We are here today with Greg Ingino Chief Information Officer of Active Network, a company that helps people to connect with millions of activities.
Q: Greg, can you tell me about your background and what lead you to your current role as CIO at Active?
A: My 20-year technology industry career began with earning a degree in Environmental Health and Safety, but as I’d had an interest in computers since the introduction of the personal computer (PC), I also attended computer courses throughout my education. After landing a job with a solar cell manufacturer as an environmental engineer, I decided to pursue a job in desktop engineering. Six months into the role, I continued to advance my career, holding jobs in both systems and network engineering before landing my first job as a network manager. This management experience fed my ambition to lead larger technical teams. Thanks to the influence and inspiration of a number of great mentors throughout my career, I find myself here at ACTIVE Network, where I’ve led global technology operations for the past six years.
Q: Active Network is a marketplace for activities and events. Can you explain what it is that Active does and how it all works?
A: ACTIVE Network has become a leading technology interface between consumers and their participation in activities and events. It starts with our mobile apps and activity marketplace consumer websites, such as ACTIVE.com, ReserveAmerica.com, and ACTIVEkids.com where millions of people visit each month to search for, discover and register for events and activities.Organizers of those events and activities utilize ACTIVE as their online registration technology because we offer a comprehensive, easy-to-use platform to manage their events, we offer technology to give organizers data insights and intelligence about the industry, and we promote their events with our marketing to help grow participation in their activities. In supporting both the participants and the organizers, we have become a leading interface for activities globally.
Q: We recently had The Color Run here in Seattle, WA. The event organizers used the Active platform. How many organizers are using the platform currently?
A: ACTIVE Network serves a diverse customer base of more than 42,000 organizers annually who collectively manage more than 650,000 activities and events globally. Organizations that work with ACTIVE go across all types of activities and events, including major international endurance event series such as The Color Run™ and IRONMAN®, membership-based organizations like YMCAs, and thousands of youth camps, sports leagues, and local municipalities including parks and recreation customers, such as the Chicago Park District. Organizers work with ACTIVE because our technology and service enable them to create meaningful experiences for their participants.
Q: What are some of the biggest benefits for organizers who use Active?
A: Organizers benefit most from working with ACTIVE because we provide much more than just a “registration solution” for them. As a market leader, one of ACTIVE’s strengths is in our client service to help our customers achieve their business goals at each step of their event or activity lifecycle.
ACTIVE offers tools and technology at each step, from registration to pre-event planning to event-day management, to post-event experiences. By engaging the participant at each stage of the activity lifecycle, organizers are able to increase their wallet share as well as continuously improve the participant experience. ACTIVE offers technology to support this goal throughout the entire process.
Q: What would you say has been the key element of success for the company?
A: From how we structure ACTIVE’s operations and support teams to how we build our technology and infrastructure, data guides every decision we make. With a priority focus on data and insights, not only internally at ACTIVE but as an integral part of the products that we build for our customers, we have been able to support customer growth and success. When our customers grow, we grow with them.
Q: What is happening right now in the company, what’s new?
A: One of ACTIVE’s latest innovation is the ACTIVEx® app a community-based fitness app modeled after our own employee wellness program. The app was built to meet the demands of the busy consumer who seeks high-intensity workouts on-the-go and who also craves the social and inspirational benefits of the group fitness dynamic.
Additionally, we are excited to see increasingly more people using our new mobile applications that launched this year, Moonlight and ACTIVEkids as well as our customer engagement tool ACTIVE Engagement Platform which just recently became available to park & recreation organizations, YMCA organizers, and state parks.
Q: What changes do you see in the future for Active?
A: We are continuing to advance and leverage ACTIVE’s business intelligence capabilities to deliver better experiences to consumers and data insights to help our customers make more informed business decisions. In addition, we are planning significant enhancements to our mobile applications that will improve the usability, accessibility, and experience for consumers and help connect them with even more activities and events.
