Tickets.com® Partners with Mad Mobile

Tickets.com® Partners with Mad Mobile to Power ProVenueMobile™ for MLB Clients

New mobilized web site solution improves experience and future potential

Today we announced our partnership with Mad Mobile to deploy an updated mobile-optimized sales tool for all of Tickets.com MLB Clubs.

Tickets.com has been an early leader in mobile ticketing and the first vendor to offer end-to-end search, purchase and ticket delivery all from the mobile device. Tickets.com continues to stay on the leading edge of innovation and partnering with Mad Mobile provides some immediate gains:

• Superior UI - Professional design without templates and a mobile UI framework that delivers a quick, app-like interaction with the consumer, creating a more pleasant search and transaction experience.

• Powerful Platform - Quickly mobilizes website content and functions with minimal impact to IT resources.

• Innovation – Mad Mobile brings a culture of innovation based on a solid understanding of emerging   technologies and standards.

John Rizzi, SVP of Client Services for Tickets.com, points out, “Ticketing transactional sites are surprisingly complex, and given the need to tailor the experience for our clients, having a partner who does not assume a ‘one size fits all’ attitude is key to success. Mad Mobile gives us that flexibility and positions us for further innovation going forward.”

Access the complete release here.

Tickets.com® Welcomes Jennifer Zick!

Tickets.com is excited to announce the appointment of Jennifer Zick as Vice President of Business Development. Jennifer’s first official function will be to join members of the Tickets.com team at the International Association of Venue Managers (IAVM) conference in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, July 21-24, 2012.

Zick spent the past 5 years with New Era Tickets helping to launch a digital marketing platform, and was responsible for securing high-profile clients in auto racing, the NBA, NHL, NFL and MLS.

“We’re thrilled to have Jen join us as we are radically changing the ticketing experience for venues, teams and fans with ProVenue,” states John Walker, President and CEO of Tickets.com. “Jen brings not only a wealth of industry knowledge and strategic relationships, but a solid grasp of technology and digital marketing that we can immediately put to work with our clients to help them reach more fans and sell more tickets."

Access the complete release here.

University at Buffalo Center for the Arts to Use ProVenue®

Western New York becoming a stronghold for the state-of-the-art platform

Tickets.com and the University at Buffalo Center for the Arts announced a new partnership agreement centralized on ProVenue.

“The Center for the Arts remains committed to keeping ticket prices affordable in Western New York, and the fight against rising ticketing service charges is central to that mission,” states Joel Thompson, Director of Ticket Operations for the Center. “This new partnership with Tickets.com allows us to move forward with no fee increases in the foreseeable future, allowing our patrons the best opportunity to see the great entertainment they’ve come to expect from our stages at reasonable prices.”

Tickets.com has served the collegiate and arts markets for many years, however the newer, industry-leading ProVenue platform has been primarily operating in regional ticketing as well as the sports (major and minor league) markets until now. This win celebrates the first foray for the platform in the University Arts segment. It is also one of many conversions to ProVenue in the upstate New York region in recent years, giving Tickets.com a strong presence in the area.

Access the complete release here.

Tickets.com® Proud Sponsor of the 2012 SEAT Conference

Exclusive Technology Summit to be held in Boston August 5-8

Tickets.com is partnering with the Sports and Entertainment Alliance in Technology (SEAT) at their 2012 conference at Boston’s historic Liberty Hotel in August.

The SEAT conference is in its 6th year of bringing together the very top leaders in Information Technology in the Sports and Entertainment field and provides education and the exchange of ideas to further the effective development and use of technology in venues across the country and around the world.

“Tickets.com has a long history of innovation with leading-edge ticketing technologies, particularly with the launch of their state-of-the-art ProVenue® platform, and has been a source of hope and excitement to technology leaders in our industry” said Christine Stoffel, Founder of SEAT. “They have been extremely helpful and supportive in the formation and growth of SEAT over the last several years, and we’re excited that they continue to be key participants in our conference.”

Tickets.com recently began publishing APIs for their Oracle and Java based ProVenue ticketing application, beginning the next generation of ticketing – integrating directly with other applications for real-time data and transaction sharing. One example using this approach, will allow tickets to be purchased directly from a team or venue’s website without the usual re-direct to a different set of web transaction pages.

“We have consulted extensively with technology leaders in the sports and entertainment space during our development of ProVenue, many of whom are now key participants and members of SEAT. It is a natural fit for us to embrace and support this organization of our colleagues to help foster communication and the evolution of ideas in this community” explained John Walker, President & CEO, Tickets.com.

