INTRUST Bank Arena's Jim Sachs Nominated for National Award

CONGRATULATIONS to our long time client and friend Jim Sachs on his nomination!

As reported by Josh Heck, Wichita Business Journal

INTRUST Bank Arena’s director of ticketing, Jim Sachs, has been nominated for a national service award for his work in converting ticket software for Select-A-Seat.

Sachs was nominated by Venues Today, a monthly industry trade magazine. The award honors people for noteworthy achievements or service in the ticketing industry.

The winners will be announced in January.

Sachs is being recognized for his work as project manager when Select-A-Seat converted to new Tickets.com software. Sachs helped structure the new system and trained arena employees as well as those with the Select-A-Seat outlets at Dillons supermarkets.

The new program gives consumers the option to purchase tickets using a mobile device.

Arena officials say the box office maintained daily function during the conversion with limited interruption.

Thank You Jack Cheung for 25 Years of Service!

Jack Cheung recently celebrated his 25th anniversary with Tickets.com. For those of you that are unfamiliar with Jack, here is some Q&A with our #1 Accounting and Financial Reporting Manager:

What is your key responsibility at Tickets.com?

Prepare financial reports, account analysis, and daily cash management.

What has been your favorite part about working for Tickets.com?

People. I have the family feeling everyday at work.

What single event do you most remember over the last 25 years?

The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, prayed with my boss holding hands together in the Oakland office watching things crumbling down and the windows blowing out.

What was your favorite ticketed event?

Baseball! Giants or the A’s. I witnessed the Bay Bridge World Series and it was a dream come true.

Anything else we should know about you?

I'm happily married with two daughters and two grand-children. I'm also feeling good for the 25th year milestone. I can now use the term “Century” for my service with Tickets.com.

Congratulations Jack! Tickets.com thanks you for your continued service and dedication.

ProVenue Exchange 2012: Registration Now Open

Where: Balboa Bay Club & Resort, Newport Beach, CA.

When: March 13-15, 2012


Registration is now open for the ProVenue Exchange 2012. This year we are planning a program that will cover various topics on the dynamic business of ticketing, updates on the ProVenue platform and educational sessions for our ProVenueMax, ProVenuePlus and ProVenue system users.



Register by February 17th and save $50.00
All Tickets.com clients and ticketing professionals are encouraged to attend.

Visit ProVenue Exchange 2012 for more information

Los Angeles & Orange County TickeTing Organization - 2011 Fall Event

The 2011 fall L.O.T.T.O event was held at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA on Wednesday. November 9th. Tickets.com is pleased to have had the opportunity to work with Gina Bulgheroni at the Anaheim Ducks in organizing L.O.T.T.O's third meet up.

I want to thank Lisa Johnson and her team at the Anaheim Ducks for generously donating the suite tickets and making us all feel at home. Unfortunately the Predators had a 4:2 victory over the Ducks that evening -- but all home team disappointment aside, the event proved successful and the Tickets.com team looks forward to the next one.

We encourage everyone in the business of ticketing to get involved. There is so much to be gained from regular gatherings.

For event photos, visit the L.O.T.T.O Facebook page.

To join L.O.T.T.O please email Louie Smolensky at lottoticketing@gmail.com with your request.

The Keynote Speakers: Future of Ticketing Technology: Visions of Tomorrow

The International Ticketing Association (INTIX) has announced the keynote speakers for the 33rd Annual Conference & Exhibition.

The Opening Keynote, entitled “The Future of Ticketing Technology: Visions of Tomorrow” will feature some of the brightest minds in the industry sharing their perspectives on new trends and the future of ticketing technology.

Distinguished panelists include Kevin Kimsa, CEO, AudienceView Ticketing; Neal Gunn, VP Sales and Marketing, Outbox Enterprises; Dave Butler, CEO, Paciolan; Jack Rubin, President, Tessitura Network, Inc.; Jared Smith, COO North America, Ticketmaster; John Walker, President & CEO, Tickets.com; and Jeff Kline, President, Veritix.

The panel will be moderated by Dan DeMato, Principal of FutureTix, Inc.

The Closing Keynote, “Opportunities in Social Ticketing,” will be presented by David Fisch, the Director of Strategic Partnership at Facebook.

For more information on the INTIX Conference visit http://intix.org.

Congratulations 2012 Spirit Award Nominees

Congratulations to long time Tickets.com client AREN MURRAY of Texas A&M University for her nomination of the 2012 Spirit Award! Our question is, what took so long?

Also sending a 'spirited' congratulations to both Joe Carter of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Tammy Enright of Goldstar on their nominations for the same award.

The 2012 Spirit Award recipient will be announced at the 33rd Annual Conference & Exhibition Awards Luncheon on Wednesday, January 18 at the Grand Hyatt San Antonio.

Click here for more information on ALL INTIX awards.

Saskatchewan Roughriders Are Live with Social Media!

Tickets.com is happy to announce that the Saskatchewan Roughriders are live with Facebook and Twitter integration!

Dynamic Pricing Drives Significant Returns During 2011 MLB Season

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Qcue today announced the 2011 Major League Baseball (MLB) season was the most active season to date for dynamic pricing, resulting in significant gains for all clients, including increases in total revenues, full-price ticket sales and revenue per seat(1).

With the regular season now complete, Qcue conducted in depth analysis across clients, concluding that the frequency of price changes has a direct impact on incremental revenue. In fact, Qcue estimates that a team can generate an additional $900,000 in incremental revenue over the course of a season by making one additional change to each of its prices(2).

Results like this show why dynamic pricing is quickly becoming an industry standard with more than one-third of MLB teams, as well as teams across other leagues, implementing the practice. Qcues roster continues to grow, with the New York Mets and Seattle Mariners set to implement dynamic pricing for the 2012 season. Qcue clients now represent 95% of all dynamically priced baseball tickets.

On average, teams approached 2011 with conservative on-sale prices, often lower than previous years, providing substantial values for many fans.

Additional findings include:

Average price change per seat: $1.55 increase
Average percentage change per seat: 3% increase
Average price decrease: -$13.63
Average price increase: $3.27

The market has definitely hit a tipping point, where teams are no longer wondering if they should embrace dynamic pricing, but rather how often to leverage the intelligence and flexibility a solution like ours can provide to drive incremental revenue, said Barry Kahn, CEO of Qcue. Our analysis demonstrates the relationship between the frequency of price changes and incremental revenue and the value of understanding real-time market dynamics in setting more accurate prices. Teams that adjust prices more frequently make more money that can be invested back into the club.

