing of the past.Liesien Benet of the YMCA of Greater San Antonio, emphasized the importance of cross-functional relationships to selling in and implementing technology on a broad scale.Geoff Buchheister of Park City Mountain Resort painted a vision for the ski mountain of the future. Geoff told us how his organization uses technology to get people seamlessly from the parking lot, through the rental process and onto the ski slope.And, last but not least, Kent McIntosh from TEDxSanDiego shared a keen insight that really made me think. Experience-focused brands like Nordstrom and Starbucks have raised people's expectations so much that participants demand a new level of service and experience from every organization - including their local YMCA or an entirely volunteer run organization like TEDxSanDiego. This experience brand is a completely new paradigm for most community-based organizations. Kent argued that only with technology that makes an activity organizer's job easier will the experiences activity organizers create meet the expectations of the market.I came away energized and inspired. And, I realized three important things:
- Our customers are doing amazing things.
- The need for technology to power activities is incredible.
- The partnerships between ACTIVE and our customers are truly game-changing.
Our customers don't need superhuman powers like X-ray vision or telepathy; they have their incredible passion for bringing activities to life and making the world a more active place. To all of our customers – thank you for joining us. See you again next year!
