Inventors of everything from flash drives to bullet trains, microprocessors to emojis, the world has Japan to thank for many of the innovations and technologies that we rely on today.

To celebrating its innovative past and showcase present day inventions, The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games has vowed to make the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games the ‘most innovative Olympics’ in history.

A small army of robots will be on hand around stadiums to guide fans to their seats, carry luggage, and retrieve items on the field of play.

Likewise, fans that travel to Tokyo will be able to make use of tools and technologies such as instant voice translation, 5G networks, and autonomous taxis provided by Toyota. There has even been speculation that spectators could witness an artificial meteor shower created by Tokyo-based startup Astro Live Experiences.

However, one vital innovation is currently missing from Tokyo 2020’s long list of futuristic offerings: in-seat delivery.

In-seat delivery is the innovation that fans are demanding

From Queen Elizabeth parachuting into London’s Olympic Stadium, to 2008 musicians drumming in Beijing’s 2008 Olympics, it is those iconic moments that make an Olympic Games stick in our minds.

However, organizers can’t rely on entertainment value alone. Studies show that fans are happier when venues get the basics — such as cleanliness, safety, comfort — right.

Food and drink also play a big role in whether fans leave a stadium feeling satisfied, especially at an event that will attract fans from around the globe. According to Oracle’s The Fan Experience: Changing the game with Food and Beverage Technology report, fans from Australia, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States all rank food & beverage as one of the three most important elements of the fan experience. Those from Brazil, China, and France also count it among their top four.

So how can organizers ensure that fans get the food & beverage experience that they want? By offering food, drink and merchandise purchases in a few taps, without the hassle of waiting in line at overcrowded concession stands.

In fact, 19% of those surveyed by Oracle ranked in-seat ordering and delivery as the best way to improve the fan experience, ahead of improved in-stadium Wi-Fi and enhanced video boards.

SEATSERVE: The solution to serve Tokyo 2020 spectators at the ‘most innovative Olympics’ in history

Fans also want an improved speed of service and a better variety of food and beverage options. Offering in-seat delivery with an abundance of sides and sauces (both figuratively and literally), SEATSERVE’s dedicated solution can help stadiums to offer all three of those fan desires.

Tokyo 2020 will take place across a total of 41 venues, including the 68,000-capacity New National Stadium, 49,970-capacity Tokyo Stadium, and the 70,000-capacity International Stadium Yokohama. Given it takes approximately 1.5 minutes for vendors to complete a purchase, queues at these large venues will build up before, during and after the events, inevitably leading to missed sales and disappointed fans.

SEATSERVE offers a solution to this bottleneck by allowing fans to order via their mobile phone for delivery direct to their seat, anywhere in the stadium.

SEATSERVE’s market-leading features make food and drink purchases faster and more efficient. Fans can make use of our TimeSlots feature to pre-order food for delivery at a time that suits them. Likewise, load-balancing algorithms are in place to maximize vendor efficiency and ensure that certain points of fulfillment (POF) don’t become overwhelmed with orders.

Thanks to SEATSERVE’s multi-vendor ordering feature (which isn’t currently offered by any other major in-seat delivery providers), fans also gain access to a greater variety of vendors without having to squeeze through crowds to get to a vendor at the other end of the stadium.

SEATSERVE has already demonstrated its ability to serve fans throughout the 2020 Olympics. A trial of the platform was recently launched at the 68,000-capacity Tokyo National Olympic Stadium to showcase its potential to senior executives from Dentsu, the official marketing agency of the Tokyo 2020 Games.

Fans were encouraged to scan QR codes dotted around the stadium on leaflets and stickers, which took them to the stadium’s dedicated web app. From here fans could order from concessionaires around the stadium as SeatServe runners raced around the stadium to fulfill each order.

Check out the video below to see SEATSERVE in action at the New Tokyo National Stadium:

In-seat delivery might not make as great of a headline as robotic stewards or artificial meteorites, but the millions of fans that have purchased tickets for Tokyo 2020 events would appreciate the convenience that it can provide.

No more waiting in queues, missing the action, or rumbling stomachs as fans head for the exit.

In-seat delivery addresses the demands of fans… and that’s what will make Tokyo 2020 the most innovative Olympics in history.