In addition to regular season pricing, teams are finding ways to extend dynamic pricing to new scenarios such as spring training, which the San Francisco Giants successfully did this year in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Qcues turnkey software solution helps teams analyze sales data and other external pricing variables, providing sales and revenue projections, strong reporting capabilities, as well as market-based price recommendations. Additionally, integration capabilities remove the management burden teams often face by directly communicating price changes to the teams ticketing system and website. With Qcue, thousands of price changes take just a few minutes.


(1) Metrics do not reflect season ticket revenues, which are not used in dynamic pricing.
(2) A price is defined as a single section that is priced together and adjusted at the same time/rate.

Big Ideas, but not Big Brother

By Joe Choti, CTO, Tickets.com & MLB Advanced Media (with help from Dave Brooks)

At Tickets.com, the focus for us right now is to make sure that ProVenue provides scalability, stabilization, reliability and speed. Those are big ones. We spent 2010 making sure we were stable in a myriad of different ways. Coming into our 2011 on-sale season, we have sufficiently rearchitectured the ticketing applications and the infrastructure so it stood on its own. Now we’re working on improving speed.

With ProVenue we’re able to plug into any partner’s API, whether that be StubHub, Qque, Digonex or Givex. It works for everybody. What we’re talking about is a state-of-the-art system that has the full capability to work with whatever anyone’s needs are.

If you take two ticketing clients who use the same platform in the same industry, they still won’t run their business exactly the same. The ticketing solution has to be a product that has a core offering that can manifest itself in different ways and different factions.

Transactional time is more important than ever. One of the things I emphasize to all my engineers is that they can sit there and tell me it only takes three seconds for the screen to ping, but so what. Moving it from a three-second ping to a one-second ping will make a huge difference.

As technologists our jobs are never done. It’s a book and it’s time to move on to the next chapter after you’re done with the current chapter.

Wireless devices give us new and exciting ways to sell tickets to events. I may have spare inventory to an event and I may know an individual is in proximity to that event and I may want to push them a campaign and remind them that Bon Jovi is in concert. Since their phone shows me they are local, I can send a simple one-click link to buy tickets and then they use their wireless device to gain entry.

It’s all about Push Notifications, GPS and CRM. These capabilities allow people to opt in and provide information about what types of fans they are. It’s important not to push too much and allow it to become wallpaper and noise and get ignored.

Technology is not big brother. People think that, but it’s not true. We’re taking advantage of technology that lets us know who the true fans are and make things easier for them. And it’s not done with the ‘Like’ button.


Source: October 2011 Venues Today

PRESS RELEASE: Tickets.com®, Inc. Selected as the Ticketing Technology Provider for the New York Mets®

Tickets.com, Inc. and the New York Mets today announced a long-term ticketing agreement anchored by ProVenue®, the industry’s most advanced ticketing technology.

This infrastructure enables third parties to seamlessly integrate with ProVenue to offer features, applications, and data management programs using Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). The platform approach gives the Mets the ability to determine which partners belong in their technological ecosystem to best support their season operations and initiatives including dynamic pricing, stored value, digital ticketing, loyalty and CRM programs.

“We had an opportunity to identify the best technology offering that would support our immediate and future business objectives,” said Dave Howard, Executive Vice President, Business Operations, New York Mets. “After an exhaustive search, we determined that partnering with Tickets.com addresses our core ticketing needs and gives us flexibility to grow our business in innovative ways.”

Tickets.com also supports a host of complementary services that accommodates the varying purchase behaviors of sports fans. The Mets will utilize the ProVenueMobile™ m-commerce service to enable fans on the go to search, select, and purchase tickets in a highly-optimized experience on any Smartphone or tablet. When combined with the Tickets@Phone® delivery method, secure bar-coded tickets are delivered instantly via text message.

Upon launch, the Mets will become the first professional sports team in New York City and the surrounding metropolitan area on the ProVenue platform. The Mets also will be the seventh MLB Club to use the technology.

Access the complete release.

Your Grandfather’s “White-label” is Old News

By John Walker, President & CEO, Tickets.com

Ticketing, sales and marketing professionals have been faced with making an either/or choice in the past – either selling through brand X (which leaves little room for your brand to extend through the sales flow of an online transaction) or employ a “white label” or “private label” solution that enables venues, teams or organizations to wrap their team colors or logos around a transaction engine.

One relatively new player in the space would have you believe that they are “introducing a white-label offering”, but the reality is that several companies have been offering “white-label” ticketing services for years. We’ve done it for a decade. Hell, come to think of it – EVERYBODY’s done it. And while on the surface this either/or decision (brand X vs. “white-label”) might suggest that all “white-label” offerings should be grouped together, frankly, there couldn’t be anything any further from the truth. The devil is in the details of…you guessed it, the technology.

The question you should be answering when choosing a platform for your business’s ticketing function is – what system will allow me to EXTEND MY BRAND versus just simply allowing me to affix my logo to a position on a banner? A subtle, but powerful distinction. Additionally, which of the “white-label” offerings best EXTENDS TECHNOLOGY in a way that meets or exceeds the vision I have for my organization? After all, selling tickets isn’t about how many bad email addresses you can ping – it’s about taking full advantage of CRM, dynamic pricing, wider distribution, stored value, online seat maps, mobility, social media, etc. And taking full advantage of these on your terms, I might add – not the terms dictated to you by your ticketing provider or it’s closed-system architecture.

Slapping your label on something that isn’t best of breed technology doesn’t cut it. You, and your organization, need and deserve more. Smart organizations are looking to power the EXTENSION of their brand, and their technological vision and we’re enabling our clients to do just that by opening the ProVenue platform with a series of APIs (Application Programming Interface)that allow true ticketing integrations. The first of these APIs will be available in early October and applications taking advantage of these early APIs will show up soon after.

A traditional nightly CRM data-feed and a “white-label” website used to be the best you could do. Now it’s old news.

Endless Summer

By Tim Snyder, VP, Service Delivery, Tickets.com

As another summer in the Midwest starts winding down, I’m reminded of the years I spent working in the box office at Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. It certainly changed my concept of summer. We typically worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week, from May through September. While most of my friends were off boating, fishing, swimming or vacationing at the beach, I would be in the middle of a run of both concerts and orchestra events that would seemingly never end. To make matters worse, everyone that walked by my window was on their way to see their favorite artist play for the next three hours while I had to deal with irate customers who forgot their tickets at home or never made it onto the guest list. While a walk up crowd of five thousand made the promoters jump for joy, it was hours of borderline insanity in the box office.

