This article originally appeared in the November 2022 issue of Security Business magazine. When sharing, don’t forget to mention Security Business magazine on LinkedIn and @SecBusinessMag on Twitter.
I once stood in a two-and-a-half-hour line because my 8-year-old wanted to ride the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at Disneyworld. I think pretty much every parent has been in this spot: We sat whenever possible; we shared snacks; we quickly depleted the battery power of every electronic device within reach; we moaned; we complained; and of course, we all questioned whether a nearly 3-hour wait for a little less than 3 minutes of entertainment was actually worth it in the end.
I think many would argue that the three-hour wait was exactly what we signed up for when we entered the gates of the Orlando theme park – but do you know what we weren’t doing throughout that time? We weren’t buying anything, for one, and we were confined to a tight area as we weaved through the maze of crowd control barriers and rope stanchions.
Ask anyone who is running late for a flight at a major U.S. airport what they think about working their way through a maze of rope stanchions…I would bet that most of the responses are not fit for reprint here.
Bottom line is that lines are bad! They are terrible for business, they can create anxiety and anger among those who are stuck in them – often leading to violence, and they can leave throngs of people in an extremely vulnerable situation with no easy route of escape. In all honesty, lines may be one of the most hated things in America.
Stadiums and indoor venues have long been on the front lines of the war on lines.
“First of all, nobody likes to stand in line,” Jim Mercurio, Executive Vice President & General Manager of Levi’s Stadium – home of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers – pointed out during a recent SecurityInfoWatch.com webinar on special events and sports facility security. “When you reduce time in a line, it does a whole bunch of things from a revenue-generation standpoint. Waiting in line means losing sales.”
The entire premise of the Vanguard Award honorable mention Anime Expo project was the fact that the 2019 event – as well as previous iterations – was given the unfortunate nickname of “LineCon,” and management was intent on improving what was reported as four-hour waits just to enter the venue. Patrons – many of whom were fully outfitted in cosplay in 90-degree heat – swore they would never return.
“When you're standing in line to get into a venue, it increases the potential threat to folks who are in that line,” Mercurio said. “We want to get people screened as quickly as possible and into the facility.”
Thankfully, integrators can come to the rescue here, with frictionless and mobile technologies that enable these venues to vastly increase throughput of patrons at entrances. From threat screening solutions to wave-and-go ticketing, a combination of technologies is proving to be the primary defense in the war on lines.
“In most cases, you are [catching] the things that are giving you pause or keeping you up at night,” Mercurio said. “But you have to be careful when you are using technology that you don't solve one problem and create another. The answer is not 100-percent technology driven – it [should be] a part of securing people and process.”
Indeed, beyond the cutting-edge technology to combat lines, integrators and security executives should also always be cognizant of the people who are standing in them. As an example, I was recently in a long line to enter a special party. It was taking quite a while, and folks were growing impatient. Just as voices began to rise and tempers were about to flare, a man pushing a cart with free water and snacks appeared, and everything calmed down again. A little understanding and compassion surely go a long way to shortening a long line.
Listen to the full SecurityInfoWatch webinar on special events and sports facility security at www.securityinfowatch.com/21281197.
Paul Rothman is Editor-in-Chief of Security Business magazine. Email him your comments and questions at [email protected]. Access the current issue, full archives and apply for a free subscription at www.securitybusinessmag.com.
