Ticketbud Partners with the American Basketball Association (ABA)

Ticketbud has partnered with the American Basketball Association (ABA), supporting the launch of their upcoming season. 

The American Basketball Association was relaunched in 1999 and now includes over 150 teams across the United States. Traditionally ABA game tickets have been sold locally offline or as cash sales at the gate, limiting the ability of teams to grow their fan base and ticket sales. 

Each year the share of sporting and event tickets purchased online and on mobile devices steadily increases, while offline sales decline. With more people searching for events on their phones, it becomes vital for event promotion and ticket sales to be mobile accessible to maximize market share.

The ABA and Ticketbud partnership is a great match for both organizations. Ticketbud sets ABA teams up for success, providing ongoing customer support and comprehensive reporting. Pre-sold game tickets give the ABA early access to funds and the ability to reach new audiences through digital channels.

Both companies acknowledge there will be a transition period as ABA teams and attendees adopt this new purchase channel and the opportunities it presents. Ticketbud supports ABA team owners with the tools for growth. Fans benefit from convenient ticket purchase and smooth gate entry, with fast scanning of mobile or print at home tickets.

“I want to grow the relationship between Ticketbud and the ABA, with more and more teams taking advantage of this partnership as they see the tremendous advantage Ticketbud provides”.

Joe Newman, American Basketball Association, CEO and Co-founder.

It’s All About Data

Online ticketing collects valuable data and insights that can be used in a variety of ways. Getting unrestricted access to this data is vital, as is your ownership of it. 

“We look forward to a strong partnership with the ABA. It’s all about the value of customer data and buyer behavior insights. Building customer profiles from data allows the ABA to have more impact with their ongoing customer engagement, targeted communication and promotions”.  

Kayhan Ahmadi, Ticketbud CEO.

Setting the ABA up on Ticketbud

The ABA has an overarching landing page that highlights all the teams currently offering online tickets. Each team then has their own team page with customized images and content, showcasing their games as individual events. This setup also gives teams the freedom to operate independently financially, with seperate accounts. Online ticketing also gives the ABA an easy way to collect fees from teams by building it into the ticket price.  

The American Basketball Association (ABA)

The original American Basketball Association was a men’s professional basketball league that operated from 1967 to 76. The current ABA was relaunched in 1999 and now includes over 150 teams across the country, making it the largest professional sports league in the US. It is also the most diversified with 75% of its owners being African-American, Hispanic, Asian or women – with over 30 of the teams being owned by women.  

The ABA season runs from November to March with playoffs that follow. Learn more about the ABA and it’s teams, or visit the ABA on Ticketbud for tickets (new teams are signing up to Ticketbud every week)

Ticketbud features and tools that ABA teams are able to take advantage of:

A few benefits of working with Ticketbud:

Podcast interview with Joe Newman

Hear from Joe Newman, CEO and Co-Founder of the ABA in his guest interview on the Ticketbud Tidbits Podcast.

Get Started on Ticketbud

Are you still running an event with only offline sales? Not moving to online ticketing is costing more than you think.

Visit Ticketbud today and request a demo. It’s free to sign up and start planning.

Ticketbud Enhances Ticket Scanning, Ensuring Faster Event Check-in

Ticketbud has launched a new version of our event check-in app, with enhanced scanning that ensures a quicker and smoother check-in process. This fast reliable ticket scanning is particularly valuable for high volume festivals and events.

Our commitment to working closely with Event Organizers includes hands on experience at events, to identify pain points and opportunities first hand, as well as field testing new updates. This feedback leads to continued product and service improvements such as this latest enhancement. 

Ticket scanning and access control is a major challenge for events with high volume ticket sales after gates open. Mobile checkout optimization has made it easier for attendees to buy tickets as they approach the gate. Ticketbud’s newly updated iOS and Android mobile apps are specifically optimized to handle those last minute ticket purchases, without disrupting check-in scanning at high volume events. 