It is with respect and sometimes awe that I view my colleagues that work tirelessly each and every summer – whether it be at a summer amphitheater or for a baseball team. They give up something that most of us take for granted – summer, and all the joy and fun that goes with it.

So this month, I tip my hat to all those box office warriors out there who make sure the rest of the world gets into the ballpark, arena or amphitheater on time each and every day all summer long. Without you, none of us would ever make it through the gate.

Those Were Good Times....

Mike Duffy, Director, Product Development, Tickets.com

Ask anyone that knew me in high school (and I mean anyone) if they thought that someday I would be a DJ and the General Manager of a radio station and they would laugh in your face.

I entered UC Irvine as a very shy nerdy kid quite unprepared for the college experience. I took the bold step of signing up to be a radio DJ at KUCI and after a few weeks of training I was on the air, terrified, but on the air. I have no idea how many people were really listening at the time but slowly I gained more confidence. My shows featured everything from soft jazz to punk to classical to folk music to spoken work to 30 minutes of a tuba playing one evolving note(it was college radio after all).

I eventually worked up to Training Director and even did color commentary and play-by-play for exciting Anteater basketball. This was the era of Kevin Magee and Scotty Brooks (current coach for the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA). Much like John Rizzi, I DJ’d dances and parties and yes, The Romantics were always a hit.

For two years I also had the pleasure of serving as General Manager and leading a finicky crew of over 100 volunteers running the station.

Those were good times….

It Was a Long, Cold Night.

By Derek Palmer, Managing Director, Executive Vice President, International

Well, most people know that I have been with Tickets.com for a long time, but not many know how I got into the business. I stood out all night at a ticket outlet in Tyson’s Corner, Virginia trying to get Pink Floyd tickets. It rained… it snowed… it was cold. At about 3am the mall security told the small group of us that we couldn’t stay there any longer but if we came back at 8am we could line up again and they gave us little carnival tickets to hold our place in line. I happily scampered to my car to grab a little shut eye.

At 10 minutes to 8 I emerged and went back to the now fairly long line. Feeling smug, I walked to the front where I was to take my previous spot (I was third in line as I recall) only to find that nobody knew what I was talking about and the security guards manning the line refused to honor the red carnival ticket that I was frantically waving in his face. I and about 10 other people ended up at the back of the line. We eventually got our tickets but not nearly the quality we would have.

The night of the concert we had a sort of mini reunion in the upper deck of RFK stadium- still a great show. I remember thinking “there has got to be a better way to get tickets".

A few years later a friend of mine asked if I would drive him to a job interview with a company called ProTix in Fairfax, Virginia. While we were there I was asked if I wanted to interview for a phone center position as well. Immediately my mind raced back to my Pink Floyd experience and I agreed to an interview. Interestingly, I got the job and my friend didn’t - and I have been here ever since.

I have always loved live entertainment and feel truly lucky to participate in a way that helps people experience their favourite team, artist or event. No television show or video game can touch seeing an event live.

Where Were You On September 11, 2001?

By Steve DeMots, SVP Business Development, Tickets.com

Where were you September 11, 2001?

I was at the Doral Golf Resort & Spa outside of Miami, where the IAAM Arena Managers Conference was being held that year. I remember that it was a Tuesday morning, and it looked like it was going to be a decent day- which was good because the conference golf tournament was that day. We were going to play the Blue Monster, the famed golf course at Doral, and it had been raining for days. I remember getting ready and turning on the news, which I never do, and Katie Couric was talking about a small plane that had mistakenly hit one of the Twin Towers. Then all of a sudden, while I was standing there, another plane hit the other tower.

Stunned, but still thinking these were accidents because that is all that Katie could come up with, I gathered my things and went to join the rest of my industry friends and acquaintances on the driving range. You have to remember that we lived in the dark ages before smart phones and wireless Internet, so we all stood around, talking about what was going on- and getting updates from latecomers. It was all speculation at the time, but the reality of what was going on was starting to set in. Amazingly, after what must have been a discussion, someone made the decision that the golf tournament was still going to be held. We started playing, oblivious to what was really going on- until the phone calls started coming in. A worried spouse, a frantic venue operations manager, and in some cases someone who was actually in one of the buildings. Someone in my foursome was truly talking to someone who was running down the stairs of one of the towers. I didn’t know it at the time, but my cousin was in the Pentagon, fortunately on the other side of the building. I don’t know if anyone finished 18 holes that day, my group didn’t. We headed back to the club house with sick feelings in our stomach and joined others around the TV- and didn’t move for hours.

There we were, about a hundred entertainment industry veterans, all down in Miami- far away from everything. It took a while for the reality to sink in- then the warnings were being issued, flights were being canceled indefinitely, trains were stopped, cell phone traffic was jammed- and we realized this was something that was going to affect us all. The ones who were on top of things started reserving rental cars, or planning to use the cars they had already to get home. It wasn’t long before there were no more cars to rent. You can imagine the stories- of folks from Atlanta sharing a rental car with someone from Cleveland, because it was “on the way”. Five people piling in a compact for a drive to California. For me, single and without any place I really needed to be, there were far worse places to be than at the Doral Golf Resort & Spa. Everyone was trying to leave, and no one was coming in. My room was upgraded to a suite with a view of the 18th green of the Blue Monster. Three of the four courses were wide open to us- we just grabbed golf carts and played as much as we felt like, which wasn’t that much. But most of the time we sat in the area outside of the restaurant, where there were a number of TVs’- just watching it all and soaking it in.

After a few days, some flights began to open up, and the rest of us started leaving. I was on one of the first flights out of Miami, a Continental flight that had about 10 people on it. As I looked down as the plane lifted off the ground, I knew I would always remember this particular Arena Managers Conference, and those that I shared the experience with.

10 Things: Doug Lyons, VP Product Marketing and Strategy

For those of you that are familiar with Doug, this list will come as no surprise. For those that have not yet had the pleasure, we offer you 'Ten Things about Doug Lyons'

1. I like loud Hawaiian shirts.
2. I used to wear loud Hawaiian shirts frequently.
3. My girlfriend does not like loud Hawaiian shirts.
4. I (therefore) no longer wear loud Hawaiian shirts.
5. I have tried to sell “gently used” loud Hawaiian shirts on eBay.
6. I have failed to successfully make sales on eBay.
7. I have an 8-year old son who likes loud Hawaiian shirts.
8. I secretly wear my unsold, loud Hawaiian shirts when with my son but not my girlfriend.
9. I have woven a terrible web of deceit around my wardrobe.
10. I hope my girlfriend does not read the Tickets.com blog site.

