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LBX Collective
Sound Off #107 - Party Booking AI Agents, Disney pivots, Padel LBE, & more!
Sponsored by Intercard!
Sponsored by Alan-1!
On this week's show we look at how AI agents now handle first-contact birthday party and corporate bookings, why you still need skilled closers, and what that means for conversion and margins. We also unpack Disney’s pivot toward original-trilogy Star Wars, leadership moves in FEC chains, the pickleball and padel ceiling, soccer tech venue competition, and a new 360‑motion VR platform built for LBE.
• AI agents qualifying party and group sales
• why human closers still decide the outcome
• filtering tire kickers and surfacing real budgets
• Disney’s Star Wars parks shifting back to originals
• leadership changes at Family Entertainment Group
• techno pickleball hype, naming pitfalls, weak dwell
• Crossbar vs Toca Social and membership pivots
• the case for wow‑factor XR and 360 motion VR
• upcoming Amusement Expo and AWE plans
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Are you on the edge of your seat? Because we're going to see Kevin William. Covering today's latest trends in location-based energy. Brought to you by the LBX Collective, your community to connect with a inspired. All right, everyone, let's buckle up.
SPEAKER_01:All right. Well, welcome everybody to Sound Off with Kevin Williams for January 27th. Woo! We are flying through the year so far. Amazing. High speed. High speed. All right. Well, this week, how are you going to change my mind?
SPEAKER_02:Well, uh, I've been uh sitting down with some operators and some developers recently, and uh a cor uh a common narrative has uh popped up, really, that they are embracing AI with both hands. Uh now, it isn't really where you know you print up the story, AI takes over private event, uh, hire business, and you know, you get panicky and you think people are being thrown out of their jobs and robots are being uh brought in. No, not really. What we're seeing is that the tool that is AI is being effectively applied in the areas, in the low-friction areas, or I would argue the high friction areas, where a human being can only be brought in really when the the call or the inquiry has been validated. So the situation is many operators are now having a situation where when you dial that number uh or you send that email to the if you want to arrange a private hire or a party uh at our venue, that is going to an AI tool that is uh going through uh offering information very well in many cases. I've played with some of these, uh, and it cuts to the chase. It works out exactly what you want, it works out what price point you're coming in at, and then passes you on to the human being, or the human being picks up uh the information once it's been filtered. This can be an automated process that will go through a database that will allow management to keep an eye on this process, removing a lot of the black art from uh the actual cold call to uh actually hiring the venue, and also can fill in a lot of the blanks to allow the real human agent to offer the best possible package without having to blunder through uh trying to work out exactly what is wanted. It also removes the uh the chaff from the wheat. So those tire kickers, those people who are you know planning to do a party and they're gonna call up 50 venues just to find out what their deals are, those individuals can be satiated, they can receive that information in a simple and uh and valuable format to make an opinion without a member of staff having to actually be pulled into the loop. This goes back to a lot of what I say about automation and computerization, the usage of uh large language models, the usage of autonomous machines within the entertainment environment. It is not the replacement of the human, it is allowing the human to do the best uh and to utilize their best skills uh directly rather than wasting them on the mundane. And I would argue that removal of the tire kickers, and so every lead that the uh uh private event organizer is going to receive spat out from the machine is going to be a verified and quality opportunity that they then need to maximize on, in improves their uh opportunities tenfold. Um the number of location-based entertainment chains that have now moved over to a first point of contact AI tool dealing with uh the possible hirer or customer uh tells us that this is going to be a major part of the future of our sector.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think there's absolutely no question that AI agents both for, I would say, initial guest interaction um over the phone, but then also specifically for party booking for for private event group sales, like you know, corporate event sales, as well as a birthday party booking, that AI will not will absolutely play a big role in this. Um, I would say though, um we're talking about corporate events, like that's just assuming that the location based entertainment venue has somebody specifically focused on corporate events. And I think that is a big gap where so many venues really do not have a dedicated person, person and or group of people focused on that sale. And so while I think AI agents can help, if you don't have somebody at the other side post-AI agent to help really get that sale closed, somebody who is specifically skilled in doing that type of closing sale, then you are going to miss out, even if you're trying to implement the AI agent.
