Welcome to the Live with Sondra podcast where
we dive deep into business, tech, and entrepreneurship.
Hosted by me, Sondra Shannon, CEO of GateMaster
Technology. Each show, we explore the latest
trends in ticketing attractions and guest experience,
helping you stay ahead of the curve in this ever
-evolving world of attractions and events. Whether
you're an industry expert or just getting started,
this show has insights to inspire and empower
you. Today's episode is sponsored by GateMaster
Technology, your trusted partner for ticketing
and attraction management solutions. Let's get
started with the show. Here we go. We are live.
Hey everybody, this is the Live with Sondra show
and I want to welcome you today. We are exploring
something that's changing the entire landscape
of guest experiences from ticketing. to immersive
storytelling. Today we're talking AI, VR, and
the rise of spatial computing. If you've ever
wondered what the future of attractions looks
like and how to use these tools to stay ahead,
this episode will blow your mind. We've got one
of the industry's top digital transformation
leaders joining us to share what's next. So stick
around and I'll see you after the intro. Thank
you. welcome back to the live with sandra show
i'm your host sandra shannon and today we're
deep diving into the future of attractions spatial
computing artificial intelligence and how immersive
technologies transform the guest experience but
first a huge thank you to our sponsor gate master
technology for over 30 years gate master has
been the trusted point of sale and ticketing
platform for attractions around the world from
mobile ordering to online sales and real -time
data and integrated marketing tools gate master
helps operators simplify their operations and
stay ahead of the rapidly changing tech landscape
thank you gate master technology for supporting
today's conversation about innovation and the
future of guest engagement so without further
ado ado i would like to introduce you to our
guest today now i could Not think of a better
guest to have this discussion with us than Steve
Smith, who is the CEO and president of Talana
Solutions, Inc., where he helps organizations
achieve digital transformation at a C -level.
Before that, Steve started as a CIO for major
brands like Orbitz and Autotrader, leading technology
initiatives that shaped how millions of people
traveled and shopped online. including for iconic
brands like aa .com having lived in six countries
and traveled to more than 60 countries goals
that's my goals too steve brings a truly global
perspective on how technology scales and how
it can make or break the guest experience and
one thing steve can't live without his journal
and his music which i think is the perfect blend
of reflection and rhythm that fuels both creativity,
and clarity, please help me welcome Steve to
the Live with Sondra show. Steve, I am so excited
to have you here today. Thank you so much. Really
excited to be here. Thank you for being here.
So did I get the bio okay? It's good. I've lived
about four lifetimes in my 60 years on the planet,
so it's good. It's perfect. Well, I have to ask,
because you mentioned music, and I'm a big music
fan. What kind of music do you like? you know
as a kid i was all pop rock so think you know
80s hair bands uh you know journey and motley
crew and death leopard um but you know my my
best friend and my music collaborator we did
a lot of beach boys elton john and then as the
years moved on i actually tried to embrace country
it was tough um but i was raised on country my
mom was actually a classically trained uh sopranist
and pianist Sang at Carnegie Hall. So I had dreams
of a kid of being a rock musician. And my buddy
ended up heading off to California. He showed
up at my house one night and he said, I'm moving
to California. I'm going to be a rock star. Get
in the car and let's go. And I was like, yeah,
I can't. And so he went off to California, became
a Sessions musician, worked with all kinds of
amazing bands. And I went off and I joined the
army. Wow. What do you think about Yacht Rock?
Love, yeah, one of my favorite eras. Love the
music, love yacht rock. And so it's my go -to
comfort zone for music. Yes, that's my husband
and I too. Like we are really enjoying yacht
rock on satellite. Do you have Sirius? We do.
We've got XM in both of our vehicles. And so
my wife is a pop girl. So she loves everything
that's modern and new and she doesn't like old,
but she's... She knows all the old songs. So
when we put them on, she sings along with me.
Hey, my kids sing along. I'm surprised. Like,
actually, they got hooked on Yacht Rock before
I did. My husband started playing it. And I'm
like, I remember these songs. You know, I think
it's funny. Some of these hair bands actually
are kind of getting lumped into some of the Yacht
Rock genre, especially when it's like the softer,
you know, more songs. So it's kind of cool. Yeah.
