ProVenue Exchange – great speakers & great times…..

By John Walker, President & CEO, Tickets.com

The first day of our annual ProVenue Exchange conference on March 14 closed with a tremendously fascinating and inspiring presentation by Ryan Giannetta from the acclaimed “Disney Institute”, in which he discussed how their organization instills and inspires greatness – and once again hitting on the refrain of a Great Experience being at the heart of success.

Wednesday we held a networking social event at the Cannery restaurant in Newport Beach – featuring a photo booth where staff and clients alike donned hats and posed in costumes to be captured and forever held against them, including me in a Viking helmet….I’m still trying to suppress those pictures from going viral…..



Thursday opened with a rousing session from Bill Guertin – “The 800 pound Gorilla”. Bill is an acclaimed author and sales trainer, specializing in the sports and entertainment industry. His presentation was interactive and highly entertaining, and encouraged everyone to think about how they can take steps towards becoming great and dominating their market or industry – just like the animal he uses as his brand.


The remainder of the conference then was divided into four tracks for various product, user and business & technology panels and presentations. A whirlwind couple of days, but one that left attendees and staff inspired and reinvigorated. It was generally characterized as Tickets.com’s best conference to date.

Thanks to all those who attended and we can’t wait for next year!

ProVenue Exchange "Out of this World"!

By John Rizzi, SVP Client Services, Tickets.com

After John Walker’s keynote address on day 1 of our ProVenue Exchange conference on March 14, our VP of Marketing, Doug Lyons dove a little deeper into developments over the past year as well as changes to approach and product features in the coming year. This Included the re-commitment of focus on user experience in product design by showcasing examples of fresh, new approaches to ticketing interfaces and “next generation” Interactive Seat Maps. He reiterated the importance of APIs by showing the currently in development “Linebuster” iPad ticket selling application, which allows a mobile user to easily sell tickets from ProVenue with an easy-to-use tablet interface. Great stuff!



I then moderated for a tremendous set of panelists on the state of Loyalty programs that included participation from the Washington Nationals (MLB), The Seattle Sounders (MLS) and the San Diego Padres (MLB). It was very eye-opening to realize that while almost “expected” in many commercial situations, Loyalty in entertainment has yet to find its exact place and value proposition.



Doug then again appeared to host a session on emerging technologies, subtitled “What would Captain Kirk do?” To everyone’s surprise (and laughter) he entered dressed in a full Mr. Spock Star Trek outfit – wig, ears and all. This showed evidence of a new style from Tickets.com where our culture is starting to echo our approach to software: A Great Experience.

ProVenue Exchange "Doug's Diary" - Day 1

Our CEO, John Walker, led off our annual ProVenue Exchange conference on Wednesday, March 14 with a keynote highlighting exciting developments at Tickets.com. Announcements included a newly launched product for international markets (ProVenueX), a “sneak peek” at the new branding for the upcoming launch of the completely redesigned www.tickets.com consumer site and a preview of the game-changing uses for recently published ProVenue APIs that will allow Tickets.com’s customers to take “controlling their brand” to a completely new level.

John pointed out that these APIs in 2012 will enable customers to develop ticket selling capabilities directly from their own website, completely bypassing the traditional ticketing-vendor-controlled transaction pages - instead putting tickets into the team/venue’s own “universal shopping cart” in real time, which can then also incorporate any other purchases into a single transaction and a Great, seamless user Experience.

And that was just the first hour.....

ProVenue Exchange Connects the Dots

Tickets.com’s annual conference, under the new banner “ProVenue Exchange” to represent the exchanging of ideas, was held March 13-15 in Newport Beach, CA. It was highlighted by outstanding social events, topical and engaging content and extremely memorable speakers including a Gorilla, a Mouse and even Mr. Spock – well, kind of. More on that later – stay tuned as my team and I recap a tremendous couple of days in March.

We introduced clear and valuable themes to our gathering this year – specifically “connecting the dots” on how Tickets.com’s products and services help their customers Reach more Fans, Sell more Tickets and Make more Money. All of our sessions concluded with our speakers and moderators summarizing how the content just covered applied to one or more of these key goals – reaching fans, selling tickets and making money. It was a great way to inspire our clients to head home with a vision for how to use the differentiation they’ve chosen with Tickets.com to Make the Difference Count.

I am extremely proud of the effort all the Tickets.com staff put into this event, and the reviews have been excellent from many of the attendees who have contacted us. We can’t wait until next year when we’ll try to exceed this year’s conference and create a truly Great Experience – just like we are striving to do with our products and services.

Tickets.com's Client, K-Rock Centre, Named 2012 Venue of the Year

For the third time in the last four years the K-Rock Centre has again been voted Venue of the Year under 8,000 seats at the 2012 Canadian Music and Broadcast Industry Awards.

"It's a true accomplishment for everyone involved with the facility, and it recognizes what we in Kingston already knew, that the K-Rock Centre is the premiere venue of its size in the country," said SMG Canada's General Manager, Ken Noakes.

"Awards like this can never be realized without the endless hard work of our staff, as well as support from all of our partners throughout the city, and the Eastern Ontario region. Winning this award for a third time shows that the K-Rock Centre has made a name for itself in the music industry, and is a facility which is top of mind for industry professionals."

SMG Vice President Harry Cann added, "We are thrilled to receive this industry recognition for the third time in four years. This is a true team effort in Kingston. While our local staff and national support team have worked hard to achieve this success, these awards are a testament to the City's foresight and delivery of an outstanding facility along with tremendous support from the business community and local citizens. The K-Rock Centre has certainly established itself as centerpiece asset for the City and the region."

Tickets.com sends a BIG CONGRATULATIONS to Ken Noakes and the entire K-Rock Centre team!

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.