Who Is John Rizzi?

Over the last couple of months the Tickets.com executive team have been regular contributors to the ProVenue® blog. Some of you are already familiar with the leadership team here, but alas - some of you are not. Over the next couple of weeks let us share with you some unknown facts about this dynamic group.

Today we take a closer look at John Rizzi, SVP Product Management & Strategy. John started his tenure at Tickets.com almost 3 years ago and has quickly made a name for himself in the industry.

John Rizzi: Things You Won't Get From My Resume or Bio:

What you can see on my resume is that I've been in Technology for more than 20 years, what you won't see on there is that my favorite Tech saying is "yak shaving": sadly something I'm sure most can relate to.

If you read my bio, you'll see I'm married with two young boys - what's not there is that my wife and I got married in Vegas… by Elvis. While I AM a fan of the king, I love my wife even more for allowing us to have such an…. errrr…. affordable wedding.

My bio mentions that I went to Cal Poly Pomona (in the 80's) but what it doesn't say is I was the "R" in S&R Sounds DJ's. Those of you old enough might remember that the song that got everyone on the dance floor at frat parties, keggers, and school dances was the Romantics "What I Like About You"…. Uh huh huh…. HEY!!

INTRUST Bank Arena and Mercer University Both Convert to ProVenue®

INTRUST Bank Arena, an SMG managed facility, and all other regional Select-A-Seat venues have recently converted to the ProVenue Platform. INTRUST Bank Arena is one of the Midwest's premier arenas with a 15,000-seat capacity and host to several of the industry's top sporting events and live entertainment shows.

Select-A-Seat also provides ticketing services for several Wichita area clients; including the Wingnuts, Orpheum Theatre and the Grand Opera. The move enables the organization to recruit additional venues that would also benefit from a shared system (single database) to promote and increase ticket sales.

Mercer Ticket Sales (MTS), a regional ticketing distribution company based in Macon, Georgia, also joined the ranks of Tickets.com clients operating on ProVenue. The decision to move from the ProVenueMax system and invest in the ProVenue platform, along with Access Control for the Macon Grand Opera House, allows them to extend their regional ticketing service more readily in Central Georgia and beyond.

Residents of the Opera House, The Macon Symphony, will join MTS for their 2011-2012 season as well as Mercer University Athletics, which plans to add NCAA Division 1 Football in the coming seasons to complement its strong Division 1 Basketball program.

The Right Offer to the Right Person

By Derek Palmer, Managing Director, Executive Vice President, International, Tickets.com

In today's economic climate everyone is focused on providing the right offer to the right patron at the right time. Allow me to share with you my perspective.

Technology obviously plays a large part in this effort. The days of brochures and ushers asking patrons to fill out “contact me” cards in the lobby have given way to complex XRM systems that overlay pricing models and demographics to try and predict and (more importantly) shape consumer behavior. However, the thought process is the same and still seems to rely a great deal on the quantity and quality of data. I would argue it is even more important to have a plan of what you want to do with the data.

Organizations without clear goals for data management risk a condition I have heard best described as "paralysis by analysis" and a waste of valuable time and money.

Before investing in technologies to help manage your data you would do well to ask a few key questions:

1) What are we trying to achieve?
2) What are the key drivers and KPIs that we will use to measure our effectiveness?
3) What are our success criteria?

These are fairly simple questions and therefore it would follow that there are simple answers: We want to sell more tickets and make more money... But how do you achieve that seemingly obvious goal? And what if one doesn't necessarily lead to another? More importantly how do you ensure that you are connecting to the right consumers in the way they wish to be communicated with at the frequency at which they are willing to communicate with you?

Once you have communicated with your target audience, what is your call to action? Too often the immediate response to a slow moving event is to offer a discount to get “butts in seats”, if the goal is to sell more tickets, but does it necessarily make you more money in the long run?

There are many new technologies that allow venues to focus on more nuanced strategies around yield management. Stored Value integrations with merchandise and concession providers offer venues the opportunity to be extremely flexible in their offerings to consumers and in a targeted manner. Instead of giving someone a £10.00 discount on a ticket why not offer them £10.00 worth of value towards purchases at your concession stands or gift shops. In addition to the incremental revenue opportunities, guess what else you get? That’s right-more data. But in this case it is extremely specific data about that individual consumer and their spending habits.

Introducing Dynamic Pricing program for your events is another approach to yield management. Some people will read that sentence to mean “raise ticket prices as high as possible” but in fact a Dynamic Pricing scenario allows just as many discount opportunities and in this case it is based on data. More importantly it allows precision discounting - just because one person in section 400 will only buy if the ticket is £10.00 under face value doesn’t mean the person next to them won’t buy at £2.00 under face value. It goes back to the right offer to the right person.

Record Setting MLB Franchises

By John Walker, President & CEO, Tickets.com

Recently I read where the 2011 Red Sox set a club record by reaching the “3 million tickets sold” mark earlier in a season (August 5th) than ever before in the franchise’s history. And in 2010, the Twins set a franchise record for attendance in their new ballpark. What’s the connection? Winning, of course. But not lost on me is that both teams were in their inaugural seasons of using ProVenue. That says an awful lot about the folks working in the sales and ticket offices for these Clubs – being able to manage unprecedented demand on a new system. It also says a lot about ProVenue and Tickets.com. We’re enjoying the push to these limits.

Is an iPad a Mobile Device?

By Mike Duffy, Director, Product Design – Product Management & Strategy

Is an iPad a mobile device? Most people I have asked start to give an immediate answer of “Yes” but then they hesitate as they really think about what I am asking. Google (or insert favorite search engine) the question and you will see that there is no consensus on the answer.

Digging deeper you will discover that the answer to the question changes depending upon why it is being asked. The iPad is a device that you can carry with you so it is “mobile” but many companies that support both a mobilized online site as well as a traditional PC site have chosen to serve the PC version and not the mobile version to iPads. A usage report for these sites would probably include iPad traffic in the non mobile category. For this situation the answer to the question is now “no”.

As we define our future online ticketing experience it is critical that we focus on how our customers will be interacting with our systems. We look at customer’s physical location, their device screen size, their device’s interaction capabilities (touch screen, mouse) and their market expectation. A tablet’s screen size is closer to a small laptop but includes a touch screen like most smart phones. Stretching a smartphone interface to fit the larger screen tablet does not make efficient use of the increased screen real estate. In some cases shrinking the traditional PC interface to fit the tablet may make better sense in the short term but doesn’t capitalize on the tactile interaction between the user and the device, or the mobility of the device. Solutions include the creation of a mobile application specifically designed for the tablet interface (see our other blog entries) or the creation of a device specific online interface.