Well, well, I. I'm really curious because you
also mentioned that you have your journal and
your music and you're balancing this structure
and creativity. And I'm curious how those things,
because you're a business owner, show up when
it comes to your leadership and innovation. So,
you know, it's a paradox because typically you
think of business people and especially technology
people being very black and white, one and zero,
very, you know, business and data. driven um
and you know when i started my business um i
started the company in 2009 and it was one of
the things that that i learned over the years
as a technology executive everything comes back
to the human everything comes back to the human
and i've had the opportunity to work on projects
where i spend hundreds of millions of dollars
for the corporations i was working for And for
a long time, 60 % of IT projects failed out there,
60%. And the reason they fail is because user
adoption, it's not the technology. It's because
people didn't do the legwork and the homework
to make sure that the application or the tool
set or whatever it was is going to work with
the consumer, with the end user, with the guest.
And so I think it's... a very appropriate kind
of conversation with attractions and events and
entertainment because everything has to circle
around the guest. And even if you look at guys
like Jeff Bezos, they have their virtuous circle
at Amazon. Everything starts with the customer
and then works back from there. So technology
by itself is spectacular, but it's worthless
unless it actually delivers something tangible.
for the human. And the same goes for AI and spatial
computing and everything else we're going to
talk about. Well, cool, because you actually
brought up spatial computing. And I know today's
topic is spatial computing, AI, VR, the future
of attractions. And this is a massive topic,
like a massive topic. I don't know that we can
cover it all in the short time that we have together.
We're not going to get through all of it. But
what I was really hoping for is that you would
tell the audience and me, you know, Bring us
up to speed. What is spatial computing for those
of us that maybe never heard that term? So, you
know, I think it is the most exciting. AI is
a component of that, believe it or not. But I
think it is the most exciting space in technology
today. So let me give you a quick scenario. So
you're in your brand new Tesla that you just
bought. You told Gronk to take you home. It's
doing most of the driving. While that car is
navigating, it's using spatial computing. It's
shooting out LIDAR, radar. It's collecting digital
imagery of the landscape. It's understanding
the cars around it. It's understanding the buildings.
It's reading signs. It's reading. All of that
is spatial computing. It's one aspect of it.
The other part of it is virtual reality, augmented
reality, mixed reality. That's all spatial computing.
You're interacting. um and i love this new world
other this new word that they use out there um
it's it's a combination of the physical and the
digital and now you've got the the digital uh
so you've got oh you've got this blending of
the two together now the other part of spatial
computing which hasn't hit yet but you know think
of tony stark in the avengers movie where he's
talking to jarvis and he's manipulating you know
holographic images and touching them and moving
them. We're not that far away from that. So our
interaction with the technology is going to become
very, very physical. And if you look at big companies
like Universal and Disney who are spending the
most money in this space, they're already pushing
a lot of this technology into their attractions.
It's the reason their attractions, now their
big ones, cost half a billion dollars to build
or more because they're putting... so much tech
in there so when you look at this digital environment
between physical and digital that's all the spatial
computing it's all of those components that bring
all of this together and allow the human being
to interact with that in a very um you know realistic
way um that really blends virtual reality and
augmented reality together in this mixed augmentation
in this spatial computing environment so yeah
it's fascinating you know i um I'm a big fan
of the meta glasses. Have you ever tried those?
Spatial computing. I have. I love them. Yeah,
I love my meta glasses. I don't travel without
them. I have them next to my bed. You know, they're
always around. My son was just telling me yesterday,
I haven't had a chance to look into it, but I
think they're leaving Ray -Ban. And because they're
going for what you're saying, where you can control
what's on the screen. And that's going to be
really, really interesting. Although I might
get myself another pair of Ray -Bans because
I saw these new white ones they have. They're
really cool. But, you know, it is fascinating
to me how much we are interacting with this technology
all the time and we don't even really realize
it. And so thank you for explaining that. And
we mentioned in your bio that you have been to
over 60 countries, which, by the way, is like
my goal. To go to 60 countries. I love travel.
I love cultures. You know, I've had the opportunity
to live in the UK, Germany, Switzerland, India,
China, and Korea. All those places. Germany,
I was the longest. I was three years in Germany.
All the others, about a year and a half. The
one that I lived in the shortest amount of time
was Korea. But I've spent multiple trips going
to Korea. First, when I was in the US Army. And
then, you know, back when I was a civilian. But
a lot of the countries I've been to have either
been through work or through the military. And
as I like to say, conference rooms and hotel
rooms look the same everywhere in the world.
And so now I'm trying to get to the places that
I went for work on a pleasure basis to really
dig into the culture, the people, the localities.