SPEAKER_02:I've I've come across a number of facilities that opened with the web page saying for party bookings, click here and go to party sales and it goes to whichever member of staff is near the phone, which is not ideal. Or in some cases, the owner of the facility would uh uh avorously guard all of the party leads uh and would constantly wonder why uh certain soccer monks were getting very bored of trying to catch him when he wasn't on the golf course. It it's an issue that needs to be uh utilized. You're leaving cheddar on the table, as I keep on saying, if you don't have a dedicated party uh and private event uh coordinator. But that said, many smaller venues can't afford that. And thankfully, through the magic of boiling uh seawater uh and using up all of our power, uh, you can now have uh an AI agent do this without any excuses. If you have an AI agent handling this, what will be spat out from that AI agent will be leads that are at least more comparable and uh qualitative than if it was just a cold core. Uh and again, how we handle our relationship with our customer and what we deliver from our private parties is a conversation for another day. Um I think that's much worthy of a guess gab of how good uh a quality uh good uh a quality of uh venue that we're offering. You know, is a private party in a location-based entertainment facility comparable with what we're seeing in the restaurant industry and the hotel industry and others?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, indeed. All right, well, coming up after the quick break, we will dive right into the trends. They introduced cashless technology to the amusement industry and have been leading the way for over 30 years. Cashless systems from Intercard increase customer spending, get satisfaction, and boost revenues by up to 30%. Intercard is so proud to be serving the amusement industry. And if you are already part of a global family of customers, they hope you will become one too.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you, Intercard. One of the things about February, January, and February is that we're dealing with the post-uh-Christmas and holiday environments, and we're now ramping up uh towards the exhibitions uh and the events and the new openings. And I am interested, out of the 107 uh of the sound offs we're doing, I get the feeling that this particular January has been a little light on some developments uh compared to other years and compared to uh other occasions at this time. This particular lineup of new developments, for example, is uh thin on the ground, as I would say. But it is also pointing in a direction of change. So I'm wondering if we're at a stage where people are just taking their breath to run full force into the year, and that January has kind of been that runway needed uh to lift off. But that's just my personal opinion. But jumping in at the deep end, and uh for for many, uh I'm not going to put myself on either camp, but for some, the wicked witch is gone from uh Lucasfilm, uh an individual that has been blamed uh for um the everything, uh yeah, for everything. Uh world you know, world peace, global warming. It was Kathleen Kennedy's fault. But seriously, um when George Lucas picked her his air apparent when Walt Disney purchased uh Lucasfilms, we thought that things were going to only get better, and sadly, a number of films and TV series uh under the belt and uh many, many changes have just alienated the core uh base, and so now we have the announcement that she's uh leaving or has left the uh uh the premises. We are now greeted with two replacements uh to fill her shoes, uh, and a sudden change in the in in language and in the air, and it goes back to what I was saying earlier about that runway builder. This there was this kind of deep breath uh that Kathleen was going, but she before she went, she promised that nothing was going to change and that there was a a Ray movie in the works, and that the uh her vision uh uh for Star Wars and all of the other Lucas properties was going to continue. And then we hear that Disney's going to be pulling out. Uh, most of the uh well, not most, half of the uh modern Disney interpretation and returning to the original trilogy for if you look at the map, quite a large part of the uh Galaxy's Edge Park. Uh this one is for California, but it has already been confirmed in private that this will happen across all of the uh the uh Galaxy Edge locations. Uh what does this mean? Well, it means for one that in the background the George Williams music will be played. Um, the music that was so iconic for the Star Wars brand uh that was excluded from uh Galaxy's Edge. Um, amazingly, uh, was uh they played the modern music from the uh the Ray films and uh from uh the other interpretations, but they wouldn't play that. It also means that Darth Vader won't be just making a cameo quick visit and disappearing, but he will be a dedicated uh component of the uh the Star Wars parks. It is amazing, you know. Give the customer what they want rather than trying to force a message down their throat seems to have been written large by what has happened during this period, uh, Lucasfilm, and now it feels like there has been that deep breath and all of those barriers and those blockages towards uh uh trying to embrace what everybody wants from the Star Wars experience. Both the older fans as well as the newer fans can now be accommodated under one roof. That said, um, also the cantina is going to be closed down for a period of time as they strip out all of the modern uh interpretations of Star Wars and they turn it into the Isaac uh uh Cantina that we would have expected to have seen from the original Star Wars film. I expect to see the animatronics in the back playing the music. I expect to hear the music from that famous Cantina