“While working on-site with partners we identified the need to quickly and reliably scan tickets purchased as recently as 30 seconds ago, while the attendee was in line. Wi-fi and connectivity is often limited, so we set out to engineer our app to optimize around these last minute, high volume situations”.

Kayhan Ahmadi, Ticketbud CEO. 

The latest app update includes:

Additional updates to the check-in experience:

In addition to our latest app updates, we also recently integrated our tickets with Apple Wallet. This integration makes it easier for attendees to store and find their event ticket quickly. We added this feature to keep check-in lines moving faster for attendees and event organizers.

You may also notice we have redesigned our ticket confirmation emails, with QR codes more easily accessible in the main body of the email. This simple solution was identified after witnessing check-in delays due to attendees searching for tickets in attachments and having to enlarge QR codes for scanning.

These latest updates to the Ticketbud check-in experience are all part of our continued commitment to improving the customer experience, by evaluating every step in the customer journey. We aim to ensure both event organizers and ticket buyers continue to enjoy a great product and service. 

Ticketbud’s free mobile check-in app is available on both iOS and Android devices. 

Ticketbud Enhances Ticket Scanning, ensuring Faster Event Check-in
Ticketbud Enhances Ticket Scanning, ensuring Faster Event Check-in

It’s free to sign up and get started on Ticketbud

Free events are always free. Paid events only require payment set-up when you’re ready to start selling tickets. Until then, get started building great events on Ticketbud, with access to all features and customer support. Learn more about the Ticketbud experience.

Why Live Shows are Choosing Ticketbud

  1. Data ownership – complete access to event data and attendee contact information 
  2. Early payouts – access to funds before the event to cover upfront costs
  3. Transparent all-inclusive low rates – including all features and ongoing customer support
  4. Mobile optimization – convert more sales on mobile, where people are searching for live shows 

Recently on the Joe Rogan Experience, popular comedian Andrew Schulz expressed frustration over ticketing companies with unnecessarily high fees, who are also holding on to valuable event data and attendee contact information. 

The value of owning the data and audience contact information from your events cannot be overstated. Your data insights and direct access to your audience is key to being able to grow your following as an artist. You need to know who your audience is to be able to connect with them. Don’t pay extra for your own data.

With more comedians and live shows making the move to Ticketbud, we recently invited NYC comedian and producer Joe Hill onto our Ticketbud Tidbits podcast. A key factor in Joe’s switch to Ticketbud was the early access to funds before the event. Early payouts are a game changer, due to the upfront costs of organizing and promoting shows. With Ticketbud you don’t pay more for this. 

Ticketbud’s all-inclusive flat rate pricing means that there’s one rate for everyone. As soon as you sign up for Ticketbud you instantly gain access to all features and ongoing customer support, with no additional charges. There are no monthly or yearly subscription fees, if you don’t make money, we don’t make money. It’s in our interest to give you the best platform, with the features, tools and support to sell more tickets. 

Ticketbud is also mobile optimized, which is important for converting ticket sales on mobile devices. Most consumers are researching shows and events on mobile, a smooth ticketing experience from event page through to purchase helps maximize sales. 

Ticketbud offers price transparency: 

2% ticketing fee +0.99c service charge per ticket sold

+2.9% payment processor fee

With discounts available for non-profits, educational institutions and students.

Be aware of ticketing providers who use fee structures that leave you paying much more than expected for the basic services you need. Enticed by entry level packages, you will soon find there are additional fees for customer service, being able to offer more than one ticket type (a must for effective ticket programming), the ability to sell tickets on your own website, customizable forms, access to detailed analytics and early payouts before your event.

Why pay more for this when it all comes as standard with Ticketbud?

It’s free to sign up and get started on Ticketbud. You don’t pay anything until you start selling tickets, and even then you have the option to build ticketing fees into your ticket prices.