I'll take a quick example, Germany. I lived in
Germany for three years, went to Cologne, the
city of Cologne, probably 100 times. Never went
to the cathedral in downtown Cologne, in the
center city. Fantastic story. The church, the
cathedral took 350 years to build. And they were
like less than half done. And then the Prussians
came in and occupied. And because the Prussians
are very structured and organized, they completed
the other 50 % in 50 years, where it took the
folks up there in Cologne 300 years to get half
of it done. It's just little things like that
that you just don't learn about if you just go
for business and you're in a conference room
or you're in a workplace or hotel. Yeah, I don't
know if you know this about me. In my early days
here at GateMaster, before we had the technology
of Zoom and all the things that we could do remote
with computers. In the early 2000s, I was still
traveling to all of the attractions to put the
floppy disk in or the chip and load the program
and get them all set up. And I'd oftentimes spend
several weeks, if not months, with their teams,
helping them get set up. And it was my job. We
don't even do that anymore because of the way
that computing has changed. The way that we're
interacting with even the parks that we partner
with. But, you know, I got really lucky because
I did get to stay with them for those weeks at
a time. And I I was lucky enough that they they
would always allow me to be a part of their culture.
Yeah. You know, my my my sister, Tiffany, who
works with me, she went to I can't remember.
I think she might have been in Jamaica doing
the work, that same work. She's been with the
company 18 years. And she says she'll never forget
when they just brought her a whole. fish head
for dinner you know because that's what they
ate right like maybe then maybe they were joking
with her i don't know but she loved it you know
because my dad's a butcher we ate everything
yeah i'm just saying it was on the table you
had to eat it because dad caught it you know
what i mean so That was, but that was really
cool. And I'm glad that you recognize that, like,
you want to go back and experience these countries.
Dive in deeper, you know, and again, you know,
when I lived in China, you know, the diet is
very different. It's very different. And, you
know, I mean, one of my favorite stories is,
you know, because I was always the senior executive,
I was the bigwig, you know, so I always got at
the center of the table and they always brought
me this soup. And I'm eating the soup every time
it's the same. I mean, it's very tasty. But the
noodles, the noodles were so hard and chewy.
And my Chinese, my Mandarin is not good. I do
speak a couple of languages, but Mandarin, I
know enough to be polite. Say hello. Goodbye.
Anyway, so I'm eating the soup and I turn to
my translator. I'm like, I'm like, his name is
Hang Fook Sang. I go, Fook, you know, I've been
eating this Chinese, this soup every time. I
said, it's not good chicken soup. The noodles
are so tough. He goes, no, not noodle. He goes,
fish lip, that fish lip soup, very expensive.
And I looked at it, and it is, it was little,
tiny, I thought it was white noodles, but it
was the fish lips. And I was like, I've been
eating the fish lip soup now for the past year.
That's an awesome story. I mean, funny. Well,
you know, speaking of your travel and all that
you've done, I'm curious. You know what you think
about, you know, with these global trends that
I'm sure you've seen in your traveling. You know,
what do you think North America attractions are
underestimating when it comes to maybe the technology
that's global? Because, you know, I'll tell you,
I was just in same thing. I was in London. I've
been in London twice this year for several times
for work. And I did get to go to Greece. I have
to mention I did go to Greece for fun this year.
probably the first trip i've really ever taken
for fun because you know you're a business owner
and and there's a lot of times like if i don't
go anywhere unless it's for work but in this
case i uh i took a trip you know wait until i
was 46 to take a trip to to that but i do notice
when i'm in these other countries that there
is a difference in the technology and it's got
me thinking about maybe what your thoughts are
on are we underestimating the technology here
in our attractions in north america or do you
think we're leading you know what do you think
about all that so it's a great question and and
i think you know as i kind of think about the
technology landscape that's out there today we
we really are at an inflection point We are,
I think, at the precipice, at the beginning of
a complete and total transformation of not only
technology, but of society. So if I'll start
with, you know, we started the conversation with
spatial computing. Yeah. I'll add to that artificial
intelligence. And then kind of the coup de grace
on the back end is quantum computing. If you
lace those three things together, we're talking
about Star Wars, Star Trek, pick your favorite
sci -fi genre. That's the world that we're right
on the edge of embracing. And so, you know, when
you look at what the possibility of what if is,
it's absolutely incredible. And we're going to
see it in our lifetime. You know, I'm an old
guy. I've been around a long time. You know,
I'm pretty digital. And, you know, we had a party
line at my house when I grew up and we had to
share with three other people down the street.