sequence now being played in this uh in this expanse, and at the same time, I expect that there will be original trilogy-themed drinks at high prices available uh at the bar. It is amazing to see this. And then finally, the other shoe dropped just for the theme park implications for Lucasfilters. We aren't even touching on the rumors of what is going to change in the film and the streaming services, but just in the theme park application of Lucas. We now learn that the dream of creating uh a number of missions for the Millennium Falcon, smugglers run experience, uh, this interactive motion simulation uh uh attraction at the park. Um, originally it was going to, well not originally, but there had been claims that uh the Lucasfilm Management were going to be adding a couple of excuse me, andor experiences and a couple of uh uh experiences based upon the uh the new interpretation of uh Star Wars. Well, that has been quashed, uh, and it now looks like that if there are any new missions to be added, they will be original trilogy missions rather than modern missions. This is kind of the admittance that maybe they didn't do it right, maybe they didn't listen to their fans, and now the adults are back in the room, the Sana heads, the accountants are looking at their bottom line, and they're saying you can't hold back from doing something just because you want to. You have to give us a financial reason why. And if you can't, then we're gonna just keep on pushing out the stuff that people want.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, okay. So a lot here. I'll I want to just bounce back to Kathleen Kennedy because I think first the the the fact first of all, I'm I'm glad she's gone. Um, you know, look, she had a lot of wins early on in the career. Uh obviously she co-founded Amblin' Amblin Entertainment with Steven Spielberg, was very involved with E.T. and Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones and you know the Back to the Future trilogy. So, like a lot of like the great hits from the early from the early 80s to the early 90s. Um, and then you know, she then like it kind of devolved from there. And I don't know that she's really, you know, she's been way too long in the Lucasfilm seat. I understand why George Lucas wanted to just move on himself or whatever. So glad to hear that she's moving on. And you know, look, David Faloney, a lot of the things that he's been involved with Mandalorian and Grogu, uh, the whole Mandalorian line. Like he's he's clearly like the new, like I'm glad he's moving in that direction. Um, I don't know how much her influence, how much influence she had in the actual Galaxy's Edge park, if she was the one that really led to be more in the the new trilogy versus the original trilogy. But from what I understand, they really should have done that park um as uh as a Tatooine, most sizely uh feel and theme versus some random place, Black Spire outpost that nobody's ever fucking heard of because it doesn't even exist, right? They made it up for the park. And I get it, that's fine. But when you've got people who want to come there and stand next to a Millennium Falcon and stand by an X-Wing and see these characters, you should put them in the places where they also want to go and visit. Like I love Olga's, actually. I enjoy my time at Olga's. I go there usually twice whenever I visit Disneyland, once in the morning for some drinks and once in the afternoon for some drinks, and just for their vibe. Um, it's also the only place in Disneyland you can go and get a drink unless you're in Club 33. Um, but you uh but at the same time, I would have loved to walk in and see the Biff playing in the back and you know, dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun, you know, the whole thing and be in that Moss Isley Cantina, like that to me would have been amazing and was a huge miss that they did when they built out all of Galaxy's Edge and the first.
SPEAKER_02:It wasn't a miss. Uh and speaking with my uh previous friends at uh Walt Disney Imagineering, who sadly have moved on, the majority of them now. The original concept that was put in front of IGA and all of the team was for what you've just described an original trilogy venue. Uh and they did have some nods to the new films coming along, but they were not. They weren't major inclusions. They were building a facility that was going to target the core demographic that they needed to come through there, which were people that had grown up with the Star Wars uh opportunity at the beginning of the trilogy, the original tritch. And there was led by the current management or the then current management at Lucas a demand that it pivoted towards the direction that they felt it was going to be successful for the Star Wars franchise. A lot of Imagineers pulled their hair out over that, a lot of people left the company over that, and when it was opened, no matter how they tried to spin it, it wasn't greeted with uproarious uh acceptance by the uh the audience and the fans. And I would actually argue that it is done very badly, but because of the spin and the politics that has been involved, those undercurrents, those complaints have been sidelined as misogynists or haters or not real fans of Star Wars, rather than admitting that they've made as terrible a mistake until now. And as some of the jokes put it on the web pages of some of these fan sites, the wicked witch is gone, the legs have curled up, uh, and then suddenly uh the munchkins are walking around and everybody's happy and singing. And you know, an example of this singing is the admittance. Uh uh a phrase or terminology that would have been blasphemous for me a few months ago, uh, to even suggest that you were going to put the original trilogy into this uh venue, uh, to have the original music back, to have uh