As you can see from the graph below, the iPad and other tablets are changing the definition of “mobile” as their use becomes more prevalent. As the technology continues to evolve we will need to define a more granular device classification system. The real question should be; “How do we optimize our customer’s experience for whichever device they choose to use?”

Planning Your Mobile Image

By Ed Gow, VP Sales & Marketing, Tickets.com


According to the International Association for the Wireless Telecommunications Industry, at the end of 2010 there were 302.9M wireless subscriber connections in the U.S. Considering that the population of the U.S. at that time was 308.7M, the market penetration for wireless devices is simply staggering. Add to that the fact that the percentage of wireless-only U.S. households is climbing at 26.6% and most importantly, the revelation that the sale of smartphones has now eclipsed the sale of PCs.

What does all of this mean for the ticketing industry? Well, simply put, venues, arts organizations, attractions and teams must consider their mobile image when developing marketing plans and sales strategies. Organizations can no longer be satisfied with how their websites look, they must now take into account how the experience translates to a mobile user. Print at home is great, but mobile delivery must be an option …nothing short of an end to end mobile ticketing experience will do the trick.

So do you develop an app or a mobile site? That’s really up to you, but with the number of available apps growing on a daily basis, users are becoming much more selective about what they choose to download.

My two cents? Build a mobile site that can be integrated into an app.

Tickets.com, Inc. Signs Up as Rugby Expo 2011 Sponsor

Tickets.com, Inc. has been recruited as the official sponsor of Rugby Expo 2011, which will take place at Twickenham Stadium in London on November 23-24.

The global ticketing giant will provide an integrated ticketing system for thousands of visitors to Rugby Expo and will also lead a plenary conference session dealing with Dynamic Ticketing on the opening day of the event.

"These are exciting times for rugby around the world and we are delighted to be part of the major global forum designed to facilitate exchange of information and promotion of professional best practice in rugby," said Derek Palmer, managing director and international executive vice-president of Tickets.com.

Rugby Ventures chairman John Hockey added: "We are delighted to welcome Tickets.com back as sponsors of Rugby Expo. Not only do they play a vital role by providing the event ticketing system but the company is committed to the future success of rugby and to developing new approaches to helping clubs in rugby to maximise revenues from ticket sales."

Hockey said: “Rugby Expo 2011 has a fresh new look after assessment of feedback from last year's event. Day One will focus on the issues facing the professional and international game while Day Two will be dedicated to community rugby, with complimentary Day Two tickets being made available through County Unions." For more information about Rugby Expo 2011, visit www.rugbyexpo.com or call +44 (0)845 0740752

Mobile As A Sales Channel

By Tim Snyder, VP Service Delivery, Tickets.com, Inc.

In case you haven’t already heard… mobile is the “social” of 2011. While fully functional websites are important to engage and inform your customers, a mobilized website can be just as critical in closing a sale. When people want tickets, they want tickets. ProVenueMobile™ is an ideal way to optimize your existing website for mobile ticket sales.

Over the past 3 years, Tickets.com has deployed over 40 mobilized websites. Our clients include several Major League Baseball teams, the Tulsa Performing Arts Center, and Ticket Star Online. It doesn’t matter if you’ve got a sell-out event, or dressing the house… ProVenueMobile requires zero added effort to make your tickets available by iPhone, Android, or even your grandma’s phone.

Don’t worry - you won’t need any technical resources to bring this product online either. Tickets.com will assign a Project Manager to help you identify your most important content – probably directions, parking, and contact information. After that has been identified, we’ll work with our partners to develop your new mobilized website that is focused on selling tickets. The sales flow is fully functional, including the ability to choose your section, price point, and delivery method. Check out the Wolf Trap's mobile site. You’ll even be able to track how many sales are generated in this growing channel.

After a couple weeks of working behind the curtain, we’ll ask you to browse the demo-site on a couple of devices to make sure formatting and content are correct. You should also purchase a few tickets, just to make sure everyone in your organization is familiar with the mobile sales flow.

Once the site is approved, we’ll make it live. The final step is putting a redirect in place so that customers can easily find your mobile site. We’ll provide you a couple of options, and even code snippets to make is easy on your Web Master.

What delivery method would Captain Kirk choose?

by Doug Lyons, VP of Product Marketing & Strategy

Common lore is that the styling for today’s mobile phones – in particular the flip models – is directly attributable to the “Communicators” used on the original Star Trek TV show (see “How William Shatner changed the world”).

Perhaps we should ask Gene Roddenberry’s descendents how he envisioned people buying and exchanging tickets - and entering the event venue. Or maybe the Trekkies out there know from some obscure episode– did some dude in a red uniform (aren’t the guys in red the ones that always get killed?) stand outside the auto-sliding doors of the venue and scan attendees communicators with his Tri-corder?

All I do know is that Klingon sporting events almost surely had UK-Football style rules preventing away fans from sitting in home sections……

Mobile App vs. Mobile Browser for mCommerce?

By John Rizzi, SVP Product Marketing and Strategy, Tickets.com

The explosion of Smartphone usage and everything mobile is well-documented. Trying to capture a piece of the m-commerce juggernaut can be intimidating and is filled with choices and buzzwords: native app or mobile browser, iOS, Android, Blackberry, and don’t forget all the carriers and their ad-ons. With all the hype, it’s easy to think you’re missing the boat and you have to do something – NOW! While it’s true that mobile commerce is exploding; mobile purchases accounted for only 1% of ecommerce sales in 2010¹. And, even though the growth in m-commerce is exponential, estimates are it will still only make up 7% of e-commerce sales by 2016¹.

So - it’s not too late.

The first decision you need to make regarding your mobile strategy is between a site optimized for a mobile browser or an application written specifically for the Smartphone; such as the iPhone, Android or Blackberry. There are three reasons that make this decision an easy one:

1. Broader reach – mobile browser will work on any phone that has internet – period. No worrying about picking the “right” mobile platform.
2. App saturation – with hundreds of thousands of mobile applications available, there is growing evidence that consumers are becoming overwhelmed by the number of apps on their phones.
3. Faster and cheaper – it’s much easier and less expensive to build and maintain a mobile optimized site than build native apps for one or all of the major mobile platforms

So if you haven’t “gone mobile” yet, I strongly encourage you to consider the mobile browser approach.


¹Forrester Research http://www.internetretailer.com/trends/sales/

Teams Unite for Children of Joplin

The St. Louis Cardinals announced that their charitable foundation Cardinals Care raised $200,000 to help the children of Joplin recover from one of the most destructive tornadoes in Missouri history.