So, you know, where we were and where we are
today and what's getting ready to hit Gen Z and
Gen Alpha. you know we could see faster than
light travel we could see the elimination of
cancer we could see the elimination of alzheimer's
and polio and good on the list of disease and
maladies that have afflicted human beings for
the past 350 000 years we could be at the precipice
of all that going away yeah but but reeling it
back into kind of the tactical around the entertainment
industry in north america i think there's a couple
i'm gonna put four things on the on the bullet
list the first is I think that the blurring between
the physical and the digital is only going to
accelerate. And I saw a recent study, very interesting,
that 68 percent of Gen Z prefer a virtual experience
than a physical one. So I think that I think
that that blurring of those technologies is going
to be like the next wave. And I think, you know,
the big players who have big bucks to invest
right now because this stuff isn't cheap right
now, it's tough. If you're a small attraction,
how do I compete with Guardians of the Galaxy
and Rise of the Empire? It's just crazy stuff.
So that's one. I think the other part, which
I think small attractions can get into, and I
think we're underestimating and we're just starting
to scratch at it, is hyper -personalization.
Creating experiences for our guests where they
are the center of the universe. And by hyper
-personalization, not only... tailoring the entertainment
experience and the stay at the hotel and the
dining experience, but putting all that stuff
together so it's hyper -personalized, but also
a digital presence whereby I know all the places
that you went, that you ate. I know that you
searched 25 times online for packing lists to
go to Disney. How do I use AI and the technology
to completely enhance that experience? So I put
digital presence and hyper -personalizations
in there. And then the other part is just the
creative piece. And we talked about music earlier
and my passion for music. So, you know, I'm running
a company. We've got hundreds and hundreds of
employees all over the world. I don't have a
lot of time to do the things that I love. I love
writing and I love poetry and I love music. Well,
I now can go and I can use AI tools. And we were
just on a cruise. My wife and I were just up
and it was my birthday and we were in Canada
and we were cruising down to St. Lawrence that
I'd never been. down the st lawrence been to
canada 100 times been to the the maritimes but
i've never been there as a tourist and so we're
traveling down the the st lawrence and i'm seeing
the stars and the moonlight and i start writing
music and i wrote a whole album i wrote 12 songs
i used ai to help me write the songs i used google
image generator to generate the cover of the
album i used ai to help me clean up my lyrics
and then i craft all these songs and so i wrote
a song about halifax and about nova scotia i
wrote a song about montreal i wrote a song about
quebec i wrote an entire album over the course
of that 10 days that we were on that ship and
it's beautiful it reflects my soul and my personality
the music's amazing so this technology is going
to allow us to put the human at the center and
i think that's the other part about that i think
we're missing is that the human in this is going
to become the most valuable aspect The AI stuff
is going to drive the economies of scale and
it's going to drive the cost incredibly down.
And so the cost of premium experience is going
to be us being able to go see a human play Frankenstein
versus a digital version of Frankenstein. And
so I think there's those big things around creativity,
around prototyping and evolving, and then letting
the human bring in the ideation. great example
would be kind of our relationship in the united
states with most of the world we are the financial
hub and we are the idea hub you know look at
the back of your apple device you know it you
know created and designed in california built
in china um that's going to be all of our ideas
all of the cool ideas and now ai is going to
help us expand them in ways that we never even
thought about Well, I love that you said that
because I was actually on a podcast last week
with somebody who is big in the index, which
is the International Ticketing Association. So
naturally, GateMaster, we belong to that. We
go and, you know. The conversation around AI
came up because, you know, there is a lot of
controversy around whether or not AI is going
to be taking jobs and what that looks like. And
I don't think he liked it when I said, hey, candle
makers had to figure something else out when
electricity became a thing. Right. Like this
is how innovation happens. This is something
that, like you said, is happening in our lifetime
and it's happening quickly. If you get in front
of this, you're going to get hit by a Mack truck.
It's not you're not going to stop this. You're
not going to stop this. And, you know, and I
and I agree with you, like you mentioned with
the music. I mean, I find that what used to take
me hours at work, just some tasks that I do now
can be done in minutes. And and you know what?
And I think that's where the creativity piece
comes in, too. Right. It allows me to be so much
more creative because I'm not trying to figure
this one thing out. Right. Or I'm not having
a reason. I'm not having a, you know, it's a
lot more difficult for me to research data than
it is to just ask it to get me the data that
I want. Right. Right. Because everything is so
data driven. But or even like I just got back
from my annual physical. The doctor asked me
and she had to record me. She said, are you OK
with me using AI as part of our session? And
and I'm like, you know, I didn't know I was expecting
that. And she goes. listen it's faster than i
am that writing result and i was like okay like
sure i mean i trust it every study that comes
back has shown that digital ai doctors are faster
and more accurate than human doctors that's fascinating
and it's not it's not a slight against someone
that spent 12 years of their career going to
school and trying to learn that stuff it's just
that the human mind wasn't evolved to retain
information on the scale that a modern society
has today. Your brain can't, it's there, but
unlocking it isn't as easy as a digital AI can
do and unlock that with 100 % clarity and 100
% accuracy and can compare thousands of test
samples simultaneously and give you, oh, here's
the result that you want. Yeah, it's fascinating
stuff. Sandra, it's scary for so many people.
