Top CEOs to Speak at Keynote Session at Ticket Summit

Ticketmaster, Tickets.com, TicketFly and Veritix CEOs to Provide Insight on the Future of the Primary Ticket Market
Ticket Summit, the leading conference and trade show for ticketing and entertainment executives, today announced its notable roster of top CEOs slated to speak at the event's Keynote session. The Ticket Summit January conference -- a three-day event scheduled January 13-15, 2010 at The Waldorf-Astoria in New York City -- will include a Keynote session Friday, January 15 featuring Sean Moriarty (Former CEO, Ticketmaster), Larry Witherspoon (CEO, Tickets.com), Andrew Dreskin (CEO, TicketFly), and Jeff Kline (President, Veritix).

The Ticket Summit Keynote session is scheduled to be among the culminating events of the three-day conference, following a variety of sessions ranging from ticket pricing strategies and event promotion, to brand-building, and sports and entertainment. "The Ticket Summit Keynote Session on January 15 is bound to be the conference's most paramount event yet," said Dr. Molly A. Martinez, Executive Director, Ticket Summit. "With ticketing agents, event promoters, venue managers, and primary ticket distributors all in the same room, the dialogue on the state of the industry will be extremely insightful."

More than five-hundred attendees from the United States and throughout the world are expected to attend the upcoming conference. TicketNetwork CEO Don Vaccaro observed: "Ticket Summit is by far the must-attend conference where all the key players in the ticket industry come to network. And with the addition of such a notable keynote session, attendees are going to get to be part of a dialogue that's truly one-of-a-kind."

About Ticket Summit
Ticket Summit is the world's leading conference and trade show for ticketing and entertainment. This event attracts hundreds of global business leaders, entrepreneurs, and entertainment experts in the ticket community. Past attendees and sponsors include: Billboard, eBay, Forbes, Google, Live Nation, NBA, NFL, NHL, StubHub, Ticketmaster, among others.

Ticket Summit was founded in 2006 by host company TicketNetwork, Inc. The upcoming Ticket Summit conference and trade show is scheduled to take place at The Waldorf-Astoria in New York, NY, January 13-15. For information, visit www.TicketSummit.org.

Ticket Industry News: Ticket Summit 2009

With a full exhibition hall and an impressive attendee list, expect success at Ticket Summit 2009 NYC

By Crystal Astrachan
TicketNews

Even though the economy is struggling, Ticket Summit 2009, the ticketing industry’s leading biannual conference and tradeshow, has managed to beat the odds; with nearly 500 attendees already registered and only one booth left in the exhibition hall, conference organizers expect nothing but success for Ticket Summit 2009 NYC, which will take place at the Waldorf-Astoria from January 6-8.

The ticketing industry has seen brighter days. This year, TicketsNow and its parent company Ticketmaster reduced their workforces to stay competitive in the market. In October, Ticketmaster eliminated roughly 300 jobs, including 60 jobs at TicketsNow. Similarly, ticket brokers’ profits are becoming slimmer, as many tickets sell below face value, including tickets to Young Frankenstein and the Oscar De La Hoya-Manny Pacquiao fight. Ticket Summit’s ability to flourish during this economic downturn demonstrates the event’s value in the ticketing industry.

With only one booth remaining, the tradeshow’s exhibition hall has almost sold out. Registered exhibitors include Admit One, The Association of Secondary Ticket Agents UK, The Better Ticketing Association, Celebrity Access, FanFetch, FanSnap, Free Ticket Exchange, Global Collect, The New York Ticket Exchange, Suites & Seats, TicketNetwork, TicketNews, Travel Guard, Verizon Wireless, Worldwide Ticketcraft, and yoonew. A detailed floor plan, with booth assignments, can be found here.