 

Ticketbud Empowers Live Shows to Maximize Revenue through Direct Ticketing

The event ticketing landscape is coming under increased scrutiny. Last week there was a call for a federal investigation of the online ticketing industry, citing the Ticketmaster-Live Nation stronghold. “Americans…have grown sick and tired of the sky-high fees.” A Government Accountability Office report found that on average, fees are more than 25 percent of ticket prices and are often not visible until late in the buying process. This is bad for ticket buyers, event producers and artists, everyone except the ticketing company. 

While big named artists often have their ticketing tied up with a venue, coordinated by Ticketmaster and Live Nation. Artists that are free to choose ticketing have the opportunity to maximize their revenue, data and contact lists. 

This has lead more performing artists and event producers to ticket their events directly, with Ticketbud emerging as a popular choice for live shows.

“With our commitment to transparent pricing, low all-inclusive fees and early access to funds, Ticketbud empowers performing artists to maximize revenue through direct ticketing. Our user-friendly platform makes it easy to sell tickets online”.

Ticketbud CEO Kayhan Ahmadi

4 Reasons Live Shows are Choosing Ticketbud 

  1. Data ownership – complete access to event data and attendee contact information 
  2. Early payouts – access to funds before the event to cover upfront costs
  3. Transparent all-inclusive low rates – including all features and ongoing customer support
  4. Mobile optimization – convert more sales on mobile, where people are searching for live shows 

Recently on the Joe Rogan Experience, popular comedian Andrew Schulz expressed frustration over ticketing companies with unnecessarily high fees, who are also holding on to valuable event data and attendee contact information. 

The value of owning the data and audience contact information from your events cannot be overstated. Your data insights and direct access to your audience is key to being able to grow your following as an artist. You need to know who your audience is to be able to connect with them. Don’t pay extra for your own data.

With more comedians and live shows making the move to Ticketbud, we recently invited NYC comedian and producer Joe Hill onto our Ticketbud Tidbits podcast. A key factor in Joe’s switch to Ticketbud was the early access to funds before the event. Early payouts are a game changer, due to the upfront costs of organizing and promoting shows. With Ticketbud you don’t pay more for this. 

Ticketbud’s all-inclusive flat rate pricing means that there’s one rate for everyone. As soon as you sign up for Ticketbud you instantly gain access to all features and ongoing customer support, with no additional charges. There are no monthly or yearly subscription fees, if you don’t make money, we don’t make money. It’s in our interest to give you the best platform, with the features, tools and support to sell more tickets. 

Ticketbud is also mobile optimized, which is important for converting ticket sales on mobile devices. Most consumers are researching shows and events on mobile, a smooth ticketing experience from event page through to purchase helps maximize sales. 

Ticketbud offers price transparency: 

2% ticketing fee +0.99c service charge per ticket sold

+2.9% payment processor fee

With discounts available for non-profits, educational institutions and students.

Be aware of ticketing providers who use fee structures that leave you paying much more than expected for the basic services you need. Enticed by entry level packages, you will soon find there are additional fees for customer service, being able to offer more than one ticket type (a must for effective ticket programming), the ability to sell tickets on your own website, customizable forms, access to detailed analytics and early payouts before your event.

Why pay more for this when it all comes as standard with Ticketbud?

It’s free to sign up and get started on Ticketbud. You don’t pay anything until you start selling tickets, and even then you have the option to build ticketing fees into your ticket prices.

 

Event Ticketing Just Got Easier

Ticketbud Launches an Intuitive New Interface for Event Organizers

“It’s a great time to use Ticketbud for event ticketing. This thing sings”.

Kayhan Ahmadi, CEO of Ticketbud

In the first half of 2019 Ticketbud announced a series of platform advancements to improve the ticket buyer experience.  

Ticketbud is now excited to announce the launch of our redesigned interface for event organizers. This update takes the user experience to the next level, making the event setup and management process more intuitive and user-friendly with enhanced design and functionality. 

<

The Redesign Includes:

2019 Platform Updates:

These advancements are a result of close consultation with customers and Ticketbud’s continued commitment to improving the customer experience.

Modern New Event Pages

Ticketbud Mobile Images

Mobile Optimized Checkout 

Reduce friction at checkout and sell more tickets with a purchase process designed for mobile.