It is frightening. It is frightening. And I think
a lot of it is just the unknown, which is why
I'm grateful for somebody like you coming on
the show and teaching our audience about this.
Because I do agree that we see these big brands
like Disney, Universal, implementing this kind
of technology. I mean, even before Epic was open,
you could go and see that augmented reality.
You know, they had the map and... and and they
were already implementing all of this type of
technology but when we look at the smaller family
-owned operated parks who like you said don't
have those kind of budgets you know i appreciate
you giving us some foundations for what they
can do because i agree personalized experiences
are where it is going to be at for attractions
like this and And what I'm also excited about
from all the things that you're saying, as somebody
who is an advocate for accessibility, I think
this is only going to make things even more accessible
than what we've ever thought imaginable. Absolutely.
Yeah, the democratization of the guest experience
is happening before our eyes. And, you know,
it's interesting. I'll draw this analogy from
my days when I worked at Orbitz and Autotrader.
I was in the travel industry for years, you know,
so I worked for American Airlines and they had
a tech company called Sabre Systems. And, you
know, I think the interesting part that the travel
and entertainment industry can learn are the
entertainment and attractions industry can learn
from the travel industry is the power of infrastructure.
You know, being able to take your technology
and connect it to multiple places. and allow
for self -service and i think it's one of the
things that gate master does great with their
platform is the ability for the the end user
to you know self -serve what they need to get
done and and i think that is so important you
look today for most of us who are booking just
a regular kind of i got to go on a trip i got
to get a hotel i got to get a car you take care
of all that yourself online yes and and so what
enabled that was all the plumbing in the background
that allowed the the you know the rental car
company and the airline and the hotel to put
all their stuff into a single location have open
ais and allow apis and allow that information
to come back and forth allow real -time access
to inventory and data create personalized travel
experiences for you by allowing you to collect
all that information being on hand i mean 20
years ago you went to liberty travel you went
to a travel agency right they helped you with
that stuff You know, and today what's happening,
and I'll give a great example because we travel
a lot, my wife and I, if we want a highly personalized
experience, we go to a travel agent or someone
who is a person on the ground. Hey, tell me the
best restaurants that you like to go to. Tell
me, you know, the secret hidden place that nobody
knows about that's not on the Internet, that's
not on some AI chat group or, you know, someplace.
So I think, again, that shows the power. But
all of that for the travel industry was enabled
by the plumbing. And I think that's where the
attractions industry has to get to. They have
to have this ability that if somebody wants to
completely self -serve and get everything they
want personalized and online and digital, they
can do that. They can do, you know, hyper visualization
of the attractions and the restaurant before
they go. And they can see a virtual layout of
the ship. And, you know, I'll give you a great
example as well. You know, we were on this cruise
on the St. Lawrence. We were the Princess Cruise
Lines. One of my former. vps is now over there
he's working at princess and they spent the past
five years building a digital experience on their
ships and you have a little a little tchotchke
almost like disney's magic band you wear it as
a little you know digital tracker it's it's uh
uh rfid and near frequency enabled and so wherever
you are on the ship they know where you're at
So I can pull up my phone. I can pull up my app
and I can say, you know what? I want a martini
right now. I want a lemon drop. They know where
I'm at and they'll bring it to me wherever I
am on the ship. I get to my cabin. My cabin door
automatically opens for me when I walk in. I
don't have to unlock it. I don't have to swipe
something. You just walk in. I walk up to a bar
and the bartender, because it has, you know,
near frequency on it. He sees me come up, he
knows that I've got the beverage package, and
he saw that I bought a martini last time. He
doesn't even ask me if I have a key card or how
I'm going to pay. He just goes, hey, Mr. Smith,
glad to see you. I saw you drank a lemon drop
last time. You want another one of those or something
else? I said, I'll pick a whiskey on the rocks.
Great, here you go. He doesn't ask for my credit
card, doesn't ask for my room cabin, because
it automatically just gets billed. So I think,
you know, there's, but all of that is infrastructure.
That's Wi -Fi adapters and it's network cables
and it's routers. You've got to have the plumbing.
