Ticket Industry News: Ahead of the Curve

Venue managers keep pace with technology, but there's room for improvement

by Dave Brooks
Venues Today

Venue managers are continuing to adopt new technologies, although most find themselves catching up with current trends instead of leading the pack, a Venues Today survey in conjunction with Turnkey Sports and Entertainment found.

Venues Today surveyed 91 facility operators at arenas, amphitheatres, convention centers, fairgrounds, performing arts centers and stadiums and found that 86 percent believed the industry as a whole is keeping up with innovations, or leading the way. But when asked how they thought their own facility was keeping pace, only 64 percent answered in the affirmative.

"That's the thing about technology, there's always a sense that you're behind someone else," said Mark Petracca of Vtech Communication's Network Division, which helps install networking platforms for large-scale consumer business. "We tell our clients that technology tends to dramatically evolve every 18 months and becomes obsolete every 30-36 months. With a pace like that, it's no wonder that a lot of our clientele feel it's pointless to buy into new systems because it could be useless in three years."

But in the same breath, Petracca notes that not evolving technological touch points, especially in the communications sector, is perilous.

"You have to upgrade your system in smart ways, one that does its best to foresee future technological improvements and can adapt to those changes," he said.

Petracca is overseeing the company's installation of wireless internet systems for large commercial facilities. Wireless Internet upgrades were the top technological improvement identified by venue managers in the survey, with 27 percent saying they have installed wireless platforms at their facilities.

"It's not just about creating a space where people can get on the web and check their MySpace accounts," said Felix Hernandez, director of communications for the Los Angeles Convention Center. "Wireless capabilities are central to almost every aspect of the meeting planning industry and our clients are demanding we provide this service."

Hernandez said the Los Angeles Convention Center's network can be subdivided between users, each getting their own secured server to share information. Broadcast media have increasingly used a specially secured "media server" that allows them to send feeds to their newsrooms without running cables to their news vans, while planners tap into the network with wireless control devices that keep an accurate head-count of attendees.

Tickets were the next advancement in technology, with 35 percent of respondents estimating that their box offices would lead the venue's technological revolution. Approximately 21 percent said their facilities used some type of wireless ticket device to control access to their facilities, while five percent said they even had success with mobile phone technology.

The Arizona State Fair, Phoenix, is taking its tickets wireless after a successful two-year run with a wireless midway powered by Ray Cammack Shows, said Kristen Walsh, the fair's marketing director.

"The goal was to eliminate counterfeit tickets and get real time attendance updates," she said of the system powered by Ticketmaster. "We've also had some success using it for our concert series."

Derek Palmer of Tickets.com said he wasn't surprised that mobile phone ticketing was identified as the largest technological growth area behind advanced LED displays.

"There's a lot of curiosity out there about this product," Palmer said. "Essentially it delivers the ticket to the user's mobile phone via SMS text messaging, which in turn can be read from a barcode scanner."

Like "ticket-less" credit card tickets being developed by Ticketmaster, Palmer said the cell phone tickets prevent scalping because they're nearly impossible to exchange.

And while ticketing took the lead for most likely to introduce change, concessions was voted most unlikely to adapt to new technological trends wit 50 percent of respondents reporting that they were doubtful they would see any long term technological changes from their food providers.

"That doesn't surprise me because kitchens are developed for long term use," said concessions consultant Chris Bigelow of Bigelow Industries. "Kitchens are a major part of the design phase and we're getting much better at making the right decisions early on. If you ask venues if they felt their concessionaires were adjusting to today's tastes, a majority of them would respond yes."

In terms of budgeting, two-thirds of respondents said they spend between zero-to-10 percent on technological innovations, while 19 percent said they spend between 11-20 percent of their budgets on technological improvements. While an overwhelming majority of respondents reported that their technology budgets hadn't changed in the last two years, 58 percent reported that their budgets have increased over the past five years.

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