IAAPA EduSession 2024 Rundown: Leveraging Technology to Improve Operational Efficiency

At CmdCentr, we’re committed to helping theme parks leverage technology to transform their operations. A key part of that commitment is delivered through partnership and integration with other suppliers of brilliant technologies, so it was great for our Product Director, Owen Jones to speak alongside Adrian Thompson (Merlin Entertainments), Angie Judge (Dexibit), and Ali Vahabzadeh (Safari AI), to share our story of digitising theme park operations at Merlin Entertainments theme parks.

A Collaborative Approach to Digital Transformation

The IAAPA EduSession provided a valuable platform to share insights and experiences. We all offered our unique perspectives on the challenges and opportunities facing the industry.

Merlin Entertainments’ Vision for Digital Transformation

Adrian Thompson, Regional VP Improvement & Planning at Merlin Entertainments, outlined the company’s ambitious goal to digitise its operations and improve guest satisfaction. By leveraging technology, Merlin aimed to enhance data accuracy, scale, and insight, ultimately leading to a more efficient and enjoyable guest experience.

CmdCentr’s Human-Centric Approach

At CmdCentr, we believe that technology should be a tool to empower people, not replace them. Owen shared how our approach to digital transformation was rooted in a deep understanding of the needs and challenges of theme park operators.

When we partnered with Merlin Entertainments to digitise their operations at LEGOLAND, we focused on the following key principles:

• User-Centric Design: We invested heavily in user experience (UX) design, ensuring that our solutions were intuitive and easy to use.
• Data-Driven Insights: We harnessed the power of data analytics to identify operational inefficiencies and opportunities for improvement.
• Real-time Oversight: We developed tools to provide real-time visibility into park operations, enabling managers to make informed decisions.
• Continuous Improvement: Having equipped teams with the tools and information they need to excel, we didn’t stop engaging with them to listen and learn how the solution could be enhanced and improved.

The power of data – some highlights

Having set the scene for the foundations laid in digitising operations, Ali Vahabzadeh and Angie Judge highlighted further opportunities to leverage technology to gain the benefit of data.

SafariAI are focussing on data accuracy and scalability

Ali discussed the limitations of some traditional manual methods, such as clicker counters, and shared how they used vision AI technology to capture more precise data on operational metrics, such as dispatches and throughput. With SafariAI data already feeding into CmdCentr for visibility within the operation, we’re excited to see where SafariAI are heading with their plans to record capacity at non-ride locations.

Dexibit and The Voice of the Visitor: Harnessing the Power of Language Models

Angie provided fascinating insight into how language models can take previously difficult to analyse, qualitative data and gather measurable insights. Angie demonstrated that by analysing a large dataset of guest reviews, language models can identify key themes, sentiments, and specific areas for improvement in a reportable format. We’re particularly excited about combining operational data captured by CmdCentr with guest sentiment data, allowing theme parks to gain a comprehensive view of their performance. This integrated approach would enable operators to identify correlations between operational factors, such as ride downtime or staff shortages, and guest satisfaction.

For example, by analysing guest reviews alongside ride performance data, a park might discover that long wait times for a particular ride are negatively impacting overall guest satisfaction. This insight can then be used to optimise staffing levels or implement queue management strategies to improve the guest experience.

The Future of Theme Park Operations

As technology continues to evolve, we’re excited about how these opportunities will shape the future of theme park operations. We really appreciate IAAPA giving us the opportunity to cut through the noise and share real and relatable examples of technology at play in theme park operations. We believe that by embracing this human-centric approach, we can create a more efficient, sustainable, and enjoyable experience for everyone.