This story is brought to you by the INTIX Women in Entertainment Technology Program.
Dawn Zappitello has had the opportunity to work in many different capacities within The Walt Disney Company, with a career spanning theme parks, resorts, recreation, talent planning, project management and training. Her first ticketing experience was selling theme park tickets and annual passes from paper stock books at Walt Disney World in Florida before computers.
Dawn Zappitello
She marvels, “We have come a long way since then! I have ‘touched’ tickets for the majority of my professional career across three continents, including Attractions ticketing for Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resorts; theater shows, including Cirque du Soleil’s La Nouba; exclusive events and grand openings such as Shanghai Disneyland; and with stored value credits at the world’s largest interactive theme park and arcade, DisneyQuest, now closed.”
Her current post is as Senior Manager, Park Arrival and Guest Relations, for Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando. That’s a fancy title, to be sure. So, what are her primary duties and responsibilities? “I play a key integration role in developing and delivering technical systems, commercial programs and operational enhancements to guests. One of my focuses is on building service recovery philosophies and training to ensure our cast — our word for employees — have the necessary tools and resources to make magic happen for our guests.”
In this line of work, Zappitello has thrived at building business relationships and working collaboratively. She says, “I love when we can pull different people together from different departments and work together to creatively solve challenges and find new ways to excite our guests and our cast.”
If there is any drawback to the job, it’s a personal one. Zappitello says she has a real problem saying “no.” To this end, she describes herself as “an activator.” She explains, “I want to help everyone, to take on all problems and opportunities. I am getting better at learning how to say ‘Yes,’ but with a twist. Teaching someone how to fish allows them to try on their own next time, and I don’t have to say ‘no.’”
In her spare time, Zappitello doesn’t give herself much of a break either. She leads a Girl Scout troop that includes a service community of 20 Girl Scout troops. She is also a Merit Badge Counselor with Scouts BSA and volunteers to help the homeless in her local community.
But she’s not complaining. “Find what makes you happy and then make that a priority in your life,” she says. “As I was a young leader growing my career, I had many mentors [who gave me] this similar advice, and I have done my best to stay connected with work that I am passionate about, people who make me smile and challenge me, and I really enjoy time at work and at home.”
Zappitello is hopeful there will be a number of young women new in their ticketing careers who will be reading this feature and hopefully take some inspiration from her and her journey. To them, she advises, “Seek out mentors, both women and men, at all levels of leadership to engage with and learn from. Collaborate and ask questions from colleagues in your organization and in the industry and maintain those relationships. Relationships can help you find ways over hurdles and barriers.”
They can also lead to some fun and unique interactions and experiences. Zappitello recalls a time when she was running a theater box office. She was on her way to pick her daughter up from daycare, and she got a call that she and her colleagues were likely going to have to cancel a sold-out show due to a stage malfunction.
She states, “I grabbed my daughter, raced back to the theater and dropped her off in my office with some highlighters, markers and paper while I went to see the show’s general manager. After the chaos, I returned to my office, right next to the box office, to find my four-year-old decorating the office with paper chains that she was making and coloring with the help of many of my box office staff! Those chains are still hanging in that office today, even though I left that role 12 years ago.”
Her desire to increase her interactions with other ticketing and live event professionals is what prompted her to become an INTIX member and to get involved in a leadership capacity with the association. She is in her second year as co-chair of the association’s Member Connections Committee.
She remarks, “I am always thinking about, ‘How are we reaching out to members?’ and ‘How are members using INTIX to maximize their opportunities to engage and connect with others in the industry?’ I joined the committee to get more connected with INTIX; to meet more members; and, hopefully, make it a little bit more comfortable for new members to meet others. I had been in the industry for so long. But even I remember being intimidated coming into INTIX and going to my first conference and seeing how many people knew each other. I wanted to help people not be in that position and to find their place.”
She continued, “This past year, we hosted the members’ meet and greet on the first day of the conference in Las Vegas. We had almost 100 people show up to that event! The year before? There had been only about 30 people. So, we were super-proud of ourselves for the marketing work that we did in encouraging people to attend and the support we had from Maureen Andersen in getting the word out about the value of coming to that meet and greet.”
And while these events draw industry pros from some of the most exciting organizations currently ticketing sports, entertainment and other live events, Zappitello concedes that people’s faces often light up when she tells them where she works. Laughing, she says, “When people hear I work for Disney, they think I have the coolest job and that I work next to Cinderella’s Castle in the Magic Kingdom. Although I get to go see the castle, I work at a desk in a regular office like so many other people! But, hey, I can’t lie. It’s a great job. I get to work where other people play.”
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