20 Jul - LA Clippers & AiFi Discuss Intuit Dome Fan Experience at Stadium Business Summit 2023
In this article, Rehman Mohammed, AiFi’s General Manager of the UK, Ireland, Baltics & Nordics details his experience at the Stadium Business Summit 2023. He provides a brief synopsis of his Fireside Chat with George Hanna, the Clippers' CTO, and shares key takeaways he learned at the event.
This year’s Stadium Business Summit (SBS) was insightful and inspiring. The event, held in Manchester, UK from June 28-29, brought together stadium industry leaders from around the world to discuss how we can make the fan experience at stadiums better. I, for one, had a blast.
Hi, I’m Rehman Mohammed, AiFi’s General Manager of the UK, Ireland, Baltics & Nordics. I was proud to represent AiFi at SBS, especially as AiFi was a sponsor of the event. During the summit, I was able to speak with and learn from some of the most influential leaders in sports and entertainment. One of whom was George Hanna, the LA Clippers’ Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for a Fireside Chat.
In this article, I’ll detail my experience at the Stadium Business Summit 2023 as I provide a brief synopsis of my Fireside Chat with George Hanna and share key takeaways I learned at the event. Let’s begin!
My Session at the Stadium Business Summit 2023: A Frictionless Experience at Intuit Dome
I had a wonderful Fireside Chat with George Hanna, the CTO of the LA Clippers. We had fun as we delved into George’s background and the important role he plays within the Clippers’ organization. Our discussion revolved around Intuit Dome, the Clippers’ new arena, set to open for the 2024-25 NBA season, and how innovative technologies like AiFi will revolutionize the fan experience within the venue.
Here’s a look into the Intuit Dome:
AiFi’s AI-powered solution will help the Clippers achieve efficiencies around the fan experience at Intuit Dome, leveraging AiFi’s computer vision technology.
“AiFi will play an important role, as we continue to build Intuit Dome’s fan experience,” said George Hanna, Clippers Chief Technology Officer. “AiFi’s tech solutions will help us achieve efficiency within our new arena, and allow our fans to focus on the game, or the show, they are attending.”
Also during our chat at the Stadium Business Summit, I showed a short video of fans using AiFi’s autonomous store at Leicester City Football Club. This video helped me illustrate how autonomous technology bolsters the fan experience.
Lastly, we ended our discussion with quite an interactive Q&A with the audience. One question we were asked was, “How would you transform the fan experience in a legacy type of environment in a stadium that’s been around for 40, 50, 60, or 100 years?” This was a great question because when you’re building a stadium from the ground up in a greenfield location, it’s very easy to integrate the technology you want to use. But when you’re implementing new technologies into an existing space without the right support, challenges will arise.
With AiFi Refresh, it’s actually easy to retrofit an existing store into an autonomous store with computer vision and frictionless checkout technology. AiFi allows you to start as small or big as you’d like. You don’t have to take on the whole end-to-end transformation of the customer and fan experience. Instead, you can take a small store in a stadium that’s easy to control and manage, and use AiFi to transform that, learn from it, and then continue automating additional concessions and stores in the stadium.
George shared that the Clippers are testing AiFi technology at a pre-existing arena setup as well.
2023 Key Takeaways from the Stadium Business Summit
Frictionless checkout is still new: I was surprised about how new the idea of frictionless checkout was to so many people. It seems that attendees at the Stadium Business Summit heard about autonomous store solutions and assumed the technology was coming in the next 5 to 10 years. The look on their faces when they discovered the technology is here, today, and now being delivered as a capability were the looks of astonishment, excitement, and intrigue. Let’s just say the thirst for knowledge after the event is exponential!
AI will have a key role in shaping the fan experience at stadiums in the future: The summit was buzzing with talk about AI and its involvement in the future of the fan experience at stadiums. The overall feeling was, AI is going to be a literal game-changer. Because the size and the scale of the technology that’s already been delivered, and the transformation that’s being created, is going to set a new standard for stadiums around the world. Everyone’s really excited to see AI and autonomous solutions become the gold standard everyone will set as their priority for future stadium redevelopments.
Final Thoughts
The Stadium Business Summit 2023 showcased the incredible potential of technology—particularly AI and autonomous solutions—to revolutionize the fan experience at stadiums worldwide.
After speaking with industry leaders at the summit, it’s clear that AI and autonomous store technology are poised to become the standard for stadiums of the future. It’s time to get ahead of the game (see what I did there?) and implement autonomous technology at your stadium to enhance the fan experience in ways previously unimaginable.
We can make it happen. Get in touch with us to learn more.
About the Author
Rehman Mohammed is AiFi’s General Manager for the UK, Ireland, Baltics & Nordics. Prior to AiFi, Rehman spent 18 years at Cisco Systems, Inc. in various regional and global leadership positions. And prior to that, he was a business consultant specializing in retail and technology.
Rehman has a deep experience in sales, retail economics, SaaS, renewal readiness, recurring revenue, entitlement management, revenue improvement, sales process enhancement, business development, operations transformation, and cross-functional management.
Rehman qualified as a chartered accountant with Price Waterhouse London and has lived and worked in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Africa.