Organization Pages

Showcase all your events in one place. Ideal for organizations with multiple events or multi-day events. 

“This newly updated and mobile optimized ticketing platform has been our largest and most important project under my tenure as CEO. We’ve taken the Ticketbud ticketing platform to the next level with an intuitive and enhanced user experience for event organizers. It’s dynamic, flexible, and  will support all the powerful integrations we are going to be launching. Combined with previous updates focused on the ticket purchase experience, such as our mobile optimized event pages and checkout experience, it’s a great time to use Ticketbud for event ticketing. This thing sings”. 

Kayhan Ahmadi, CEO of Ticketbud.

It’s free to sign up and get started on Ticketbud today. You can also request a personal walkthrough demo with a Ticketbud Team Member.

Ticketbud Tidbits Ep 23 – SHOW NOTES…Managing an Outdoor Community Event Space

With Mandi Thomas from the Downtown Austin Alliance.

Overview

In this podcast we talk to Mandi Thomas, Director of Strategic Partnerships at the Downtown Austin Alliance.  Mandi manages the events, programming and operations of Republic Square, a community park in downtown Austin frequently used for events.

In the episode Mandi talks about what goes into managing a public park and event space. She gives an overview of the key elements of her role which include business development, sales, fundraising, event planning and venue management. Mandi shares specific insights on event programming, key challenges and maximizing year round usage of a space.

The Downtown Austin Alliance is a local organization made up of property owners in the downtown community. Their purpose is to protect and promote Austin’s downtown through advocacy, strategic initiatives and planning.

Listen now or read the show notes below.

About Mandi

Mandi’s background includes roles in sales and corporate partnerships for venues operated by AEG Presents one of the world’s largest live music companies. Mandi has been working as Director of Strategic Partnerships at the Downtown Austin Alliance for the past three years managing sponsorships, partnerships and business development. 

Mandi’s Advice for Sponsorships

Managing a Public Park Venue

Republic Square is the first public park in Austin to be managed through a public/private partnership with the city, allowing a revenue model where the Downtown Austin Alliance can rent out the space. This provides more flexibility than other city parks, in both the design and how events are coordinated.

The Downtown Austin Alliance met with community stakeholders and outlined guiding principles for the park that would be written into an agreement with the city. The aim was for the park to be family friendly and open to everyone. A collaborative space with a balance of programming, inclusive and welcoming to a diverse audience.

Because Republic Square is designated as a public park, there are restrictions on the number of closed/private events that can be held each year. Weddings are not permitted in the park, but other events and organizations can apply to use the space. Part of the venue management role includes working with event producers on event permits, requirements and advising on the best use of the space. 

Event and Activity Programming

As a venue manager the Downtown Austin Alliance can curate the experiences offered at the park. They’re always looking for authentic and unique ways to use the park, weaving in the local culture. They aim to combine established events with new events that reflect the changing nature of the downtown area.

Partnering with downtown businesses to run activities in the park is an important element. The Downtown Austin Alliance partnered with Austin Community College, who run free foreign language classes in the park on Saturday mornings. Another partnership is with Wanderlust who offer yoga in the park.

The goal is to offer a balanced program of events throughout the year, with event request applications evaluated on what makes sense for the community. Looking for opportunities to create authentic and unique event programming, working with event producers to bring interesting events into the park. Considering wider community needs is also a good idea, such as becoming a meeting place for bus shuttles to other major events in the city.  

Competitive Applications for a Popular Public Event Space

Mandi recommends being as comprehensive as you can in the application. Think about the space you’re applying for and consider their objectives. If you were applying to Republic Square for example, you would consider that they are looking for events and activities that benefit the community. You know they are interested in programming that is inclusive, multicultural, family friendly, unique or new. If your event fits this criteria, be sure to mention that in the application.  

What to include in your application:

Request to book Republic Square for an upcoming event.