Ticket Summit has been able to thrive because of its many supporters. CelebrityAccess (the operator of a state-of-the art database containing profiles on more than 35,000 performers, musicians, comedians, lecturers, agents, managers, record companies, talent buyers and venues) has been a proud supporter of the conference since Ticket Summit 2008 in Las Vegas. Shawn Garrity, senior account supervisor of CelebrityAccess told TicketNews that "Ticket Summit has opened a whole new mutually beneficial market to Celebrity Access." This year, CelebrityAccess did not hesitate to renew their contract with the conference, as it is clearly in their favor to sponsor of the conference as well set up a booth.

Attendees will also benefit from a wealth of panel sessions, training sessions, and product demonstrations. Industry professionals will educate attendees on legal issues, the differences between the primary and secondary ticket markets, PCI compliance, and a wide range of other topics. View the complete lineup of speakers and all panel descriptions on the event’s Web site.

The following distinguished companies have confirmed their attendance: Ticketmaster, LiveNation, StubHub, TicketNetwork, Tickets.com, GET ME IN, StubHub, eBay, AEG Live Northeast, Google, Association of Luxury Suite Directors, Goldman Sachs, INTIX, Celebrity Access, Chicago – The Musical, Federal Trade Commission, CNBC, NBA, NBC Universal, World Wrestling Entertainment, New Jersey Nets, New York Yankees, NFL, NHL, United States Tennis Association, New York Post, New York Times, Reuters, Venues Today, Sports Business Journal, Theatermania, Veritix, Control Scan, Verizon Center, SeatWave, Mondial Assistance, and The Berklee College of Music.

"We’re proud to have supported Ticket Summit since its first conference and every year since. Sponsoring helps support the industry’s activities, and it facilitates discussions with industry leaders which helps us stay abreast of ticketing trends and convey our unique value to clients," said Steve Utley of Mondial Assistance.

Ticket Summit NYC is one of two conferences scheduled for 2009; both were created and hosted by TicketNews's parent company TicketNetwork. The second event, Ticket Summit Las Vegas, will enter its fourth year July 15-17 at the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino. To register for Ticket Summit, visit www.ticketsummit.org or email info@ticketsummit.org. After 5pm today, December 15, the admission price for Ticket Summit NYC will go up to $499, and the amount for buying passes for both the New York and Las Vegas conferences (a combo pass) will be $599. A single admission pass to the Las Vegas conference will remain $249.

Goldman Sachs, Live Nation and Tickets.com to Address Ticket Industry at Ticket Summit 2009 in New York City

Industry's Must-Attend Event Targets Global Ticket Professionals, Theater/Concert/Venue/Sports Teams Promoters and Investors

VERNON, CT -- (Marketwire) -- 10/03/08 -- TicketNetwork.com, the leading source for the ticket industry's most comprehensive inventory, today announced that the industry's most influential experts will address Ticket Summit 2009 at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City, January 6-8th. The three-day event will include a list of marquis speakers as well as dynamic panel sessions and many vendor exhibits. High-profile attendees include representatives from Google, the NHL and the NCAA, in addition to companies representing the hospitality, ticket, entertainment and technology industries.

Mark Wienkes, financial analyst from The Goldman Sachs Group, Greg Bettinelli, executive vice president, business development and strategy at Live Nation, and Derek Palmer, chief commercial officer of Tickets.com, will address the overlap between the primary and secondary ticket markets in a panel titled "The New Paradigm." This session is scheduled for Wednesdsay, January 7th, and is designed to educate Ticket Summit 2009 attendees on how the blurring line separating two ticket markets will affect a range of professionals in both sectors.

At Live Nation, Bettinelli is responsible for the strategic direction and partnerships for Live Nation's ticket business. Prior to Live Nation, Bettinelli was Sr. Director of Business Development at StubHub where he spearheaded the company's partnership with Major League Baseball. Before transitioning to StubHub, he led eBay.com's Event Tickets and Media businesses and was a catalyst in eBay's acquisition of StubHub in 2007.

Derek Palmer is the fueling force behind Tickets.com's operational and sales organizations. Over the course of his 15-year tenure with Tickets.com, Palmer has launched clients such as Times Union Center, formerly known as Pepsi Arena, 9:30 Club, Washington Nationals, Pittsburgh Pirates, and The Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts. Additionally, he has major event experience working as ticketing manager for the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia and the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, GA. Palmer holds a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from George Mason University.

