An End of Season Update
With the Tampa Bay Lightning season ending last night, my fourth season working at Benchmark International arena came to a close, and what a truly remarkable year it turned out to be. I'd like to talk about a few things Gordon Lamont and I accomplished this year.
Starting in July with a full company transition to Oak View Group, we got the opportunity to hit the ground running in our IT department, utilizing our knowledge to make the transition as seamless and easy as possible for our coworkers. We got the opportunity to take another look at our SOPs, create all new SharePoint websites to help streamline operations for staff, and broaden our scope to ensure that every department ran with as much technical efficiency as we could provide. It was a challenging yet rewarding summer and by October, we were ready when the hockey season kicked off.
Operationally, we had the green light to enhance the arena in all new ways. Starting things off with a hefty remodel of our 100 level markets, we converted old designs into a new full fledged self-checkout market with all new MyVenue POS kiosks. The bump in convenience is something that fans loved this season and operationally we saw great revenue growth from each location.
Later in the season, we retired a large amount of our legacy hardware in vending and beyond to new handheld Castle POS systems. These are not only modern and sleek for easier deployment, but a way to again make things more efficient and streamlined. The handhelds continue to be a valuable piece of hardware we deploy continuously for pop up locations, VIP events, and much more.
In our last big operational technology push for the season we became a pilot location for an all new MyVenue Smart Kiosk system, utilizing new technology to bring us into the future of POS and continuing to raise our standard for what we can accomplish that benefits the guest experience. Throughout all of these projects I was able to continue to show creativity and passion for this field by providing custom graphics, insight on operational excellence, and integral feedback for both staff onsite and to our partnered vendors.
One of our bigger events for the year, outside of our nearly 50 hockey games and even more concerts, were four straight days of NCAA March Madness where we put up record breaking numbers. Seeing our 300+ systems all function well shows me that we are doing something right, and I can't wait to see how we can continue to improve into the next season.
Outside of the arena, I've kept myself busy building and creating in other directions. More on that in the future https://www.joshsorg.com/ .
It's been a dense, demanding, and genuinely rewarding stretch. I'm grateful for the team, the challenges, and everything still ahead.
Till next time.
#GoBolts
