AT&T Virtual Hub Spotlights Sports & Entertainment Solutions
The COVID-19 pandemic has canceled countless trade shows and expos, making it difficult for vendors to show their wares. For AT&T, though, it offered an ability to rethink the ways it can display its many services and offerings. The disruption created an opening for the company to show how it can help businesses across all sectors in innovative ways.
The AT&T Hub is an all-in-one, virtual expo for key offerings in nine sectors, including sports and entertainment. Each hub is designed to highlight relevant use cases for the field, and it works as an immersive experience. For sports and entertainment, the Hub is set up as a connected stadium. As the user walks from outside the stadium down to field level, there are countless solutions for clients to discover, everything from a robot barista to mobile ATMs and connected cybersecurity solutions. It’s a cornucopia of AT&T use cases and offerings for the sports and entertainment world—and it’s only a small slice of the entirety of solutions the company can deliver on.
“The hope is that our customers finish exploring the virtual expo hall with a vision of how AT&T Business can be their trusted advisor, as they continue their journey of digital transformation,” says Melanie Sullivan, Senior Channel Marketing Manager, Sports & Entertainment at AT&T. “We have products and solutions that can address the needs of different industries, so it was important for us to make these more tangible for them, albeit virtual.”
While many conferences and expos have migrated to virtual offerings during the pandemic, AT&T had the ability to set their versions in actual environments to show its use cases in a way that an analog presentation could never do. The retail experience, for example, is hosted in a grocery store. In healthcare, you can follow the patient’s journey from ambulance to hospital room.
This allows the company to deliver information about its products to customers while telling a compelling story. In the sports realm, AT&T communicates about the emerging technology behind the fan experience, while showcasing back-of-the house cybersecurity and the latest 5G capabilities for stadium operation employees. Instead of one-size-fits-all, the experience can be individualized.
“In our Virtual Briefing Center, which is another area within The Hub, we are able to provide customers with more curated experiences,” says Sullivan. “For these pre-scheduled briefings, we are able to adjust some elements in the virtual rooms to create a bespoke experience for the customers we are hosting.”
One of the perks of the hub is being able to show off the entirety of AT&T solutions. Because of the interactivity, AT&T can direct clients to technologies in the manufacturing field that may have an application in the sports field, opening clients up to new discoveries that might not have previously happened.
Additionally, AT&T can spotlight solutions that some customers may not be aware of. For example, because AT&T is the parent of WarnerMedia, it can feature the Bleacher Report app, in addition to use cases that support the NBA on TNT.
“First is our 5G Courtside Cam, which recently won a Fierce Innovation Award,” says Sullivan. “Now this isn’t a traditional camera—this was a broadcast done entirely with a smartphone over our 5G network—an industry first. In addition to operations efficiency within the venue itself, we believe there are many use cases going forward that organizations will use, such as multiple angles and out-of-venue home experiences.”
COVID-19 has changed how conferences and trade shows will operate. While they will eventually return, the ability to offer a standalone, virtual booth will pay dividends for AT&T and its customers. The customized experience will be more readily available, especially since most in-person conferences are yearly.
“My hope is two-fold,” says Sullivan. “One, that customers come away having learned something new about our expertise, capabilities and scope of brands under the AT&T family that they may not have known before. Second, that they come away inspired with all the ways AT&T can partner with them to help solve a business need, execute a particular vision, fill an expertise gap or just get better insights that can help them make better decisions.”