Vista Group Ltd, the world’s leading software provider to the global film industry delivering software solutions for studios, distributors, exhibitors, and moviegoers internationally, will welcome 200 international film exhibition executives from every continent to its 8th Biennial Vista Group Customer Conference. Exciting new technological developments and updates will be shared with cinema professionals over three days of sessions presented by experts from Vista Group companies Monday, March 6th through Thursday, March 9th in Auckland, New Zealand.

“We are thrilled to be welcoming a record number of customers and interested cinema industry executives from around the world to our 2017 Vista Group Customer Conference,” said Vista Group CEO Murray Holdaway. “At Vista we offer a broad range of innovative, cutting-edge film software solutions that deliver to our customers opportunities to better tailor their products and offerings to the moviegoer. In the past, our conference has been primarily about Vista Entertainment Solutions, the Group’s largest business. But in 2017 we will be showcasing innovative solutions and new products from all our companies. I think even our experienced conference attendees are in for an interesting week.”

The ‘invitation only’ Vista Group Customer Conference attracts a loyal group of Vista customers. “Our customers travel a long way to join us in New Zealand,” says Christine Fenby, Marketing Director for Vista Group. “We will reward them with a comprehensive agenda of sessions covering The Business of Cinema, Customer Engagement, Cinema Operations and Focus Topics & New Tech, delivered by Vista experts who are the architects of the world-leading products Vista Group is known for.”

Vista Group Conference sessions, including presentations about all Vista Group businesses, will cover:

• The ‘virtual reality’ experience in theatres
• Case study of the most innovative, state-of-the-art theatre to be found anywhere
• How third party ticketing that dominates the high-growth China market can transfer to the US and elsewhere
• The REAL essentials of Loyalty programs and the extraordinary value that data can deliver
• How to deliver box office results from cinemas around the globe faster and more efficiently than ever before
• From distributor to exhibitor, how to deliver advance promotional assets for movies seamlessly via the web.

For Vista, it’s essential that the transfer of knowledge at Conference is two-way; the event is orchestrated to provide Vista with checkpoints on their customers’ needs and wants, making sure they align with the company’s product development road map. New ideas and suggestions are taken extremely seriously. “The voting sessions provide a great chance to help influence the priorities of what features are in the Vista queue to help improve the overall product and experience for our guests,” says Scott Behnke, Vice President of Risk Management at Cineplex Entertainment, Toronto.

Customers also have the opportunity to exchange ideas with each other; fresh insights into how peers in other markets around the globe operate are a bonus with different perspectives often a springboard for new ideas and initiatives back home. “Vista’s conference is a great opportunity to collaborate with other exhibitors who use Vista around the world and learn how they utilize the different functionalities to support their business,” says Carole Malek, Vice President of Theatre Support Services at Regal Entertainment Group.

“The Vista Customer Conference is an excellent way for us to network with many different exhibitors in a way that is unparalleled in the theatre industry,” says Aron Barr, Director of IT at Harkins Theatres. “The opportunity to gather feedback and gain insight about the concerns and challenges that we all face is an invaluable learning experience. It is rewarding to work with Vista and other Vista clients in a constructive environment, to contribute to the development of future solutions for our industry.”

Vista Group, named New Zealand’s ‘Hi-Tech Company of the Year’ in the Information Technology sector in 2016, is a public company listed on both the New Zealand and Australian stock exchanges (NZX & ASX: VGL). With founding business Vista Entertainment Solutions now in its 21st year, Vista has helped to turn ‘Aotearoa’ — The Land of the Long White Cloud’ (a.k.a. New Zealand) — into the land of the digital cloud, with tech the fastest-growing sector in New Zealand today, already comprising 8% of GDP.

In many ways, Vista is the quintessential example of a successful New Zealand business; a homegrown venture making good by going global early given a small domestic market. A cutting-edge POS and Back Office system developed for a local cinema chain way back in 1996 has evolved into a global, synergistic suite of products catering to the international film industry.

About Vista Group International:
Vista Group International (Vista Group) is a public company, listed on both the New Zealand and Australian stock exchanges (NZX & ASX: VGL). Vista Group provides cinema management, film distribution and customer analytics software to companies across the global film industry. Cinema management software is provided by Vista Entertainment Solutions, the core business of the Group. Movio (authority in moviegoer data analytics), Veezi (cloud-based SaaS software for the Independent Cinema Market), MACCS International (film distribution software), Numero (box office reporting software for film distributors and cinemas), Cinema Intelligence by Share Dimension (business intelligence solutions), Powster (creative studio and marketing platform for movie studios) and Flicks (moviegoer ‘go to’ portal for movie information) provide products that leverage the success of this platform into other parts of the film industry; from production and distribution, to cinema exhibition through to the moviegoer experience. Vista Group has over 500 staff across nine offices in New Zealand (Auckland headquarters), Sydney, Los Angeles, Dallas, London, the Netherlands, Romania and China.