you know the Skywalker representation from the original film uh as the key representation. This this kind of is not just an admittance of failure, this is a major reversal, and hoping that that reversal can solve the problems that they've seen. And this is another point. Is it too late for Star Wars? Is it too late for Feloney to try and rectify the situation? We will have to wait and see. Moving on, and uh changes and restructurings. Uh, for those of you that aren't familiar, the Family Entertainment Group run the in the game, the bonkers uh and the MAX uh attraction arenas. Uh, that's about 10 facilities, 10 to 12 facilities uh dotted around North America. Uh, and they have just had a change uh in the structure of their uh top-tier management, including Steve Parris coming in as chief operating officer, which uh is going to be interesting to see how much uh this will change uh the direction of these. We were only reporting a few uh opens and shots ago about a new in the game facility throwing its doors open and how we were. Interested to see where they were going with that. Bonkers, there aren't that many out there. Uh, the same with uh the Max uh uh action park or arena uh venues. I'm getting the feeling that the investors are going to be looking towards injecting capital and seeing an increased rollout schedule to keep up with the competition. And you're gonna be seeing this kind of thing a lot uh being reported.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, this is interesting. I mean, they are uh going, they are moving pretty hard and expanding their in-the-game uh franchise. I don't know, I'm not gonna call it franchise, but they're in their game brand that they use. And so yeah, this is um he's been sitting in the senior the SVP uh strategic operations role for the you know better part of five years or so, and um, and so now yeah, he's clearly getting ready to take over the C-suite.
SPEAKER_02:It is it is giving the horse the bridle, uh, it is giving the whip, uh, more likely. It is trying to encourage the team that you have to move to the next level. And I I use the phrase in an opener's chart that you know this particular comp another company had reached that interesting 10 facility uh opening stage. And as soon as they get to 10, uh radar comes in a lot closer because the operational needs and requirements of 10 facilities to move on to the next level, which is the 30s and the 40s, takes a lot more uh perception from the C-suite management team. It also needs a revitalizing of the already existing venues. So it isn't just about looking at the future, but it is also looking at the past and making sure that all of your entertainment offering meets a higher standard that you can build upon that foundation towards a greater acceptance. And one of the things about Family Entertainment Group, of course, is um I will be interested to see how they fit this into their amusement affiliations. They have very close links with a number of arcade manufacturers and distributors, and those type of things need to expand and grow as you roll out more facilities. Anyway.
SPEAKER_01:Alright, well, coming up after another quick break, we will continue with uh Steve with a few more trends. Power up your game floor with arcades by Alan One. Whether it's perfectly foreign drinks and doctor cut explaining, having officials something to question, or defending cities with attack in midst of command reaching our architect. Alan One has something for every venue in arcade floor that will delight your guests. Each game is also enhanced to later ease for it. It's got clear to explore it and brings guests back to your venue for more. Visit AllenDanx1.com to learn more. That's AlanDanx1.com.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you, Alan Wall. And this part of uh the session uh kind of looked at a trend that I didn't expect to be talking about uh at this point in 2026. Anyway, we have uh the announcement of a brand new entrant into the techno pickleball market. I never thought that that'd be a term. But anyway, uh No Strings is purporting itself to be the successor to top golf and flight club uh uh uh through the medium of pickleball. It's uh it's raised some funding, and it uh comes from a group of individuals that have uh associations with some very popular uh social entertainment platforms such as Bouts and others. From my point of view, this is being aimed more at the American market than the European market, which is a very telling statement. And you know, no strings seems to be not just uh a new techno infusion of uh the pickleball experience, and what I think that means is just a better scoring capability. But they're also looking at trying to consolidate venues, bring them under a united brand, offering this level of technology engagement and also building up their social entertainment component, their F and B, as it were, towards making coming up with a plan where pickleball can be as popular as Top Golf, can be as popular as Fly Club. Tall order. We've touched upon the issues with pickleball as a competitive socializing component. It isn't uh as simple as just uh putting a bar at the end of a pickleball uh playing court. Most pickleballs are free environments, and so the monetization is going to be difficult uh unless, and in this case, they feel that they're no strings. Uh technology addition is going to warrant people actually putting their hand into their wallets and their purses and pulling out their credit cards. Also, the unification under a single brand can also bring power to uh the operation the same way that the gym industry has gone for that kind of approach. It was interesting to see this happening now because there is also some news of new pickleball venues opening. But I don't know if you caught this particular announcement, Brand.
