The Melbourne Cricket Club operates one of the most significant venues in world sport, with a membership base, an events calendar and an operational footprint that few organisations in Australia match. The technology being built for venues, live events, membership and fan experience is moving faster than any single organisation can track, and most of it is built by companies MCC will never encounter through a standard procurement process.
CAST connects the entertainment industry with the technology ecosystem. Through our platforms, we map what companies are building, match it to the problems an industry faces, and track what gets adopted.
This proposal sets out a two year engagement. Year one builds the framework. Year two hands it over. The goal is to make technology trial and adoption part of how MCC staff work every day.
‘Innovation’ can’t be a sugar hit. It needs to be accessible, actionable and lead to real impact in the day to day of everyone in the organisation.
We believe the best way to achieve this is to help build the muscle for organisations to connect strategically with technology on their own terms.
MCC gets a live view of the technology landscape mapped to venue, membership and live event challenges.
MCC can shortlist tools against real internal problems, keep a record of what has been trialled, adopted and retired, and give staff a place to search technology the moment a problem surfaces rather than waiting for the next scheduled session.
Record is strategic intelligence for the entertainment industry: what is changing, who is building and where entertainment technology is heading. MCC's account puts it inside the tools staff already use: one shared account, with a named key for each person. From month one, MCC's own evaluator sits in the path of every search. Record returns what matches; the evaluator returns what suits MCC.
Four phases in sequence. Three threads that never stop. Four hard milestones.
A 90 minute session with MCC leadership before anything else begins. We agree the named leadership sponsor, the functions the first three champions come from, the weekly time protected for them, what success looks like at three, six and twelve months, and which problems are genuinely open to being solved differently.
Month one is the build. MCC's team uses Record on real questions, not test ones, while we watch what gets searched, what gets opened, what gets passed over and what gets asked again in different words. Then MCC's criteria become its evaluator, shown to MCC before anything goes live. From there it sits in the path of every search and is retuned as MCC's priorities move.
Record returns what matches. The evaluator returns what suits MCC.
The first three months set up everything that follows. Discovery across departments builds the challenge register, a public call for technology brings in and triages inbound interest, platforms are bucketed into light, medium and heavy lift adoption tiers, and a twelve month adoption plan is set with named owners and milestones. MCC's evaluator is built in the first of those months.
The output is a plan MCC can act on, not a report.
A joint press announcement positioning MCC as taking a public position on technology adoption in Australian sport and entertainment. It also serves a working purpose: a public call for technology built for venues, membership organisations and live events, inviting founders to come forward with solutions.
Outcome: a pipeline of solutions that exists because MCC asked for it.
Champion coaching and vendor management. Between-session support. One day a month on site, with staff and startups working out of the space. Continuous challenge register maintenance. Founder sessions and league and team sessions are part of it.
It takes only a handful of committed and curious team members to change the direction of an organisation. Year one identifies three function leads, one for each technology in trial. Year two adds another three, recruited and coached by the first. That is how this stops being a CAST program and becomes something MCC runs.
They feel the problem. They can describe it in specifics without being prompted, and they would still want it solved if CAST were not in the room. Authority is common; ownership is not.
| Measure | Year one | Year two |
|---|---|---|
| Champions | 3, coached by CAST | 3 more, recruited by the first cohort |
| Focus | Light lift trials | Medium and heavy lift |
| CAST role | Leading | Supporting |
| Running total | 3 | 6 |
Part of ongoing adoption support.
MCC staff in working conversations with founders building at the centre of entertainment. A selected group or open to whole company. Run as a series across the year to get staff curious about technology.
Focused sessions for leagues and teams that work with MCC, extending the technology adoption conversation beyond the club.
Year one exists to make year two possible. By month twelve MCC has a live challenge register, three champions who have run trials end to end, an internal record of what has been trialled, and a public reputation as an organisation that engages with technology builders.
Year two moves to medium and heavy lift implementation, and the first champion cohort recruits and coaches the second. CAST supports rather than drives.
Scope and investment are set at the nine month review, against what year one actually produced.
Year two scope and investment are set at the nine month review against what year one actually produced.