Networked restrooms? Podcasts? Concession technology? If you are a longtime Stadium Tech Report reader, you might be wondering what’s going on here. But to readers old and new we simply say welcome — welcome to our new coverage strategy, which is really hitting its stride with this current issue of the Stadium Tech Report.
Once again, as we’ve done now for the past nine years, we’ve got a quarterly issue full of long, in-depth stories that provide stadium technology professionals with the deep dives they need to inform themselves to help their stadiums and arenas keep up with the times. And while we haven’t given up on our past roots of focusing on wireless networking, as this issue shows we’ve significantly added areas of expertise to our coverage, including, yes, networked restrooms.
Laugh a bit you might, but the very obvious benefits of bringing networked connectivity to stadium restrooms are outlined in our topic-opening profile by our reporter Terry Sweeney. Like with the other subjects we now cover closely — including concessions technology and entry/security technology — we plan to keep close tabs on stadium restroom IoT trends going forward, simply because it looks like the kind of thing that — like Wi-Fi — will be taken for granted as we all move forward.
Adding podcasts to the mix
While we still think our quarterly long-form reports offer a depth of information that you just can’t find anywhere else, we are also moving ahead with alternate forms of content delivery, including our new Stadium Tech Report podcast series. While we had some podcasts in the past (you can still listen to them all) until recently we never really had the production resources necessary to support a sustained podcasting effort.
That was then, this is now.
With the recent release of our fourth episode our new series is off to a resounding start, with many new listeners lending us an ear. The production skills of our design team — led by creative director Dan Grimsley and digital designer Jackie Nguyen — have made our podcasts much easier and better to listen to. We also thank our podcast sponsors, ExteNet Systems and MatSing, for helping provide the resources necessary for our expanded list of interviews.
Stay tuned, we’ve already got some more good episodes in the can and more scheduled down the line. Available wherever fine podcasts are found — Apple iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify — you can now bring STR expertise with you to the gym, in the car, in the plane, or wherever else you can simply listen in.
How to stay in touch — subscribe to our newsletter!
With more new readers and listeners discovering Stadium Tech Report on a daily basis — some via our new content-sharing relationships with the Association of Luxury Suite Directors (ALSD) and the International Association of Venue Managers — as well as through the continued growth of social-media sharing of STR content via LinkedIn and Twitter — it may be helpful to know the best way to stay on top of all the new content we are providing: Simply subscribe to our email newsletter.
While you can certainly bookmark the STR home page, or subscribe to our podcast feed, veteran members of the STR audience know that our email newsletter is a simple way to make sure you don’t miss anything, since everything we write or record always gets at least one link from our email feed.
What else do veteran audience members know about our email list? Two important things: One, we NEVER share or sell our email address list. Not to anyone, not to “partners,” not ever. Two, we don’t blast readers with incessant daily emails in desperate searches for clicks, because that’s not our business model. We pretty much send emails only when there is something new on the site our in our podcast series. Why? It’s because we know our readers are always busy, and don’t have time every day to sift through repeated messages looking for the something new. When you get an email for us, there’s usually something you haven’t seen before in it. So if you haven’t yet or if your email has changed recently, sign up for the list now and stay connected!
Give back to your peers — take our survey!
With all the new content, the podcasts, the new topics, you may ask — what do we charge for all this goodness? The quick answer is, as it has always been — nothing, other than your attention. If there is one thing we do ask for, it’s to encourage our audience members who are directly employed by stadiums, teams or venues to take our annual Stadium Connectivity Outlook survey.
To better serve our busy audience we have radically shortened our survey for this year, and streamlined it so it can easily be taken on a phone — our trial timing shows it takes less than 3 minutes to complete. For that small effort your answers can help your peers immensely, as while we are happy to write stories about technology deployments there is nothing as good as cumulative data to help provide a snapshot of what venues are doing and why. And just like our email newsletter, you can be confident that no data from your answers will be identified with your person, team or venue. So join us in our more-content effort with your survey answers, and stay tuned for even more good stuff as we go forward!