SPEAKER_01:No, uh I didn't. And uh, you know, whatever the fuck. I I just don't, you know, again, like paddle, pickleball, these are not uh these are not social entertainment venues. These can be social, these can be sporttainment, they can be other things, but they are not social entertainment or competitive socializing venues, even if you put Lucra into the mix. Um, and again, you know, we'll wait and see what other attractions they bring in. Um, but I struggle with this again being anything different than a pickleball venue, but it's paddle. Now, the one thing I will uh say here is that they have picked the worst fucking name you could ever have done. And here's why. So they have uh, you know, their name is NoStrings, their website no dash strings.co. When I googled no strings, and I even Googled no strings paddle because no strings comes up with no strings attached and a bunch of other things, right? So I did no strings paddle, and sure enough, there's already a company called No Strings, and they sell paddles for paddle ball. Um, so it's no stringspaddle.com. So they have no dash strings.co dash in the domain and also.co terrible URL, and then they competing directly on a URL and brand name basis with no strings paddle that's actually already selling paddle balls. So they're going to get, if they haven't already, a cease and assist on their name. Um and so why go through all of this effort when all you had to do was Google your goddamn name and search for it and see if no strings paddle is available. I just do not understand unless they're planning to buy the nostringspaddle.com company who's making paddle ball paddles, and then they're gonna sell that stuff in their merchandise area and they don't have to worry about it right now, right? And they're gonna just blend the two things together. So this was just poorly thought out. It's like they, you know, himself, Brandon. It's maybe it's a level of arrogance given his given given their experience and background and all the success they've had. There's this level of arrogance that, like, hey, everybody's gonna bend around me instead.
SPEAKER_02:Exactly. And for me, when this press release dropped, you know, other than the eyes rolling over paddle ball and all of that, it was also the interesting thing of how much they were pushing their previous successes rather than trying to, you know, this is that is just a rookie schoolboy error. And if it isn't an error, then it's a level of arrogance that is dangerous to establishing a brand new concept. If you're going to establish a brand new concept in this sector, you want to play nice with everyone rather than be the bully. So, you know, whatever the reason for this faux pas, I think it's going to uh to bite them in the derriere. I'm also concerned that the secretive nature of the oh, you don't know, but this is fantastic, reminds me a lot of the pool house attitude that we had that kind of concept. And I I get it, guys, you've had success in your past, and you know, like James Cameron, we we will bet on you again, even though you go in certain directions, but Aaron Gunz will only get you so far. And there's something about the the whole situation surrounding paddle ball uh and uh that where it is going next. It's very telling that we're in that kind of changeable scenario that we've been reporting for the trampoline sector, which is if you're not bringing something unique and entertaining to the table, you can't live off your previous uh charms. And I get the feeling here that their next announcement and their next development better be impressive, or else this could be uh dead on a rival concepts, especially hearing that they're going to be focusing on the American market first in bringing everybody into the tent before they then look at the uh uh the European market. That that is something uh that I think we should uh raise as one of the first of two flags of warning. And those the build-up, the continuation of investment in uh paddleball uh venues is interesting because it it slowed considerably. Uh the venues that opened had opened and were doing the business that they were doing, and then suddenly we had a hiatus, a desert of no new venues being announced and opened. And then uh beginning of uh or the end of 2025, the beginning of 2026, we're now hearing about new sites being opened. And predominantly I'm hearing about these from a UK standpoint. I'm sure they're happening in North America, but I wake up and find out that uh Paddle Ho is going to be uh jumping into a uh a previously fire-damaged jump arena uh trampoline site, and is going to be turning that into a uh an indoor uh facility. And then we hear about a brand new paddleplex uh facility that is also going to, well, it is taking over an existing car park area in Nottingham and is going to turn it into a brand new paddleball. One million pounds uh spend for this particular facility. And it's not earth-shattering. It is, you know, this this is very low-key, but uh the the tip of the spear, as it were, regarding what's happening with uh paddleball. And I worry that uh what we've been speculating for some time about the drop-off in paddleball interest is now ripe for that uh that point where people just go, ho hum, seeing it done it, let's just move on. And these particular new openings, which are scheduled for the end of this year, uh may be the last that we will be reporting on new investment of facilities for some time. But again, that's a personal opinion.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I mean, look, I think I've gone on the record quite often about pickleball, and I was all ranting over it a little bit already. Paddle is no different, right? Paddle is pickleball, but with a different racket and a different fucking ball. It's all the same thing. And um and and that just it's not this is not an area that we need to be expanding um in these types of facilities, unless, of course, it's going to be in the tennis club model. That's totally fine. It can be a sporttainment model where it's a it's like a tennis club, you have a membership or whatever, and you go in and you're there to play, and then you're there to get maybe a smoothie, and then you leave, right? But it's not a place where people are going to hang out all night and play a little bit of paddle and then have a hamburger and two pints of beer.
