The Course Curator and Court Curator were developed with the goal of creating a new type of event experience for American Express. The Curator debuted at the U.S. Open of Golf held at The Congressional Country Club to enormous success. It was then evolved for the US Open of Tennis held at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows.
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The Course Curator experience started with a simple observation, “cell phones are not allowed at golf events.” With this paradigm we sought to create a useful on-site tool; the solution, a heads up dashboard system accessed through an RFID card on a lanyard. Start by creating a fully custom profile or pick from one of the pre-determined packages. Then, simply scan the lanyard at any select location on the golf course and get instant access to the players you choose to follow, news that's curated for you, detailed directions around the course, tweets and a whole lot more. When done head over to the printing station and print a daily schedule and player information. Not only does the system provide a beautiful takeaway from a day at the U.S. Open but it doubles as a handy reference that is refreshed continuously.
The next iteration will embrace this fully,
we have our sights clearly set on the best
event experience possible.”
-Michael Kern
The Course Curator is back, but it has been re-envisioned as the Court Curator for the 2011 US Open of Tennis. New features for the Court Curator included a live match scoring system, a constantly evolving schedule that put users right into the action, and an improved CMS for writers and content staff. The RFID system was bettered by directly connecting printer stations to each Court Curator, this along with new circular kiosks sped up the process and greatly improved traffic flow through the space.
With over 10,000 system users, the Court Curator was an outstanding success. Thirty percent of all users came back for multiple interactions.
Creating spaces that people want to engage with is an exciting challenge, and we know success has been achieved when the gates drop and people jump in and interact. In addition, to the Curator experiences we assembled a variety of other experiences for both venues to emphasize, educate, inform, and excite the audience. Read on to find out about a few of the other digital experiences that were created in this process.
For the U.S. Open of Golf we built an interactive history kiosk commissioned by the USGA. It told the story of the Presidents, golf, and created a timeline of events to witness how they are implicitly intertwined in US politics. Videos, photos, a data visualization of presidential handicaps and more rounded out the experience.
The media wall featured a six screen seamless LCD monitor setup. We built motion graphics that told the story of the experience. These acted both as informational and instructional to assist in educating people about the space and the latest happenings at the event. Additionally, we dynamically pulled current weather feeds, and a rolling leader board for the best in up-to-the-minute information.
For the US Open of Tennis we replaced our former media wall with an enormous 50 foot long curved LED wall, displaying live video, up to the minute scores, weather, matches to watch and more. This system was improved by allowing it to be completely dynamic, content could be arranged on the fly in the control room through a CMS. It gave us a large focal point in the space that drew in the crowds.