Maximizing Year Round Use of an Outdoor Event Space

Key Challenges

Weather is the big one. You have to be flexible in planning, site design, the option to tent and potentially having a rain date on standby. Helping event organizers manage this is part of running an outdoor event space. 

As a ticketing provider, Ticketbud offers Event Protect to our customers that protects ticket revenue in the case of qualifying unforeseen cancelations. This can minimize some of the financial risk for event organizers.

Another consideration for a public park is that community members want to use the park for civic movements or rallies. Republic Square is located right next to a federal courthouse, which requires staying connected with the community when these types of events come up. Mandi explains that they keep an eye on facebook events that mention Republic Square and reach out to organizers to work with them.  

Park Operations 

A public park is a living space that requires care and maintenance. This includes maintaining the lawn, irrigation systems and landscaping, as well as learning about rest periods for grass between events so you don’t destroy it. This was all completely new territory for Mandi, who is experienced with events, but not in maintaining a park. Through trial and error she worked out the balance required to keep the park maintained in good condition.

Mandi’s Tips for Event Organizers

When it comes to events, things are never going to go perfectly. Be flexible enough to ride with that and embrace it. 

Don’t be afraid to try new things and step outside of your comfort zone. Don’t shy away from taking on a role that has a new challenge (like managing a public park). Have confidence in your ability to work it out.    

Find out more about Republic Square and upcoming events.

Ticketbud Tidbits Ep 22 – SHOW NOTES…Pop-up Events for Bars and Venues

With Mark Kwiatkowski from Replay Lincoln Park.

Overview

In this episode we talk to Mark Kwiatkowski who owns Replay Lincoln Park, a ‘barcade’ venue in Chicago that’s both a bar and arcade. Mark has a lot of experience working in hospitality and has great advice for venue and event managers.

Mark has had a lot of success running themed pop-up events as part of the promotional strategy for Replay Lincoln Park. The venue is converted with a new themed experience, such as their recent Game of Thrones experience. The GOT pop-up ran for a few months earlier this year and was highly successful, receiving significant media attention.

The pop-up events at Replay often promote themselves, gaining national media coverage that includes TV and radio spots, features on Thrillist.com, Travelandleasure.com, Lonlelyplannet.com and newspaper articles.

Listen now or read the show notes below

About Mark

Mark Kwiatkowski has extensive experience in hospitality, as an owner and manager of bars and venues for the past 25 years. Mark owns a bar/arcade venue in Chicago called Replay Lincoln Park, which runs highly successful themed pop-up events as part of their ongoing promotional strategy. 

Topics

About Replay Lincoln Park

Replay Lincoln Park is a 9000 square foot arcade bar in Chicago. While drinking craft beer, premium spirits or speciality cocktails, guests can enjoy over 65 vintage arcade games, pinball, skeeball, air-hockey and bubble-hockey, all on free play. They have DJ’s Thursday through Saturday nights, and weekly events such as trivia, bingo and karaoke. 

In addition to being an arcade bar open year round, Replay hosts themed pop-up experiences that run for a limited time. Converting the venue into a new immersive experience every few months.    

Replay’s Pop-up Event Themes have included:

See more images from Replay Lincoln Park’s pop-up events on their Facebook or Instagram.

Why a pop-up event strategy for a bar or venue is good for business

Pop-up event strategies work because it’s something new and creates a sense of urgency. People want to come in and have the experience before it’s gone. 

Replay’s themed pop-ups are designed as an immersive experience to appeal to loyal pop-culture fans, keeping people coming back for new experiences. There are three important elements to this strategy. 

Attract a wider audience into the venue 

Tapping into a built-in pop culture fan base, enables Replay to appeal to a broader audience. It entices people to try the venue who otherwise may not have considered attending. When Replay delivers on a great experience, attendees are more likely to turn into ongoing customers. 

Events deliver attendee lists 

Hosting events that require people to buy tickets or sign up, allows the venue to build their customer database. This is incredibly valuable for ongoing promotion and developing relationships with those customers. 

Keeping people coming back by offering something new

The evolving themes keep the venue fresh and exciting with something new to come in and experience. Regular visitors get the same fun experience, with a new engaging theme. 