The fundraising was part of the joint “Teams Unite for Joplin” effort with the Kansas City Royals, Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association which dedicated the three-game series at Busch Stadium (Friday, June 17 –Sunday, June 19) to raise awareness and money to help Joplin.

“We appreciate our fans generously supporting this important effort,” said Cardinals President William DeWitt III. “We also appreciate our players, manager, front office staff and our business partners doing their part to help Joplin.”

The Cardinals broadcast partners Fox Sports Midwest and KMOX 1120AM helped raise over $100,000 through first-ever broadcast auctions of once-in-a-lifetime Cardinals experiences. In addition to Cardinals Care volunteers collecting money at the gates, the team’s concessionaire Sportservice sold commemorative “Teams Unite for Joplin” patches, the team’s ticketing partner Tickets.com assisted with taking phone donations and Major League Baseball Advanced Media helped with collecting on-line donations, as well as conducting an on-line auction of autographed and game used items from the weekend that wrapped up on Sunday.

The May 22nd twister that hit Joplin was classified as an EF-5 tornado, the most powerful tornado possible. The storm left 153 dead, put more than 500 people into shelters at its peak and destroyed nearly 7,000 homes, businesses and schools.

While the recovery needs in Joplin are multiple and extensive in the wake of the tornado, Cardinals Care established the Joplin Recovery Fund to help the thousands of Joplin area children impacted by the disaster.

In the meantime, fans can still help by donating on-line at cardinals.com/Joplin or by texting the word JOPLIN to 32020.

Ticket Availability During Public On-sales

By John Walker, President & CEO, Tickets.com

Tickets.com Just completed a series of successful on-sales for several stadium shows coming to the Midwest this summer – and although our systems performed as expected, and our FIFO (First-In, First-Out) virtual waiting room added to the quality of the consumer experience online, many fans were left with a bad taste in their mouth due to the amount of inventory actually made available for the “public” on-sales. We in the industry are always looking for ways to improve upon the experience for ticket buyers – perhaps more transparency from the outset regarding what/how much inventory is available (especially when we know in advance that demand will exceed supply) would better manage expectations.

2011 Virtual Summit: Session Recordings

Thank you to everyone who joined and we hope that you gained some valuable insight on Tickets.com® and our ProVenue® line of products. We realize that some of you were unable to attend during the scheduled session times so we have posted the recordings to the Tickets.com Virtual Summit website.

We also realize the importance of online marketing, so we created a list of recordings from our previous marketing sessions.

Some of the topics include:

• Google Paid Search Advertising
• Campaign Email Best Practices
• Facebook 101

If you would like access to the marketing sessions, email your request to Chaeli Walker at cwalker@tickets.com.

If you have any topics that you would like to see presented in future online sessions, let us know that too!

Emails – Still a Great Marketing Channel

By Jan Yerzik

Email is still a great form of communication. Do not discount the ability to communicate to your target audience via email. In a recent marketing survey by Hubspot, 67% of marketers say Email is more important today than in the past. 67.3% said that email metrics became more important this year, up from 56.1% in the previous year’s survey.

For Entertainment and events emails, the average open rate is 17.09%; average click thru rate is 2.98%.

Use emails to connect and engage with your audience. There are a number of different types of emails you can send:

1. Announcements, Alerts, and Reminders

Every event, announcement or new venture should have an email associated with it. The marketing wisdom still applies, “Tell them its coming, tell them what it is, and then tell them again”. Think of it this way:
a. Give your audience a heads-up as to when your event will go on sale
b. Tell them when it is on sale
c. Remind them before it’s over or expires

2. Helpful, Educational Content

These are the most underused by marketers. You’ll develop greater customer loyalty and engagement when you weave content emails in between them. Is there big news about a show coming you can share prior to the shows arrival? Are there any game highlights or stats your audience would find insightful prior to their attendance? Think about what your audience might like to know and then provide them the information.

3. Triggered up-sell and down-sell offers

You know who is attending your events. Think about what offers you can email to enhance their experience. Are there any special promotions you can do with a sponsor? Can you up-sell anything to them or provide any special merchandise offers they can redeem at the event? Can they buy parking or a package deal prior to the event?

Measuring Your Success

The other very important side of email marketing is measurement.

This chart shows the metrics email marketers use to track the effectiveness of their campaigns.

Tickets.com email solution can report on all of these metrics. The new social media plug-ins makes the inclusion of social media a breeze.

Tickets.com has started the RAVE ‘Real Advice for Venue & Event’ marketing to share best practices and help you with your online marketing. If you’d like to join the program, email us at RAVE@tickets.com

Please feel free to comment or share ideas on what you’ve just read.

Tickets.com - 2011 Virtual Summit

Tomorrow kicks off the 2011 Virtual Summit. Join us for an online conference with various topics scheduled over the course of the next two days - presented in a convenient online format at no cost!

Session highlights include:

• Welcome Address & Company Update presented by John Walker, President & CEO
• Tuning Your Marketing Channels: Maximizing your online efforts
• NEW System Features: Hear the latest improvements and functionality releases in both the ProVenue® & ProVenueMax ticketing platforms

A lot of great things are happening in ticketing these days so let us share with you some of the innovative things we are doing!

Register Now!

Questions? Email Chaeli Walker at cwalker@tickets.com.

Tickets.com Flyers Ride in Support of British Heart Foundation

The London/Brighton cycle ride is an annual charity event staged to raise money for the British Heart Foundation. The Tickets.com UK office, otherwise known as Tdc Flyers for this event, is off and riding!

The British Heart Foundation is the nation's heart charity and every day they save lives, through pioneering research, providing vital information to help people reduce their own heart health risks, campaigning for change and supporting and caring for heart patients.

Their vision, could not be more ambitious:
'A world where people no longer die prematurely from heart disease’

To deliver on their vision they need our support!

The London to Brighton Bike Ride is the flagship fundraising event and takes place on Sunday, June 19, 2011.

Everyone from seasoned cyclists to leisure riders converge on Clapham Common for a day of laughing, pedalling and SERIOUS fundraising.

We’re hoping to raise a massive £4 million to help fund heart research and to provide ongoing support to heart patients and their families in need.

So please, sponsor the TDC Flyers and do your bit to help us, help them to beat heart disease.

http://www.justgiving.com/tdcflyers

A big THANK YOU from the Tickets.com UK office riders - Andy, Rich, Will, Ryan, Kamal, Haydn, Dave, Paul and Matt – the TDC Flyers

Join Tickets.com at the 2011 S.E.A.T Consortium

The 2011 S.E.A.T Consortium (Sports & Entertainment Alliance in Technology) presents a one-of-a kind conference and tradeshow dedicated to the decision makers across the International community of the sports and entertainment industry.

