‘Digital tools make venue operations sleek’

Article posted by Coliseum, October 2^nd, 2024

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Thomas Albinger swears by digital tools and asserts that the venue operators should not overlook the digital tools as it is these little digital helpers that can emerge as a game changer offering a myriad of possibilities to enhance the guest experience and streamline the venue operations.

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He avers that it is these digital tools that can help to expand the stadium capacity without changing the footprint and can also help the venues to brace up for soccer showcases or any other major events.

Thomas Albinger is a Venue Consultant offering conceptual services, consultancy and project management services to the stadium operators and the public authorities.

In a chat with ‘Coliseum’, Thomas Albinger, Venue Consultant, Germany, avers that the venue owners/operators should keep in mind that the stadiums are living organisms and up-to-date information of venue assets in stock is essential. He also asserted that the venue operators should specify the digital requirements in contracts with the architects or the other planners upfront as the digital tools help to streamline the venue operations.

Thomas Albinger advocated that challenges in venue operations can be addressed with the help of digital tools – “We should examine all possible solutions to a problem including digital ones. The people running the show in a venue should create a database which will help to generate a lot of well-documented evidence in case a venue gets into any kind of legal wrangling.”

Keep your asset data up-to-date

Albinger pointed out that he has encountered many cases where clients’ technical drawing is not available in a digital format at all. He has also faced situations when one had to dig in “long forgotten archives for the paper versions. Whether digital or not in most cases the technical drawings were not up-to-date or they contained an overdose of technical information that made overlay planning something from hard to impossible.”

Sum-up

To drive home his point as to how digital tools help in keeping thing streamlined, he added, “One should also keep the files logically arranged. Stadiums in operations is like an organism, its living, its changing, it is changing constantly, an extension here, a refurbishment there all of this resides in the uncontrolled growth of the drawings. And how to manage that. Clear guidelines should be provided for new design and user-friendly floor maps for various purposes such as overlay planning and marketing. The up-to-date information of assets in stock is essential.”

Thomas Albinger wrapped up by stating, “One has to establish accountability for maintaining asset information starting at the handover from construction to operations as regards venues. That’s where knowledge gets lost and the venue operators/owners should involve the end users in implementing tools to get their acceptance and provide robust support during the transition to digital tools. The simple and essential digital tools should be indispensable components of venue operations as these tools can lead to operational excellence without inducing fear or resistance from the management or operational teams.”

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