The 2012 SEAT conference will feature speakers from illustrious organizations such as: TD Garden/Boston Bruins, FELD Entertainment, International Speedway Corporation (ISC), the NFL and Ohio State University. Doug Lyons, Vice President of Marketing and Communications for Tickets.com, will be participating on a panel entitled “Driving Revenue through Ticketing Technologies”.

For more information on attending the 2012 SEAT conference-event, visit www.seatconsortium.com. Follow SEAT on Twitter: @seatconference; LinkedIn: search for SEAT Sports Group and FaceBook: facebook.com/SEATconsortium.

TICKETS.COM® 2013 PROVENUE® EXCHANGE DATES AND LOCATION ANNOUNCED

The 2013 ProVenue Exchange conference will be held in San Diego’s Gaslamp District at the iconic Hard Rock Hotel, April 29-May 2, 2013.

Based on attendee feedback, the new conference dates were moved later into the year to avoid conflicting with other events and to stay clear of key dates such as Major League Baseball’s opening day. The change in location also represents a shift in the company’s attitude and emerging image.

“We’ve had a recent reawakening of what this conference should be about. We are in the Entertainment industry – we should act like it!” states Doug Lyons, Vice President of Marketing and Communications. “Our conferences in the past, while highly rated by our clients, were lacking excitement and a sense of the tremendous fun and joy our industry represents. It’s time to embrace this and play as hard as we work!”

The content of the conference is also going through a radical overhaul. What is returning after many years absence is a strong focus on User Training that will help all Tickets.com clients gain valuable practical skills. It’s also geared to be far more interactive, a shift away from the “talking heads” that seem to dominate ticketing conferences in recent years.

A campaign is already under way for Tickets.com clients, ticketing professionals, industry insiders and service providers to “save the date”, and a highly tactical plan is under way to have a steady release of information over the next 10 months to build excitement and drive record attendance.

“As a company, we continually strive to be better. Just Better – that’s our philosophy” continued Lyons. “This conference will go even further. It will ROCK!”

Philadelphia Phillies Choose ProVenue® for Citizens Bank Park

The Philadelphia Phillies sign a new long-term agreement with Tickets.com to use the ProVenue platform starting with the 2013 Major League Baseball season.

“We believe that strong partnerships, particularly with our technology vendors, are a key ingredient to our success,” said John Weber, Vice President of Ticket Sales and Operations for the Phillies. “Tickets.com has proven they are focused on our business and on baseball. The Phillies support MLB Advanced Media as they continue to invest in the development of the best system possible for baseball.”

The team continues its commitment to self-operate all of their ticketing and revenue generating technologies, citing that ProVenue allows them to keep their phone and fulfillment operations in both Clearwater and Philadelphia open with reduced training costs due to ProVenue's ease of use.

“The Phillies are widely known in the sports industry as having a very high standard for their technology partners and for wanting to do things their own way,” said John Walker, President and CEO of Tickets.com. “The selection of ProVenue by the Phillies validates that our approach to technology is on point for any organization who wants to take ownership of this key portion of its business. This is the beginning of a powerful partnership for both of us.”

Access the complete release here.

ProVenue "Knighted" by Medieval Times

Like many organizations in recent years, Medieval Times decided to get out of the software development business when their existing in-house solution required updates for security, compliance and functional needs. During their evaluation of potential vendors, they realized Tickets.com offered a solution with flexibility in both configuration and business terms.

“The staff at Tickets.com was extremely collaborative and forthcoming during our evaluation process, something that has tremendous value to us at Medieval Times. It gave an indication of how a relationship would be through the challenging process of changing software,” said Daniel Kim, Vice President and Secretary of Medieval Times. “We already feel like partners and are very confident in ProVenue’s ability to improve our ticket buying experience for our customers.”

ProVenue is offered as a license model, giving Medieval Times control of consumer fees and costs, while at the same time offering a solution that meets regulatory compliance. It also offers new options to provide additional services to consumers when making reservations for shows, including upgrades and additional purchases.

Further, the system is architected in a way that a single instance of ProVenue will serve the entire organization while still enabling each venue or “Castle” to control and tailor their specific environments to their unique local needs. This “best of both worlds” design means independence for each property, with data stored centrally for consolidated corporate financial reporting and marketing initiatives.

Access the complete release here.