From Infrastructure to Experience: Designing City-Scale, Digitally Enabled Entertainment

Visitors don’t experience infrastructure — they experience moments. From arrival to exit, every interaction shapes how people feel, behave and remember a destination.

Whether it’s a stadium, theme park, or cultural district, the challenge is the same: orchestrate digital systems, operations and governance to deliver seamless, safe and inclusive experiences — not just on opening day, but every day. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where mixed-use destinations and mega-events are accelerating, a connected, city-scale approach helps owners meet higher expectations for safety, accessibility, sustainability and commercial performance.

This is where the concept of connected entertainment comes in — venues and districts where digital infrastructure, operational systems, and the public realm are designed to work in harmony. The result is an experience that feels simple, trusted and intuitive, even at city-scale — enabling destinations to deliver not just entertainment, but confidence and continuity.

Entertainment is a city-wide systems challenge 

Delivering major event venues demands thinking beyond individual sites. Success relies on coordinating multiple systems and stakeholders across the whole city ecosystem. 

City-wide integration: Visitors don’t experience venues in isolation. Their journey spans transport, public spaces, retail and safety touchpoints. Each venue, event or district should be planned as part of a broader urban ecosystem — one that supports mobility, utilities, public safety and commerce.  For example, Jacobs supported Birmingham City Council in developing its Digital City Program, which combines transport, data and stakeholder collaboration into governance model forecast to deliver $1.3 billion (£1 billion). The program demonstrates how city wide integration can deliver measurable economic impact while improving digital inclusion and every day experiences for communities. 

Digital orchestration: Behind every smooth visitor experience is a well-connected system. Digital foundations must link services and attractions with clear governance, enabling seasonal flexibility, collaborator coordination and rapid adaptation to new formats.

App-free, intuitive journeys: Guests shouldn’t be burdened with downloading a new app for every attraction. A web-first, account-optional approach — supported by shared identities and consented data — allows visitors to move freely and confidently across experiences. 

Trusted identity and biometrics (opt-in): Contactless entry, age-appropriate access and personalized services can enhance convenience — but only when designed with transparency, consent and clear alternatives. Privacy-respecting identity tools should build trust, not friction.

Security by design (cybersecurity): Proportionate cybersecurity and data protection are embedded from the outset, so identity, data and operations remain trusted without adding friction to the journey. Cyber risks don’t always arrive through obvious channels, they can enter through overlooked systems or everyday digital touchpoints.  That’s why every connection in a venue, from operational technology to consumer-facing services, needs to be designed with security in mind. 

Designing for outcomes, not features: Every digital capability should serve a purpose, like reducing queue time, increasing dwell time, improving safety, or enhancing accessibility. Start with the visitor journey, then specify only what’s needed to support it.

Open and interoperable: Visitors benefit most when systems work together. A vendor-neutral ecosystem built on open standards and integration allows owners to evolve their offerings, add new collaborators and scale experiences without disruption. 

Addressing these challenges from the outset requires a shift in mindset, from designing standalone venues to planning integrated, digitally enabled districts.  

Defining a seamless visitor experience 

A truly seamless visitor experience is the result of many invisible interactions, clear choices, reliable information, calm operations and privacy-conscious communications that build public trust.

• Effortless arrival: Visitors should be able to move from home to venue with minimal friction, supported by clear travel information, coordinated transport services, streamlined security and intuitive wayfinding from the moment they arrive.
• App-free convenience: A web-first, account-optional journey that works across venues, eliminating the need to download multiple apps. At Expo Dubai, Jacobs planned the transition from event operations to city-scale mobility with integrated wayfinding across the district.
• Confidence in safety: Calm crowd flow, visible stewardship, rapid incident response and privacy-conscious communications that build public trust.
• Adaptive crowd management (AI-enabled): Real-time, privacy-preserving insights to rebalance flows, adjust staffing and reroute wayfinding during peak times, weather shifts or heat events. For a FIFA World Cup, we applied crowd modelling and transport simulations to manage tournament-scale flows and protect journey times.
• Seamless on-site moments: Minimal queues, timely prompts and intuitive payment and loyalty, so guests spend more time enjoying and less time navigating.
• Inclusion and accessibility: Multilingual, accessibility-first design and family-friendly provisions (e.g., shaded queues, cooling, prayer and nursing facilities).
• Visible sustainability: Smart mobility plans, efficient resource use and transparent Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) dashboards that engage visitors, regulators and investors.
• Exit and return: Smart egress, safe late-night options and thoughtful post-visit engagement that turns first-time visitors into advocates.
• Resilience under pressure: Core journeys (wayfinding, ticket validation, payments and safety communications) continue through graceful degradation with offline caches, backup channels and rehearsed contingency plans.  

Enabling connected entertainment 

By “connected entertainment,” we mean venues and districts where digital infrastructure, operations and the public realm work as one, so the experience feels simple and trusted, even at city-scale.

• Design around journeys: Prioritize the real-world experiences of visitors and operators, focusing on what drives outcomes rather than layering on unnecessary technology.
• Plan district-to-city: Treat each venue as part of a broader urban ecosystem — integrating mobility, utilities, safety and public space for everyday and event-day functionality.
• Web-first, app-optional: Deliver seamless digital experiences without forcing guests to download new apps for every venue.
• Governance built-in: Establish clear roles, decision rights and data stewardship early to support multi-collaborator operations without complexity.
• Security by design: Embed discreet, privacy-respecting security measures from the start to build trust and resilience without friction.
• Resilient core journeys: Ensure continuity through offline fallbacks, dual communication paths and rehearsed contingencies.
• Composable tech ecosystem: Use open interfaces and vendor-neutral platforms to enable easy integration of new formats, collaborators and innovations.
• Measure what matters: Track key outcomes — from queue times to ESG impact — and use data-driven feedback to continuously improve.
• Unified delivery: Align physical, operational and digital layers from the outset to ensure a coherent and scalable guest experience. 

Digital legacy 

A connected destination creates a digital legacy that enhances future events and daily operations: 

• Reusable platforms and data: Clean, well-managed data and open interfaces support future activations (loyalty, maintenance, sustainability) without reinventing the wheel.
• Operational continuity: Playbooks, drills and training are transferred to local teams, building long-term capability and consistency.
• Future flexibility: Standards-based integration keeps vendor options open and avoids lock-in as needs evolve.
• Enduring accountability: Transparent data rights, audit trails and ESG reporting maintain trust with regulators, collaborators and the public.

Embedding a smart city mindset

Delivering major event venues at city scale demands thinking beyond individual sites. Success depends on early alignment between governance, operations, digital systems and experience design — so that every element works together seamlessly on opening day and long after.

Applying a smart city mindset helps city authorities, venue operators and event owners plan for this complexity from the outset — ensuring places feel connected, intuitive and resilient. When this happens, visitors don’t just attend an event, they feel confident, safe and welcome. That sense of ease is what defines memorable destinations and underpins their long-term legacy.