And I think that's where the attractions industry
has to learn is you've got to get the infrastructure.
And Disney has struggled with that. You've got
Wi -Fi at all the parks now, but it's not ubiquitous.
It's getting there. They've got the enabling
pieces. But you've got to build a foundation
if you're going to build a truly immersive digital
experience. Yeah. Oh. I love everything that
you're saying. I can't tell you how many times
we have parks come to us and they say, well,
we can't have internet in this part of the park.
And we're like, well, you can. We got to just
get you the infrastructure, right? You have to
build infrastructure around what you want the
guest experience to look like for sure. I think
what's really interesting, if we can move to
kind of a little bit of ticketing and point of
sale, because I know that you've got some work
that you do with that. as well but you know i
think it's so fascinating and i appreciate you
giving us that little plug there for gate master
because one of the things that we get asked constantly
is well what if what if this automation takes
jobs away right and we mentioned that a little
bit with this but i've not found that to be the
case i found it to be more what you were talking
about with the princess cruise line where the
bartender knows your name and has access to information
and they can just better serve you I think that's
really where the attractions need to be looking
is, is it a tool that can help your team better
serve the guests? Because I don't think the team
is going away. The team can't go away. 100%.
I'll give you a great example, again, on this.
We had an attraction that we worked with. We
did analysis of their phone system. They were
having a lot of guests coming in from overseas.
It's a Florida -based attraction. They were missing.
$10 ,000 a week in sales because there was nobody
there at night to answer the phone. And when
we initially said, hey, let's put an AI voice
agent that can take the call, book a ticket,
answer questions. AI can do that. Well, you're
going to make me fire Susie. And Susie's been
with me for 20 years. And she answers our phone
and she handles our ticket office. I said, I'm
not telling you to fire Susie. What I'm saying
is give Susie an AI assistant that can extend
her reach, help her be more effective, answer
calls 24 hours a day. sell tickets 24 hours a
day, help you not miss any guests that want to
come in and who's calling from the UK or Germany.
Oh, by the way, the German speaks broken English.
Put an AI in that's bilingual or trilingual or
quadlingual. And so what we found when we did
analysis and a deep dive on all their tool sets
and their analytics, they were missing all this
revenue opportunity and we helped them seize
it. And Susie now is freed up to do other things
around the park to help. guests that are there
that are having issues let me resolve that customer
issue and help you have a better experience here
in the park so it is an extension it is not a
replacement it's an augmentation um and it's
going to have to be that way and so that you
know when someone comes in they want a premium
experience you can give that to them and you
can charge for it and let the ai handle the the
routine as long as you got all the plumbing done
and all the automation integration with your
ticketing and your pos and people can pre -order
their food and they can pre -order their experiences
let the technology do that like we do in travel
and and i think you're going to have a much more
profitable and and better experience for the
guests yeah i love this and i love that you said
a more premium experience because i think that
is truly what is gonna you know you you mentioned
that uh what is it uh which generation prefers
gen z gen z they love virtual and i'm sure alpha
is going to be the same they just haven't started
hitting on alpha for the uh you know the status
well you know what i think about the alpha that's
interesting is like they don't even look at stuff
they don't even search stuff anymore they just
go give me this information right now and i have
a feeling that's That is going to be the expectation
from that generation. Oh, absolutely. Oh, my
phone's actually trying to. There you go. See,
it's talking to you. Talk to me and give me some
information. But, you know, you mentioned the
premium experience. I don't want to go a little
bit back to that because I think that is really
what this interfacing with technology is allowing
your everyday family run park to do. You know,
we're buying time back with this technology.
