On the heels of a recent Radiant win with Philips Arena, home of the Atlanta Hawks and Atlanta Thrashers, I sat down with Allen Joiner, a technical account manager. He has worked at Radiant’s headquarters in Atlanta since graduating from Georgia Tech in 1999.  In this edition of On the Spot, we learn about Allen’s time with the company as well as his involvement installing the Quest product suite at Phillips Arena.

*Do you remember your very first day at Radiant? 

I don’t remember the first day exactly, but I do remember that I could tell there was a lot of energy and a lot of people being hired and a lot of new faces.  It was a really cool time.

 *What roles have you had at Radiant during your time here?

When I graduated, you went to a job with a computer degree and you’d stay there for a year and then jump somewhere else. So the fact that I’ve been here for 11 years is pretty amazing. During those years, I worked within the hardware division, and more recently I’ve been working specifically with the Quest product suite – innovative technology designed for stadiums, arenas, convention centers and venue-based event spaces. My first role working with Quest products was as a sales engineer; I worked with the sales team to get things ready for demos and tradeshows. I then started doing a lot with the implementation team to install the product, conduct the training and insure that everything runs smoothly at the venue.

 *You just completed a Quest installation at Phillips Arena…

 We started the installation three or four weeks ago.  Last week we completed the final wiring and installation of the equipment, and we made sure everything was connected and running efficiently.  Phillips Arena has an event coming up, so now we are in the phase where everything goes live. During this period, we do our training.  We have a very extensive training set, so we take the whole staff through training on the software and reporting.

 *What does this new deal mean for Radiant?

 I think it’s really cool that we are now working with Philips Arena.  We have a lot of the NBA, MLB, NHL and NFL arenas and stadiums around the country; however, this is our first major Atlanta venue in terms of size and number of events.  Having Phillips Arena here in our backyard as a place that we can reference is a great opportunity for us.

 *What do you like most about what you do?

 I really feel like I have a chance to make an impact in everything I do. It’s very fulfilling.

 *What inspires you at work every day? 

Wow.  It really goes back to having the ability to make an impact.  Radiant is not a job or a place, but a team of people.  A group of people that I enjoy working with, and a company that I think is going somewhere. 

 *What hobbies do you have outside of work?

Well, I’m married and I have two kids and one on the way.  So family is probably the biggest part of my time right now. I do enjoy bike riding.  I haven’t had as much of a chance to ride recently, but I hope to get back into it over the summer.

 *Where are some of your favorite travel destinations?

We like going down to Destin. The Gulf Coast is great, and we haven’t had any problems with oil! We also like going to Augusta, Ga.  My whole family is from Augusta, so we’ll go to the East coast and go to the beach there too.

RADIANT FINAL FOUR

1. FAVORITE: What is your favorite Radiant core value and why?

I think from the day I started here it was “Teams of Winners” and the great people at Radiant.  This core value was actually well demonstrated at Philips Arena.  We needed a lot of help beyond our typical installation crew, and so many people came out to help from across the organization.  That whole group mentality of somebody needing help and everybody coming together is definitely the best thing about Radiant. 

 2. FAN-TASTIC: What do you like most about working at Radiant?

The people, absolutely; they are top-notch.

 3. FUNNY: What is the funniest thing that has happened to you at Radiant?

Recently, I was involved in a demo of our retail product, CounterPoint, at a stadium.  This is one of the first retail demos I had done. When we were in the room with the stadium’s decision makers, I realized that part of the demo was a large image of a football jersey. It happened to be the jersey of a player who had recently left that particular team to play somewhere else, and there were some very harsh feelings. I’m thinking, “Ouch! That’s the wrong jersey to put up,” but they all joked and laughed it off.    

 4. FUTURE: What do you hope to see in Radiant’s future?

Being at the 25 year mark and looking forward, I think a lot of companies at this phase go one of two ways: either they decline or they stay steady. I feel like Radiant has a vision for the next 10 years.  I feel good about our direction and where we’re going.  I think that we have a very big product line and we serve a lot of different markets and we’re ripe to start hitting more and more of those markets.

Tags: employees, Executive, Radiant Systems career, Radiant Systems employees

This entry was posted by Alex Colbert, Corporate Marketing on Friday, July 30th, 2010 at 10:08 am and is filed under Hospitality, Retail, Sports and Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.