"Ticket Summit 2009 provides a unique platform for leading professionals whose business involves ticket sales to come together and share the latest developments and advancements in the secondary market," said Don Vaccaro, CEO of TicketNetwork. "The evolving nature of the secondary ticket business and the high demand for a forum addressing current industry issues compelled us to launch a New York conference targeting theater, sports and entertainment professionals based on the east coast and Europe. We are pleased to host an elite gathering of key ticket industry decision makers at Ticket Summit 2009," said Vaccaro.

Ticket Summit 2009 is the premier conference in the secondary ticket industry. A must-attend event, it presents a tremendous opportunity for an enhanced education on the ticket industry, and provides numerous networking opportunities for professionals aiming to expand or meet partners for the expansion of their ticket operations.

Ticket Industry News: Tickets to the 2010 Olympic Games

Reseller market not cowed by 2010 organizers plans to crack down on scalpers

VANCOUVER — People who fail to nab any of the scarce tickets that will be available for the 2010 Olympic Games shouldn't worry, says a leading Vancouver ticket broker.

He'll have them for sale - and soon. Despite Vancouver Games organizers' repeated claim that they'll police tickets sold outside authorized channels, going so far as invalidating them, the resale market will not be cowed, said Mario Livich of ShowTime tickets.

"We'll be very active in selling thousands of tickets for the 2010 Games," he said.

"It's a legal business, the buying and selling of tickets, and it's a much-valued service in the marketplace."

Tickets for the Vancouver Olympics go on sale Oct. 3 through an application system that will allow people just over a month to decide how many and which tickets they'd like to buy for the Games.

For those events where demand exceeds supply tickets will be sold via a lottery system.

While tickets for single events will be for sale, organizers are also promoting 58 different "Olympic experience" packages which combine multiple events at prices ranging from $140 to $1,267.

Package orders will be filled before individual events, so organizers say the best shot at some of the most popular and expensive seats will be to buy packages.

The lowest price for a single sporting event ticket is $25, while the highest is $775 for a gold-medal hockey ticket. That's not including surcharges or the cost of transportation, numbers that won't be available until closer to Oct. 3.

Over a million Olympic tickets will be available to the masses, but organizers have admitted that at events like gold-medal hockey, the vast majority of seats are being sold to "Olympic family" members, including sponsors and officials. The number of tickets that will be allotted to the public for each event has not been released.

That's why a brisk resale market is inevitable, Livich said.

"Something of this magnitude touches all aspects of society and people want to be part of it in any way they can," he said.

He predicted having tickets for sale as early as this fall, though he declined to say where he would get them. The first phase of official ticket sales ends Nov. 7.

Empty seats were common at many of the less popular Games events in Beijing, which was blamed in part on Olympic sponsors and officials who didn't use their tickets.

Street scalpers said their inventory mostly came from those two groups.

At the same time, scores of people showed up in Beijing with tickets they'd bought online that turned out to be fake.

Vancouver organizers are well within their rights to make sure none of that happens, said Larry Witherspoon, the chief executive officer of Tickets.com, the company working with Vancouver to provide ticket sales and support.

"Given enough time and effort I think you can go through and comb sites and ensure you aren't seeing any tickets that aren't authorized out there," Witherspoon said, though he acknowledged it's hard to police those posted by regular folks just looking to make a buck.

Tickets.com is helping Vancouver organizers build their resale system, expected to launch next year.

"The secondary market exists because the primary market ticketing providers never addressed it back seven or eight years ago," said Witherspoon.

"So they allowed the niche to form which actually became a pretty popular and powerful niche that generates a lot of revenue."

The resale ticket industry is estimated to be worth about $6 billion worldwide, lucrative enough that primary ticket sellers like Ticketmaster have jumped on the bandwagon, snapping up resale companies.

The resellers make their money by marking up prices as high as the market will bear.