And for smaller attractions, they got limited
staff, limited budget. They need as much time
back as they can get. Yeah. Well, I want to talk
to you a little bit. So we, we, we about, about
this AI bot that you, you mentioned just a minute
ago, because we, we, we've known each other for
a little while going to Florida attractions,
which by the way, is one of the best associations
on the planet. They put on a great event. So
if you're watching. that is a a a plug for the
florida attractions association it's a very great
group of people and you know when we joined uh
they welcomed us like like family and and that's
really they become our friends um and so you
know it's it's an event we look forward to every
year and i agree they are a great bunch of people
it's a great bunch of people it's one of those
shows that i don't send my team i go personally
because i i love it because it is like going
and seeing family and friends every year but
This year, we started talking about this bot
that you have that is interfacing with customers,
like you said, allowing people to have 24 -7
access to attractions and conversations and getting
questions answered and buying tickets. Can you
tell us a little bit more about that? Because
I think it's such a fascinating. Yeah, you know,
so, you know, we have a lot of conversations
in the team and with our customers about artificial
intelligence. And, you know, so I think the big
thing to understand is AI. has personalities
um and i i have some very strong opinions about
where i think ai is going to go um and i'll share
those in a couple seconds here but i think the
first part to talk about is that we've gone out
with different attraction customers and we've
helped them find the right ai to help them solve
their problems and my favorite is you know we
have a customer they're a renaissance festival
They do, you know, jousting and, you know, beer
halls and they have a Celtic day and they have,
you know, lords and knights and princesses and
the king. And so they needed an AI that could
interact with guests and would understand medieval
speak. And so we went through multiple AIs and
we had to find one that could actually chat in
AI speak. And so, you know, you call them and
you talk to them or you chat online and the AI
will say, you know, say. Good sir, how art thou
today? Fair maiden, how art thou today? And so
it will talk to interact as if they're inside
that universe of medieval times or Renaissance
festival. And, you know, we got another festival
that we're working with and we're helping to
train. It's an annual Scottish festival. And
we found an AI that speaks with a Scottish brogue
and knows, you know, what's your clan and what's
your kilt? I can do an Irish accent. I can't
do a Scottish one. But, you know, AIs have personalities
and some are good at some things and some are
not so good. So, like, you know, if you want
to have a legal document put together, use Claude.
Claude's much better. If you want something creative,
go use ChatGPT. But I think what's going to happen
in that whole world is AIs are going to evolve
and you're going to have AIs that are very specific.
So we're building an AI today for a medical staffing
company. That AI has to know everything about
the medical industry. It's got to be able to
speak in their language, use their terms, understand
their slang. And so to do that, I'm training
or we're training. I'm not training anything.
Somebody on my team is. But, you know, we're
training that bot to understand every aspect
of their business. And, you know, and I think
the one that showed up here most recently, you
know, you know, I guess what is it? ChatGPT has
spent 150, 200 million dollars. building their
first large language model and then deep seek
which the chinese bill costs five million dollars
in five years it's going to cost probably half
a million or a quarter million dollars to build
yourself a large language model so big companies
are going to be able to build large language
models that run and understand their business
so as we build out this technology we're trying
to find the right solutions for companies and
if you look at a small attraction so you know
you can get a a you know a current on the market
gpt claude you know gronk and you can rent those
and you can go in and automate things like we
just talked about for for a few hundred dollars
a month let's put ai in front of your customer
and answer questions so that you're relieved
of those 90 or 75 percent of the questions 80
20 rule have your your guest experience people
your human deal with the tough issues um take
that a on the back office help consolidate automate
reconcile your books do analytics on where you're
losing and making money help you uh deal with
multiple payments that's stuff that a small business
can leverage for a few hundred bucks it doesn't
have to be tens of thousands of dollars so what
we're trying to do is is help people step into
this world learn uh what ai can and can't do
you know separate the wheat from the chaff because
there's a lot of misnomers out there and a lot
of bs a lot of promises being made about this
is going to make you a millionaire and save you
millions of dollars or make you millions of dollars.
Not true in all cases. But step into it. Find
those little areas where our customers and our
attractions and our entertainment venues can
have success, not spend a fortune, solve some
real problems, get some more time back, get that
leverage, and then invest in those premium experiences
we talked about. Yeah, I love that. And you kind
of reminded me of something. So, you know, one
of my favorite movies is Cable Guy. Remember
that movie with Jim Carrey? And when he brings
his buddy into the jousting. And it's funny because
you said the AI speaks the medieval language.
There's that one point where the server breaks
character. He's like, no, he's serious, buddy.
He totally stops speaking in that language. And
you don't have to worry about that with the AI.
