The MLS NEXT Fest is a six-day event that hosts hundreds of professional, national team, and college scouts that evaluate the play of over 400 teams of youth soccer athletes. MLS NEXT wanted to ensure that these coaches and scouts had an exceptional experience, and as part of the MLS Innovation Lab, partnered with Wicket to deliver express check-in and meal redemption programs.
The venue for MLS NEXT Fest consists of dozens of soccer fields across hundreds of acres. Factors such as power, connectivity, and hundreds of coaches all checking in at the same time present operational challenges, especially at peak times. In the past, this resulted in frustration and bad first impressions.
Check in and meal vouchers used to be managed on-site with spreadsheets, which were cumbersome, difficult to track, and led to long wait times and frustration for coaches.
The Wicket platform allowed for pre-event enrollment to capture attendee information that empowered MLS NEXT and on-site staff to streamline check-in and meal redemption.
Utilizing the Wicket platform, a new system was put in place that was designed to make it easy for both attendees and staff. Coaches just had to fill out their registration form and provide their photo ahead of the event, and upon arrival could walk up to the check-in device to be greeted by name. This enabled staff to efficiently manage check-in as well.
Wicket has spent years deploying, learning, and creating more efficient experiences that save guests and staff precious time.
A dual-screen kiosk was set up for check-in and meal redemption. The first acted as the guest kiosk with on-screen messaging that personally welcomed them as they walked up, and the other as a secondary screen for staff to quickly see names of guests so they could greet them and hand them daily meal vouchers.
Utilizing a custom Wicket webhook, guest activity was populated in real-time to a spreadsheet tracked and managed by staff.
This setup was utilized by staff and guests over the course of the multi-day event, with nearly 500 users generating over 1,000 total transactions. The new pre-event enrollment and express check-in process resulted in virtually no wait times, better accountability of meal vouchers, and great experiences.
MLS NEXT continues to improve for scouts and recruiters—thanks for paying attention and making the experience better for coaches.
Anonymous Guest Survey Respondent