During the 2006 Winter Games in Torino, resellers were hawking gold-medal tickets for over $1,000, for tickets sold originally for a maximum of $540.

But Vancouver organizers stress their market will be different.

"There's no need for a middle man," said Dave Cobb, vice-president of marketing for the organizing committee.

"(Their) pure objective is to make as much money as they possibly can."

Organizers' aim is not to allow tickets to be sold for more than their face value.

Livich applauds the effort but says it just might not work.

"Their threat may put a bit of a chill on people who wish to sell their tickets for whatever reason, whether for profit or they can't make an event, and the worry is this could result in empty seats which doesn't serve anybody's interest," he said.

"I think that should be the main focus of any ticket initiative - to make sure there are bums in the seats."

The final capacities of venues also won't be decided until much closer to the start of the Games on Feb. 12, 2010.

Learn more about Tickets.com >

Ticket Industry News: Ticket broker Zigabid offers a new wrinkle -- haggling

The new venture tries to crack a tough business by allowing market forces to set prices.

By Swati Pandey, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 9, 2008

Haggling over the price of a concert ticket usually requires sending several plaintive e-mails to a Craigslist poster. But a La Cañada company wants to complete the haggling with a few simple mouse clicks.

Zigabid.com, which launches today in public beta testing, says it is the only ticket-vending site that lets buyers and sellers bargain over prices for tickets to concerts, sports matches and other events, all using a simple interface that allows for direct buyer-seller communication.

"If you're buying a car, you negotiate. If you're buying a house, you negotiate," Zigabid founder Dan Rubendall said. "People want to negotiate."

Although Zigabid's current inventory consists mostly of resale tickets from individuals and brokers, the company hopes to become a player in the primary ticketing market. That would mean taking on Ticketmaster and turning tickets into traded commodities.

The negotiation-based approach could help sell more tickets, if at lower prices, which runs counter to the music industry trend of soaring concert ticket prices.

Ticket face values have more than doubled in the last 10 years, said Gary Bongiovanni, editor of the touring industry trade publication Pollstar.

But the primary ticket market is difficult to enter, said Derek Palmer, chief commercial officer of Tickets.com, which is owned by Major League Baseball.

"You have to have the technological infrastructure" to handle a high volume of transactions and deliveries, he said.

Analysts and other vendors were skeptical about Zigabid's ability to persuade promoters and artists to leave ticket prices to the marketplace. Analyst David Joyce of Miller, Tabak & Co. noted that venues and promoters usually guarantee an artist a certain gross. Zigabid's model would make that determination more difficult.

The company "would have to be patient and let promoters work this into contracts," he said.

Joe Cohen, a former Ticketmaster executive and founder and chief executive of London-based ticket reseller Seatwave.com, agreed but noted that the concert industry could benefit from innovation.

"There's a price at which every ticket will sell. To the extent that this platform can help discover that price, it can be useful," Cohen said.

Ticket prices have become largely inflexible -- tiered pricing started to take off in the mid-1990s. Prices in the secondary market are more variable, but Bongiovanni said some artists resent resellers who profit mightily on mark-ups.

Rubendall said Zigabid had received positive reactions from promoters.

The company also will return 1% of each ticket sale to the artist, and it plans to allow performers to set minimum prices.

Consumers benefit too, Rubendall said. Sellers don't have to guess what buyers will pay for a ticket, and buyers won't have to search several sites for the best value or wait till the close of an auction, because they can set expiration times on their offers.

The company charges sellers a 15% fee on each sale and tacks on 10% for buyers. For example, if a buyer and seller agree to a price of $100 for a ticket, the seller forwards $15 to Zigabid and the buyer sends the seller $100 and Zigabid an additional $10.

Zigabid isn't entirely opposed to a set ticket price. Rubendall said the company planned to offer an EBay-style "purchase now" price, but it remained more focused on the flexible price model.