It's going to stay on character. i mean you know
ai's do a better job of recruiting i mean we
we've got proof if you let an ai do the interview
it has no bias it doesn't care what the other
person therein looks like sounds like uh that's
going to ask the same questions of every single
candidate it's going to analyze the the same
way for every single candidate and so what we're
seeing for ai agents that do the recruiting higher
retention better candidates stick longer with
a job um and perform better on the job when they
start because the ai did all of the questioning
in a completely unbiased way for every single
candidate that came through the pipeline so it's
it's it's it's going to be a very different world
i mean you just blew my mind well i i have so
many questions for you and i don't know if we
have time for that and you've been so generous
today with your time and and and i'm just blown
away by this conversation but selfishly i do
have a question for you because i know you've
been kind of following gate master for a little
while and from an outside perspective i just
want to ask here right now you know what is one
area that you maybe think platforms like ours
or maybe you feel like we need to go this direction
are uh innovating what direction do you see tickets
innovating and point of sale innovating in the
future for attractions so i i think i'm going
to go back to um api robust api interfaces so
that you know i'll go back and this this this
term has been around forever but i'll it's the
five innies and and i don't know if you ever
heard this before but it's any application anytime
anywhere any user any place okay and so making
your platform highly flexible and open i think
is going to be critical because the glue that's
going to push all this stuff together in the
future is going to be ai so if you want to enable
the future you got to make sure that you have
a robust api api set and and gate master has
that they've got that and the other part is real
-time data infrastructure which you guys also
have and i think that's also super important
um you know everything now is instantaneous you
were talking about the kids you know hey what
what's happening you know and they're talking
i do that i sit in my car and i yell at my my
siri and chad gpt and claude the whole route
in my wife screams at me you're not going to
get the answers and i said but you're supposed
to And to do that, you've got to have the APIs,
you've got to have the real -time data, and you've
got to have the connectivity. And so I think,
you know, GateMaster is doing those things. And
our partnership with you, I think it's one of
those that's illustrating that. But I think it's
the partnership that you do with, you know, a
lot of the people that you work with. Yeah, no,
I like what you said about infrastructure. I
think that is the key for sure. You know, I just
don't know if the hardware is caught up yet,
right? it's going to get there quantum computing
is coming and then you know my big question about
quantum computing is where's all that manipulation
happening in quantum space because even the guys
that built it don't know i shouldn't say guys
when i say guys i mean you know the scientists
and engineers both male and female who are doing
that they don't know how that quantum level mechanics
is working it's still theoretical But what it
can do and how it does it at scales that are
just unimaginable. And that's why I get super
excited as a nerd, you know, a Star Trek fan,
a Trekkie. You know, I'm still waiting for, you
know, warp drive, engage. You know, I'm looking
for that warp bubble. Yeah, that's awesome. That's
awesome. And yeah, we're going to have to have
a whole other conversation on computing. that's
i agree that's that's some wild territory right
there well steve it has been so inspiring to
talk to you today it's a very thought -provoking
conversation and and you're always so much fun
to talk to you you know every time i see you
i i always enjoy talking to you and you've given
us such a great window of what's possible for
not only from not only a global perspective but
for emerging technology, human centered design.
I love that you're still keeping this human.
You're still humanizing all of this. It's all
about the people, Sandra. Nothing works unless
it works for the people using it. Right. And
I love that. And, you know, I think that's exactly
where we're going to see a lot of attractions
heading. And again, you know, just really want
to thank you for being here. If somebody would
like to get ahold of you directly, and I hope
that's okay, what's the best way? And we can
post it in the chat too. Once you tell us. Shoot
me an email, ssmith at telanus .com. And if I
don't answer, I'll probably answer, but then
I'll hand it off to someone who can do a much
better job answering than me. Again, I'm good
at kissing babies and shaking hands and painting
a big vision, but there's people on my team that
are a lot smarter than me that get stuff done
every day for our customers. So they can definitely
help you figure out a problem. And listen, it
doesn't have to be something that's a paid engagement.
Just have questions. You want to knock around
some ideas. We're happy. I'm happy to jump on
a call, get on a Zoom, and we'll just have some
conversation because this is just too exciting.
There's too much happening. There's too much
opportunity. This is going to be one of the most
exciting times for the people that are alive
today in human history. So I'm just along for
the ride. Yeah, I'm along for the ride, too,
and I'm really excited to see where we go. So
thank you again for being here. No, thank you.
See you soon. All right. See you. Take care,
Steve. All right. Well, once again, thank you
to Steve for being here. I hope you guys enjoyed
that show. I did. I'm also probably a Star Trek
sci -fi nerd myself. So sorry, I'm not calling
Steve a nerd. I'm calling myself a nerd. But
I used to have a shirt that said I love nerds
in my 20s. So maybe that is. is is a theme for
me but you know i i love this conversation and
where we're going with technology and i hope
that maybe you took something away from today's
show that helps you maybe understand what the
future looks like a little bit more maybe how
you can create more personalized experience in
for your guests and your attractions so once
again i want to thank gate master our sponsor
for making today's episode possible If your attraction
is ready to integrate smarter systems, streamline
operations, and prepare for the next wave of
innovation, visit GateMaster .com and see how
they're helping attractions embrace the future
today. I want to thank you all for watching Live
with Sondra. And until next time, keep innovating,
keep creating unforgettable experiences, and
keep leading with the heart. And I'll see you
all soon. Take care, everybody.