SPEAKER_02:No, it isn't. Uh, and people that are hoping that they can turn it into being that, and again, there is the territorial and uh cultural difference between what paddle ball is in the UK and what pickleball is in America. I'm not going to get into all of that, but either way you cut it, I don't believe that this competitive socializing attribution that they want to hook onto this uh form of entertainment is going to work. Those that have been depending on this being a market that's going to grow and expand have come to that stall, that pause moment, where no matter how much millions you plough into this, you're not really going to get that return on your investment. And now there is this danger that uh one of our active entertainment facilities may be doing the the whammy here and jumping into this available space once it's opened and failed to prove itself. Continuing with the uh sportstainment uh attributions, and we learnt now uh of crossbar. We touched upon this in a previous uh sound off, but now we have a little bit more transparency to what's going on. This is a wannabe successor to the tocker social approach to uh sports bay projection mat ball tracked football or soccer-oriented entertainment. We were originally talking about uh their plans for uh a Manchester opening at Printworks. Now we learn that they've uh actually signed a lease uh to open at Liverpool One uh with a 25,000 square component of their Brad. So they really are jumping out of the starting gates at speed with this, and that they're pushing very hard. Even before the first venue has opened, we've got the second venue uh in the works, a Netflix house approach. Um, get it out there and get it out there fast and you know move quickly and break things kind of activity. But already we're beginning to kind of get to see the cracks in the uh in the plaster, as it were, where they're now redefining their definition of their facility. They are now pivoting in certain directions that are different to what was originally uh suggested in the uh Manchester announcements, and we're seeing them also learning lessons from what's been happening at Toca Social recently. Uh it was interesting while we were at the EAG show uh in London just a couple of weeks ago, we had the chance uh to speak to uh the C-suite team behind Toca Social and seeing that they, with their new deals in Mexico and in Latin America, as well as their plans of expansion, that they had learned a lot of lessons from their initial facility openings. And I think others have been watching that and uh making those changes. Those changes are more entertainment, those changes are uh a more diverse entertainment mix, those changes are a much more broader social entertainment and F and B offering.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, I look I think it's good for Tokasocial to have some competition. Um and uh I do like their their vibe, their feel to their logo and to some of the stuff that they have, at least in their renderings. It'll be interesting to see once it opens how successfully they have executed on their model or their plan. But uh you know, look a little bit of competition is always good, and um toca social could use it.
SPEAKER_02:And they're not the only competition. We've uh talked about ball ballers uh out there. There's also some other uh companies. Um I'm trying to remember the the name in the Netherlands, the company that has developed their enclosure, uh their ball box or something like that. All of these competitors are fighting over the same real estate, as it were, the same entertainment offering. My concern uh is that is there enough out of uh active entertainment of this kind next uh with a competitive socializing vibe? Funny, going back to what we were saying about the uh paddle ball kind of approach is are you going to play this and then stick around for a couple of hours with a burger and a pipe? While we were uh at Tocker Social uh during the events, had a chance to look around us, and there was a reasonable audience utilizing the space and playing the game. This was the O2 facility uh that uh the mixer was held at. But the one thing that is clear is how much you have to depend on repeat visitation for this kind of model and uh how much Tokosocial is now pivoting towards a repeat visitation membership model with competition, uh, and how some of these sites now suddenly notice this and are applying the handbrake and trying to uh pivot their vehicle to follow this move. You may not think it's a major change, but having a tournament-based uh competition component to your social entertainment venue is quite, you know, it needs management, it needs uh staffing, it needs engagement. And that is not an easy thing to try and add to a concept that didn't originally have that added to it. As we've seen with our friends at Dave and Busters trying to come up with a tournament kind of model for their entertainment venue offering. Moving on, and a new entrant into the market. I have to for the levels of transparency, I have to uh uh reveal that I am uh partly involved as a consultant and advisor to our friends at Vitrurian VR, an Italian company that has developed a 360 motion system. And you know, when I came across this and when I was approached by them, I was struck by is this the R360, the Sega R360 being rewritten for uh the modern market. They have created a very compelling 360 motion-based platform which is reliable and robust enough uh to be deployed into the entertainment sector. The company comes from uh uh simulation, commercial simulation background, and they have uh developed a system. But it's also its versatility. This is a system that can be for a standing VR experience or a seated cockpit simulator experience, still engaging that same level of active entertainment motion. Uh, and you know, even though it's tied to VR, this technology will have applications beyond just uh VR simulation and entertainment, but it will also be used with uh converted flat screen systems in the past, uh in the future. But in currently they are focusing on this VR uh first version system. We should have the first of these prototypes available uh by the end of the year, and so we're looking forward to placing them uh uh on the show floor during uh IALPA. But the company has already uh they have a previous background of rolling out these systems uh as demonstrators for uh marketing effects. So it is proven technology that is now being turned uh towards the Time and block.
