'We are using technology to enrich guest experience... to create magic'

To say that Noble Coker, CIO of the upcoming Hong Kong
Disneyland, is a fast learner, would by no means be an exaggeration. He joined
PwC as an analyst and subsequently was hired by Disney as a programmer. Rising
up the ranks, he took up the challenge to oversee the construction of the fifth
Disneyland in Hong Kong, and the rest as they say is history. In a free-wheeling
interaction with Shashwat Chaturvedi from CyberMedia News, Coker talks
about the "magical experience" at Disneyland and how IT makes it
happen. Excerpts.

Can you say a little about the use of IT at Hong Kong's
Disneyland Resort?

At Disneyland the use of technology can be classified under four different
categories: first one is business transaction, the use of IT in hotel
reservation, merchandise sale, food point of sale, etc. The second category is
communication, the use of email, IP telephony for internal communication. The
third category, and a rather important one for us, is the safety and security
for our guests and visitors right from food to park monitoring. The fourth one
is the entertainment; we use technology in a variety of ways to enrich the guest
experience.

You have often emphasized on creating a "magical
experience" for the guests, can you share some instances on how technology
is being used in that?

When our guests walk out of our park, I would rather have them remembering
Disneyland for a great magical experience rather than a great technological one.
I want people to say, "Wow, how did they do this?" and our technology
is geared towards creating that very experience. Starting from the website, we
have created a similar experience much like the one that a guest will experience
at the park. At the park itself, we are using a variety of tech applications,
for instance, there is a wireless broadcast that synchronizes the timing through
the park, ensuring that all the different elements work in perfect coordination,
like the parade and the floats. We also have piped music that is running through
the underlying infrastructure.

"Guests in the future would want a more enhanced experience, so when they visit the Tarzan tree house, they would like more information on Tarzan. We are gearing to deliver that enriched user experience"

Or take the case of the newly introduced FastPass at Disneyland,
in the past guests had to stand in long queues to be able to enjoy their rides.
Now with Fastpass, they can register themselves for a slot later in the day and
comeback in that slot and enjoy their ride. This helps the guests spend more
time on the rides rather than queuing up. Even our park attractions use
technology to reinforce the "magical" feeling. Take the case of Stitch
Encounter, based on the Disney character Stitch. He dynamically interacts with
the guest and his responses are based on what the guest tells him.

One of the challenges (mentioned by you) was working with a
multi-cultural team, how difficult or easy is it to work with diverse teams?

To be honest, working with multi-cultural teams can be extremely difficult,
if one is not sufficiently prepared for it. I committed a lot of mistakes and
learnt through them. Such experiences forces one to remove filters; filters that
one acquires over time. The experience can be quite humbling. For instance, when
I had come here, I was trying to achieve things without understanding the
significance of different cultures. Typically, Americans have a bad habit of
talking first and listening later and giving away a lot of content without much
context. I quickly understood these issues and got down to working them out by
understanding the people and learning more about their culture.

Do you think current-day CIOs pay much (more than required)
attention to this aspect?

Though companies are going global, I still feel that as CIOs we do not pay
much attention to cultural sensitivity issues. By nature CIOs are project driven
and focused on getting the job done, and no one frets over such things. But, I
personally feel that resolving these issues can be critical to the success of a
team.

What is the IT strategy roadmap for the future, ie technologies
that are being tested for the future?

Going ahead, we have created a New Technology Group that has representatives
from all the major Disney Parks like Hong Kong, France and the US. The group
examines all the emerging technologies across the world and then uses them at
the parks. For instance, some years back, the mobile penetration in Hong Kong
was much ahead of what it is in the US, so we perfected the mobile applications
out here and now they can be cross deployed in the US market.

In the times to come, convergence across varying media will be
big thing in the days to come. Today media is ubiquitous; there are a plethora
of devices like iPods, mobile phones, etc. The challenge will be to deliver
multi-dimensional experience. Guests in the future would want a more enhanced
experience, so when they visit the Tarzan tree house, they would like more
information on Tarzan or even like to see a movie clip of the film. We are
gearing to deliver that enriched user experience. Disneyland will always be
magical.