This year's conference, in conjunction with A.L.S.D, will be the 5th Annual meeting dedicated to technology executives, venue operations executives, marketing executives and sales executives.

For information on this year's program visit: http://www.seatconsortium.com

Hope to see you all there!

If you are a Tickets.com client interested in attending, email Chaeli Walker at cwalker@tickets.com for a special discount code.

Tickets.com Enables Red Carpet Rewards Program Integration in Partnership with the Washington Nationals and FortressGB

Just before the start of the 2011 season, the Washington Nationals announced the launch of the revamped Red Carpet Rewards Program, a new online platform powered by Fortress, the premier loyalty management and virtual ticketing provider in Europe. The Fortress integration with Tickets.com’s MyTickets™ season ticket holder account management tool, re-branded My Nationals Tickets for the club’s fans, gives members the ability to access, track, share and redeem loyalty points using a single point of entry for additional benefits and convenience.

In a recent press release, Nationals Chief Operating Officer Andrew C. Feffer reflected on the impact: “The Nationals are proud to be the first Major League club to offer our fans this unique system. We are always looking for different ways to enhance the experience for Nats fans through innovative technologies, and this is just the beginning. In the future this platform will evolve to be used at concession stands, retail stores and to gain entrance to games. The possibilities are endless.”

With a single point of entry through the My Nationals Tickets account, Red Carpet Rewards members will find it easier than ever to share points with friends, family and seat partners. The Fortress platform also allows members to monitor available sections for specific games and then combine points to purchase high point items like seats in the Washington Suites and Party Suites or premium parking options near Nationals Park. For added convenience, print-at-home tickets are utilized.

With the launch of the Red Carpet Rewards Program, the Nationals became the first baseball club to bring this advanced online platform to the United States.

For more information on the Nationals Red Carpet Rewards program, visit nationals.com/rewards.

Tickets.com's Dan Wu Wins Man of the Year

Dan Wu, CFO here at Tickets.com, has been very involved with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) since his wife Anita passed away in February, 2010, from complications due to Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia. Tickets.com joined Dan in supporting LLS last summer leading up to the annual LLS Light the Night Walk in September, where the employees raised over $20,000 based solely on individual contributions. Tickets.com was one of the top fundraising teams and won "Rookie of the Year" for the 2010 Light the Night event.

Dan was nominated to participate in the 2011 Man of the Year campaign. The funds raised from this campaign will help fund research for the LLS and improve the quality of life for patients and their families. Dan’s goal was to raise $50,000 in order to have the opportunity to name an LLS research project in Anita’s memory. Dan received over 350 contributions, including donations from Tickets.com and many of its employees. Dan is very grateful to everyone who donated to this cause.

We are thrilled to announce that Dan was selected the 2011 Man of the Year for the Orange County/Inland Empire LLS Chapter after raising a total of $78,452, well in excess of his $50,000 goal.

Tickets.com congratulates Dan on this remarkable achievement and reaching his personal goal to honor his wife.

If you’d like to join Dan Wu’s effort and donate to this cause, click here.

Tickets.com Relocates Asia-Pacific Operations to University of Wollongong’s Innovation Campus

Tickets.com's Asia-Pacific offices will be relocating to The University of Wollongong’s research and commercial precinct, Innovation Campus, and will be become the newest tenant at its iC Enterprise 1 commercial building.

The move will take our HQ from the southern Sydney suburb of Miranda to the Innovation Campus in mid-2011. The move will add 16 jobs to the Illawarra economy immediately and further jobs over the next three years.

Scheduled for completion in mid-2011, iC Enterprise 1 is a $40 million A Grade commercial building featuring a 4.5 Star NABERS (National Australian Built Environment Rating System) rating, state-of-the-art design and large floor plates of up to 2,600sqm.

David Borg, Tickets.com’s General Manager for Asia Pacific, selected the Innovation Campus following an extensive search for new premises covering south-west and southern Sydney and the Illawarra regions.

Tickets.com supports a large range of sports and entertainment clients across Australia and Asia-Pacific so access to high-speed data links was critical in our search for new premises. The Innovation Campus offers the ideal combination of quality commercial space, excellent IT infrastructure, value for money, and the unique opportunity to collaborate with the University of Wollongong on technology and recruitment initiatives.

Significantly, Tickets.com is the first Sydney-based company to relocate to the Innovation Campus.

About Innovation Campus
The University of Wollongong’s Innovation Campus is a 33 hectare research and commercial precinct in North Wollongong. Innovation Campus aims to drive partnerships and collaboration between the research and business communities by co-locating commercial and research organisations in state-of-the-art facilities. It currently houses the Sydney Business School, Australian Institute of Innovative Materials, Institute of Transnational and Maritime Security, the University of Wollongong’s Digital Media Facility, and a number of commercial tenants. Wollongong is Australia’s eighth largest city, located 80km south of the Sydney CBD and one hour from Sydney International Airport. www.innovationcampus.com.au

Minnesota Twins Choose Digonex to Provide Dynamic Pricing for Tickets

Partnership includes integration with Tickets.com and Major League Baseball Advanced Media

Leading dynamic pricing provider, Digonex Technologies, Inc., announced that the Minnesota Twins will be utilizing their dynamic pricing services via a partnership with Tickets.com and Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM) to price single games tickets in select sections this season. The Twins will utilize the Digonex Sports and Entertainment Analytical Ticketing System (SEATS™), a robust and proven dynamic pricing system for event ticketing that scientifically changes prices based upon econometric and behavioral principles.

The SEATS integration with Tickets.com and MLBAM allows MLB teams, as well as other Tickets.com clients, to quickly analyze pertinent information and adjust ticket prices. With SEATS, the Twins now have a demand-based pricing system in place enabling them to deliver the same great fan experience at just the right price.

“We are confident that SEATS will help us identify the best price for our tickets allowing us to give Twins fans the best value for their dollar at Target Field,” said Steve Smith, VP of Ticket Sales and Service for the Twins. “Fielding a solid team and pricing appropriately are key components to ensuring that our fans get the most out of every ticket.”

“Digonex is excited to team up with Tickets.com and MLBAM to provide the extensive capabilities of SEATS to the Twins and other MLB teams,” said Jan Eglen, Ph.D., CEO of Digonex Technologies. “Our patented dynamic pricing services are proven to increase revenues for our clients in excess of 20%. Along with our expanding analytic offerings, Tickets.com can now offer their clients our patented and proven SEATS service as a method for delivering the best value to their fans.”