SPEAKER_01:Uh yeah, look, I mean, you did a good job keeping this secret, even from me. So uh, you know, look, this is um I'm this is very uh interesting, very compelling. Here's a little uh bumper uh video from on their website, the trivian vr.com. And um, yeah, I mean, first of all, it just looks cool. And I could imagine seeing these things in your venue, um, you know, or in a venue, like with all the bright lights and everything else. Um, obviously, this is a prototype that they must have had at the you know, Google startup event or whatever.
SPEAKER_02:That was their first uh rollout of uh the concept, the proof of pudding, really.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, but the the smoothness in which it appears to move and the quickness in which it appears to move is really interesting. And uh look, I I mean, I I think these are the types of experiences that location-based entertainment and location-based VR, uh, this is the level of experience that needs to be in a location-based uh you know uh entertainment facility, not your standard, I can put a headset on and do the same dumb shit I can do at home. This is the type of experience that's gonna elevate and leverage VR to really elevate that experience. Um, now, you know, how what's the level of coherence? Like, am I getting emotion sickness? Some things like that. Like, I do have questions around that. And obviously I want to sit in and try it. But um, yeah, this is uh this is this is the type of this is the direction that we need to be heading if we're gonna be continuing to use VR in in the LBE sector.
SPEAKER_02:Uh thinking on the broader picture of XR, if we're going to come up with immersive uh technology-based entertainment experiences, we've got to go for the wow factor rather than the, you know, I've seen it before, I can do it at home. The size of a big screen in most people's homes, which they're playing console games on, means that you've got quite a high bar to reach if you're going to wow them. Giving them an active entertainment motion-based system such as this, it's just one of those uh fundamental features that you can add to get that wow effect to bring people into your location. It is part of the reason why the uh the Sega R360 lives in our memory still because it was that wow arcade machine. There is no amusement product, singular amusement product that ever really achieved that level of wow centerpiece attraction until really we go down the path of these type of systems. And I would you know point to other 360 virtual reality systems that we have in the marketplace as you know, showing the way that those things are still popular as uh entertainment engagement. And we feel very strongly uh that the Vitruvian system uh brings a level of engagement that should draw an audience. And isn't that part of the reason we're in this business? Anyway, uh in conclusion, we've talked about uh well, March is rushing towards us, uh it seems, uh, and uh I will be involved with the Amusement Expo this year again. Uh, this time I'm doing a session that will be talking about uh competitive socializing. Uh, and again, if there's any people out there in the competitive socializing sector that want to have their voice heard at this event, please uh hook me up with uh what you want to have said. Um we also have in June uh the augmented World Expo, which will be focusing on the technology and the applications in the XR market, and we've uh agreed to dedicate part of that space to location-based entertainment. Uh it's important that this technology is given its own home to present to rather than having to fight with the pinball machines and the uh redemption machines. Anyway, if you have any information that you want to pass on or any questions, hook me up through uh LinkedIn or via my email, and I promise that I will be working hard over the laptop to get the next uh stingers uh and uh entertainment arena out to the market. Perfect.
SPEAKER_01:All right, awesome. Well, Kevin, another great sound off. And uh, you know, maybe I don't know if a Trivia's gonna be at AWE or at Amusement Expo, but uh if they're gonna be either one of those, then maybe I'll get a chance to I'll try it out. But I know you may have to be tight-lipped about that. So all right. Well, we'll see you on the next one, Kevin.
SPEAKER_02:Have a good one.