Ticket industry News: Ticket Summit Wraps Up Conference with Justice on Their Side

by Dave Brooks
August 2008 issue of Venues Today

LAS VEGAS - Ticket Summit wrapped up its third annual conference in the desert, bringing together its broadest mix of primary and secondary ticket providers to date. TicketNetwork CEO and President Don Vaccaro said he plans to expand the event to twice per year and will be holding the winter session in New York City on Jan. 6-8, 2009.

"We're continuing to see the blending of the primary and secondary in many segments of the marketplace and we're seeing a continued demand for this type of dialogue," said Vaccaro. "It's also an opportunity for our partners on the East Coast to participate in Ticket Summit."

Vaccaro estimated that over 450 registrants and 22 exhibitors participated in this year's conference, which included a keynote address from Avery Gardiner, counsel to the Assistant Attorney General in the Justice Department's Anti-Trust division. Gardiner told the audience that she would not be able to comment on specific cases, but that didn't stop the audience from getting a pulse on Ticketmaster's recent acquisition of TicketsNow.

"What alternatives do customers have if prices suddenly increased because of the acquisition? Our job is to predict how consumers will act in the future," she told the audience, offering a tacit pact to watch the acquisition deal years after it is complete.

"Just because something doesn't seem to harm competition today doesn't mean we can't revisit it five years from now and take up the issue again," she said.

And as it had been just one week prior at the National Association of Ticket Brokers annual conference, Ticketmaster's acquisition of TicketsNow remained a hot topic of discussion, surfacting in almost all 12 panel discussions.

"Ticketmaster thinks that if they can eliminate brokers, they can capture all the revenue," said Eric Baker from resale site Viagogo. He believes Ticketmaster's recent attempts to control ticket transferability are an example of their malaise for brokers.

"Tickets will always be transferable because that's what people want," he said. "If you tell me I need to show my passport, blood type and eyeball scan, I'm not going to want to go."

Derek Palmer of Tickets.com said most primaries aren't trying to squeeze out brokers, but they do want a piece of the action.

"The cost to participate in this market is going up while our revenues are going down," he said. "I assure you that we have the lowest margins in this room."

Palmer said primaries are beginning to change the way they look at ticket value, scrutinizing "the final price the ticket is sold for."

"We have the key differentiator - we have the data about the customer and the remaining inventory," he said. "The data can be worth more than the individual ticket sold."

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.

Learn more about mobile phone tickets >

The Blurring Line: State of the Primary & Secondary Markets

Ticket Summit is the leading trade show and conference in the secondary ticket industry. This annual event brings together hundreds of experts and leaders within the ticket community, offering them a chance to establish and foster relationships valuable to their business. This year's Ticket Summit takes place July 23-25 in Las Vegas at The Venetian.

Derek Palmer, Tickets.com Chief Commercial Officer, will be speaking on a panel called "The Blurring Line: State of the Primary & Secondary Markets" on Thursday, July 24. The panel discussion will enable attendees to learn about the different ways the primary and secondary ticket markets are coming together and the potential shifts on the horizon. Hear about the ways the primary market is attempting to extract more revenue from consumers, how the secondary market continues to provide value, ways the two markets are already working together, and how the line between them is expected to blur even more in the coming year.

Ticket Summit features expert panels on various topics pertaining to the secondary ticketing industry. The sessions are designed to provide brokers and other affiliates with the latest innovations and information regarding the ticketing industry.

Learn more about Tickets.com >

Tickets.com Contributes Items to 2008 IAAM Foundation Silent Auction

Tickets.com is a Gold Donor for the 2008 IAAM Foundation Silent Auction. The auction is now open at www.iaamfoundation.cmarket.com.

Chicago Cubs field tickets, a San Francisco Giants suite, an old-style Ernie Banks jersey, and a suite at the Washington Nationals are among the items contributed.

The online portion of the auction will run through July 18 to support any pre-IAAM conference bidding. All items will then be displayed at the annual IAAM conference from July 26 - 28 in Anaheim. However, you need not be present to win as the online site supports "absentee bids" that will keep bidding for you up to the maximum you specify.

See you at the auction!