Just a couple of other suggestions on how IVR could be used to improve this event:
Problem #3: Forgetting about panels
A couple of times while waiting in line to play a game, I thought to myself, “Hmm…I wonder what time that panel I wanted to go to was? Did it start already? Where is it?” And then I would open up my PAX East booklet and find out that either:
A) The panel had already started
B) The panel was about to start and I was nowhere near it
or C) I was just being a worrywart and the panel was many hours later in the day
So, instead of having gamers worry about the time and location of panels, why not have them sign up for which panels they want to go to at the beginning of the day, take down their phone number, and send out an IVR outbound call to remind them of when a panel is about to begin?
This would solve multiple problems:
1) People wouldn’t have to wait in line for over an hour to wait for a panel.
2) The PAX East organizers can get a better sense of the number of people that are going to show up at the panel.
Problem #4: Ticket system for playing console games
After the expo hall and panels were closed off for the day, the only things left to do were to play console games or attend concert events (which had sold out of tickets). So, I decided to spend some time playing the console games. When I got there, I found that in order to play a console game, you had to first grab a ticket (similar to grabbing tickets at a deli counter) and wait for your number to come up before you could play.
One word: ridiculous.
Why not take down the list of gamers that want to play and their phone numbers and just queue up an outbound IVR call that will notify them that their ticket number is about to come up? This would free up gamers from having to wait around watching other people play.
Just some other random thoughts that came up while waiting around at PAX East.
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