The integration of SEATS, along with the advanced features of Tickets.com’s ProVenue platform, will allow the Twins to automate the acceptance of price recommendations from Digonex and eliminate the need for time-consuming manual price updates.

“We are happy to work with Digonex to provide our clients with true fan-driven dynamic pricing capability,” said John Rizzi, SVP of Product Management and Strategy for Tickets.com. “The SEATS platform has provided us with another time-saving, technologically advanced solution for our clients.”

Tickets.com Signs Ticketing Agreement With Erie County Convention Center Authority

We are pleased to announce the addition of the multi-venue Erie County Convention Center Authority (ECCCA) to our client list. The new partnership centers on ProVenue, which by now most of you know is Tickets.com’s advanced, web-based ticketing platform.

“We needed a proven platform that would support our regional infrastructure and help us grow,” said Casey Wells, Executive Director, ECCCA. “Ultimately, we want to have complete control of our customer’s experience and that starts with a solid ticketing platform. Tickets.com understands our vision and we are excited to partner with them.”

The ECCCA’s Tullio Arena, Warner Theater, Bayfront Convention Center and Jerry Uht BallPark will transition to the ProVenue platform later this spring. Both the Tullio Arena and Warner Theatre will enjoy extensive renovations in the next two years, significantly improving the homes of the Erie Otters (OHL), Erie Bayhawks (NBDL), Erie Storm (SIFL) and the Erie Broadway Series.

The ECCCA’s selection of ProVenue adds to our strong portfolio of regional ticketing companies; including MyTicketOffice.com, SelectASeat.com, TicketStarOnline.com, ICtickets.com, ProTixOnline.com and Mercer Ticket Sales.

All of us at Tickets.com are looking forward to a long and successful partnership.

RAVE "Real Advice for Venue & Event" marketing best practices program launches

You’ve probably heard the quote from Einstein “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results.” We love this quote as it makes you think about what you are doing, and more importantly, what you can do differently to improve results.

At Tickets.com, we’d like to provide marketing best practices by launching our RAVE "Real Advice for Venue and Event" marketers program.

We know marketing people are always incredibly busy . . .so we will be providing a monthly e-newsletter, seminars and white papers. I hope the quick reads and RAVE materials we provide help us do things differently . . . keep people engaged and improve results!

Here’s our first edition of the RAVE e-newsletter http://www.tickets.com/em/rave_0311_newsletter.html

Social Media Webinar: Facebook 101

Tickets.com is happy to announce that we have scheduled the following webinar:

Topic: Facebook 101 – Getting Started

Date: Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Time: 11:00 am, Pacific Standard Time/2:00 pm, Eastern Standard Time

Who should attend: Box office management, marketing and communication groups

Description: For venues who haven’t jumped on to the social media bandwagon, this is for you. Learn the critical steps to create an effective Facebook presence and the strategies to keep it going.

What you will learn:

• How to create a Facebook page

• Ways to get fans and friends to follow you

• What to post and more

Enrollment for this Technology Information Exchange seminar is now open. To attend this webinar, you must first complete the enrollment process.

Please click here to enroll.

Once you have enrolled, you will receive a confirmation email entitled “Enrollment Approved” that will provide you with the information needed to join the session, including the password. Please note: It may take up to 48 hours to receive your approval email.

Donate to the Red Cross & Support their relief efforts in Japan

Our hearts go out to those affected by the earthquake and tsunami. If you'd like to help, donate to the Red Cross. You can donate $10 by texting to Red Cross and entering 90999.

General Manager Has A Close Shave

David Borg, the Asia Pacific General Manager at Tickets.com will be participating in the World’s Greatest Shave to raise money for the Leukaemia Foundation. Since 1998, World’s Greatest Shave has raised in excess of $106 million and the event is the Foundations biggest source of income.

Every hour, someone in Australia is diagnosed with leukaemia, lymphoma or myeloma. Every two hours, someone dies from one of these blood cancers. The money raised is used by the Leukaemia Foundation to fund services to support patients and families living with leukaemias, lymphomas, myeloma and related blood disorders. All services are free! Fundraising efforts also fund blood cancer research to find better treatments and cures.

David is aiming to raise $5,000 so if you can help, please use the link above to make a donation directly to the cause. You can also follow him on Facebook at ProVenue APAC to see updates and to view pictures of David after the shave.

David’s Great Shave will occur on the 30th March.

A Bit of Good News .....

We couldn’t help but share the great news and positive feedback from our friends at the Oakland Athletics regarding the integration of dynamic pricing with the ProVenue ticketing platform.

"Can't stress enough how seamless and easy the process was on ProVenue.... Great work, the ProVenue product integration with outside vendors is a huge selling point."

- Josh Ziegenbusch, Director of Ticket Operations, Oakland A's

Tickets.com - Job Openings

Tickets.com is now hiring for the following positions:

Client Services Representative (St. Louis Cardinals) – St. Louis, MO
Telecom Engineer – Costa Mesa, CA
Sr. Security Engineer – Costa Mesa, CA
Test Automation Lead Engineer – Costa Mesa, CA
Desktop Administrator – Costa Mesa, CA
Software Engineer – Costa Mesa, CA

Please visit www.provenue.com for a more detailed description.

Tickets.com integrates social media into ProVenueOnline®

We’re excited to announce this new capability, making ticket sales more viral via social media.

When a consumer purchases a ticket online through our system, they can share their attendance with their social network via Tickets.com’s system.  What better time to offer people the option to share their excitement about the tickets they acquired than when they’ve just completed their purchase?  Tickets.com is placing the familiar Facebook and Twitter options on the ticket purchase confirmation page.  People can then modify the text they share or use what’s provided.  

Sample screens are shown below.

A link to the venue’s events page is provided with the share feature so other friends/followers can purchase tickets.

Seattle Theatre Group is the first venue to use this new social media integration.

Congratulations 2011 Box Office Stars: Sharon Dunaway and Bernie Berry

Congratulations to Sharon Dunaway and Bernie Berry for Winning the 2011 Venues Today ‘Box Office Stars” Award.

Each year Venues Today honors the people who make our industry move forward. This year, Tickets.com would like to congratulate two of our clients; Sharon Dunaway, BOK Center, Tulsa OK and Bernie Berry, Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, Vienna, VA. Each day these super stars make it happen and today we celebrate you! Congratulations on well deserved recognition!