Waze announces the launch of the Waze Global Event Partner Program (www.waze.com/eventpartners), helping stadiums, marathons and other event organizers worldwide outsmart event-related traffic and better communicate road information with its attendees and broader community. With more than 50 million monthly active Wazers globally and more than 4,000 events successfully supported to date, Waze will provide partners with custom access to its traffic management technologies and communications channels in exchange for partner’s advanced and real-time road closure and traffic information.
The Waze Global Event Partner Program provides an easy, real-time technology solution for stadiums, marathons and event organizers to share road and traffic information directly with Waze through:
- The Waze Closure Tool: Previously available only to Waze Connected Citizens municipal partners, event partners can now add road closures directly to the Waze map.
- Partners also can work directly with Waze, in advance or real-time, to add turn restrictions, lane reversals, parking lot locations and more to the map.
- Waze Live Map: Allows partners to easily monitor traffic in real-time via a custom Live Map on desktop and mobile. Partners can also embed the iFrame Live Map on their own websites.
- Waze Communication Channels: Beyond tools, Waze provides unique channels to reach drivers including in-app branded messages informing locals of pertinent event and road closure information, a custom landing page on waze.com/events with a map and list detailing road closures, and additional communications support from Waze staff should an evacuation occur or weather crisis unexpectedly hit.
“If you’ve ever driven to a stadium on game day or gotten lost navigating around marathon routes, you know it can be a frustrating start to an anticipated event,” said Orit Yehezkel, Head of Localization at Waze. “Through the Waze Global Event Partner Program, we are working directly with partners to alleviate this pain point for attendees, extending a quality event experience to include the roads and parking lots. Together we can optimize traffic flow to get attendees into venues more quickly, yielding happier fans and potentially greater revenue from concessions, meet-and-greets, souvenirs and more!”
The Waze Global Event Partner Program launches with more than 20 partners including E15, a subsidiary of Levy Restaurants focused on enhancing event operation performance. E15 will collaborate with Waze and its five professional sports team partners to help them manage gameday traffic and road changes: Atlanta Falcons (Georgia Dome), Washington Redskins (FedEx Field), Detroit Lions (Ford Field), Washington Nationals (Nationals Park) and Atlanta Hawks (Philips Arena).
“E15 evaluates emerging technology platforms that improve the fan experience for all of our partners,” said Jaime Faulkner, CEO of E15. “Our partnership with Waze allows our partners to provide early awareness of road closures and changes. Across ballparks, and heading into college, MLB playoffs and NFL football season, we’re excited to pilot Waze and apply the technology to craft a seamless experience for fans from the moment they leave home through the game day experience.”
The Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon Series is also an early partner, providing Waze with official road closure information for its 30 races around the globe. Marathon weekends often feature three days of events which encapsulate cities in their entirety and organizers have positioned Waze, through its own communication channels, as an essential race weekend resource to navigate street closures and avoid traffic congestion.
“Waze provides us a tool to ensure community members have an innovative traffic resource to turn to on race day. This technology is an impressive addition to our community outreach program that our city stakeholders have come to appreciate, and expect,” said Kara Kong, VP of Community Relations for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon Series. “Having the ability to reach locals through Waze not only ensures our participants know how to navigate road closures and arrive to the start line on-time, but that anybody driving around on race day has the best and most accurate road closure and alternative route information.”
Today’s announcement is the latest expansion of Waze enterprise services, providing free data-driven solutions to varied partners, from transport companies to municipal organizations, to offer more efficient routes that yield safer roads. Tools powered by the unparalleled Waze knowledge base include:
- Waze Connected Citizens Program (http://www.waze.com/ccp) – enabling safer, more efficient roadways through anonymous, two-way data exchanges with nearly 80 municipal organizations
- Waze for Broadcasters (http://www.waze.com/broadcasters) – serving more than 170 global broadcast partners with real-time data and insights from Wazers on the road
- The Waze Transport SDK (http://www.waze.com/transportsdk) – empowering six on-demand and transport companies to improve service and grow their businesses with Waze ETA, turn-by-turn navigation and preferred routing displayed in their native applications
The Waze Global Event Partner program is free and available globally to stadium, marathon and event organizers of all sizes. Acceptance into the program is largely determined by the quality of the local Waze network as well as partners’ promotional and marketing commitment to drive attendees to use Waze and improve the quality of the data both parties receive.
For more information and to apply to become a partner, visit www.waze.com/eventpartners.
