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Creating Worry-Free Event Parking With a Trusted Partner
Background
Held every year at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, GA, the Big South National Qualifier is the largest junior indoor volleyball tournament in America. In a typical year, the event hosts over 1,000 teams competing simultaneously over a single weekend. In addition to the athletes themselves, the weekend draws over 10,000 parents and spectators from all across the country. Its sister tournament, L’il Big South, is also held in the same event over the MLK holiday weekend.
Partnerships, including parking, and social media are managed by two people: Jeremy Rubin, founder of event management company Synergies21, and Mackenzie Tichenor, VP of Tampa Volleyball Tournaments. With a whirlwind schedule and so many out-of-town attendees, ensuring people know exactly how to get where they need to go is serious business. “People don’t know the venue and the area, so they look to us for guidance on everything, whether it’s parking, hotels, or just local things to do,” explains Rubin.
Located in the heart of downtown Atlanta, the Georgia World Congress Center is a huge space, offering over 12,000 parking spaces. Parking is spread out throughout the venue across multiple lots and garages.
Raising the Bar with a Trusted Partner
Big South prides itself on being not just a tournament, but on providing attendees a one-stop-shop for everything they need to be happy during the event. To maintain a consistently great attendee experience, Rubin and Tichenor play to their strengths while collaborating with a network of trusted vendors for everything else.
While the tournament’s previous parking vendor was functional, its antiquated system wasn’t meeting the high standards of the event. “Attendees see parking as a reflection on Big South, not the vendor,” Rubin notes.
“It was a no-brainer to partner with ParkMobile. The ParkMobile partnership makes our lives easier and makes us look better. It’s something we can trust, and something we can trust them to manage.” – Jeremy Rubin, Owner of Synergies21
Based on the app’s stellar reputation and their own positive experiences using it, Rubin and Tichenor decided ParkMobile was the right choice to take better care of their customers. “We trust ParkMobile when we’re parking,” says Tichenor, “and that’s why we wanted to bring it to our events so our attendees can trust the information they get on parking is safe and accurate.”
Reducing Stress and Creating a Better Experience
Getting to a venue and finding parking is often a source of stress for both players and parents alike at an important tournament. ParkMobile helped create a seamless, stress-free parking experience for attendees thanks to its simple interface and best-in-class features. The ability to reserve and pay for a specific parking space in advance was noted as particularly popular. “Being able to reserve a spot was huge for our parents,” Tichenor notes. “Whereas before, people just had to pay in advance and hope they got there early enough, ParkMobile gave them extra security.”
They also mention that ParkMobile’s popularity and wide usage helped put attendees’ minds at ease. “ParkMobile has become such a staple in so many areas that it takes so much off our attendees’ plates. It gives them so much less to research and worry about.”
Parking at Big South 2020 also faced a potential headache due to several construction projects and closed roads around the center. Tichenor notes that ParkMobile went above and beyond to provide accessible, up-to-date parking information for attendees. “It was so simple,” she recalls. “ParkMobile had all their ducks in a row in advance, which made our lives easier and our attendees’ lives easier.”
Simplifying Event Parking with Proactive Support
Tichenor and Rubin are constantly being pulled in different directions to make the tournament a success, leaving limited time to handle technical issues or address attendees’ questions when they arise. So from their view in the command center, no news is good news. Achieving this is no small task given the 8,300 parking passes sold for the 2020 event. “Volleyball parents are not afraid to voice their opinion and let us know if there is a problem,” Rubin says. “During Big South, we got hardly any questions or concerns about ParkMobile.”
Rubin also praised ParkMobile for proactively solving issues that come up. Together with ParkMobile, Synergies21 was able to offer attendees of Big South an improved, stress-free parking experience without putting any extra work on their plate. “We set ourselves apart by giving our attendees the best experience possible at the event, not just playing. ParkMobile was an extension of ourselves,” Rubin comments.
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