The benefits of online ticketing for a pop-up experience (for the venue and customers)

While having large volumes of customers eager to experience Replay’s pop-up attractions is great for business, it became important to maximize attendance capacities over time. This is both good for customers and the venue. 

For the Customers:

For the Venue:

Bringing a theme to life with a creative team

Replay Lincoln Park doesn’t do a halfhearted theme, they really get into it. Customers love how they find or create authentic looking props to immerse you in the experience. Replay goes all out, from the huge Games of Thrones dragons and the Iron Throne, to the famous Central Perk couch.

The creative design and production that goes into this comes from a dedicated pop-up design team. A team of six artists (including one of the bartenders, who is also a trained fine artist) get together to brainstorm how to bring the next themed pop-up to life. Most of the experience is hand crafted by them. 

Integrating pop-up themes with ongoing weekly events

At Replay, the changing pop-up themes are integrated into the regular weekly events such as trivia, bingo and karaoke. The familiar favorites that regular customers enjoy are always there, but they get infused with new themes.

The demand was so high for The Office themed trivia that the venue regularly reached capacity and had lines out the door. Replay had to start taking reservations and schedule trivia 5 nights a week to cater to demand.

Investing in a unique experience that attracts media interest and encourages word of mouth promotion

If you are offering a truly unique experience with great visuals, people are more likely to share and talk about it, and media interest is more likely.  

This has been the case for Replay and their themed pop-up events, with customers eagerly sharing on social channels, and the events gaining significant coverage in the media.

Key Tip – Create Instagram worthy photo opportunities! Then people are advertising for you. 

What you must remember when running a hospitality event

Mark emphasizes that paying attention to the details is key!

The core of it is paying attention to the details. Getting those things right… All the little details are what creates a memorable experience for the guest.

Mark Kwiatkowski

While you might be bringing in a big name DJ, or organizing an amazing event, you can’t lose sight of the smaller details that can make or break. Ensure the venue is comfortable, the air conditioning works, the drinks are consistent, the staff are friendly, and things in the venue are working. All the expense and effort that goes into an event can be wasted if people aren’t greeted nicely at the door. It can be as simple as that. 


Intuitive New Interfaces for Event Organizers and Ticket Buyers

Ticketbud continues to enhance the customer experience

Ticketbud continues to take online event ticketing and registration to the next level, with a strong focus on the customer experience. Announcing an enhanced event page interface and template for event organizers, and new mobile optimized event landing pages to maximize ticket sales from mobile devices. 

New Customizable Event Page Template

These new event pages are a contemporary template for your brand, designed with both the event organizer and ticket buyer in mind. A large impactful banner image allows you to profile your event branding. You can also customize the look and feel by adding images, videos and maps. The rest of the page is clean and clear enabling ticket buyers to quickly access information and register/buy tickets. 

Event page editing made easier with a new WYSIWYG editor

Organizers can edit and preview in real-time how event pages look to ticket buyers, making for a faster and smoother event set-up and customization experience. 

The key elements you see in editor view are:

  1. Banner image
  2. Event title
  3. Date and time
  4. Location
  5. Event Description (including images and videos)
  6. Maps 
  7. Tickets
Event Page Editor

Additional Event Page Elements

If you have set up a Showcase Page highlighting all your events, this will automatically be promoted at the bottom of all your individual event pages. Showcase pages are set up in the organizations section of your account dashboard. Contact us if you want a team member to help you set up an organization Showcase Page.

Social channels will also be automatically viewable on the event page when you connect them in the account dashboard. 

Event Pages are Mobile Optimized

Increase ticket sales with a mobile optimized experience for ticket buyers, from promotion through to checkout. This reduces friction and makes it easy to purchase tickets from mobile devices. 

“With most event marketing being driven through social media, the ability to convert on mobile has a direct and significant impact on ticket sales and revenue. These new event pages, along with the mobile optimized checkout flow, provide a seamless mobile experience for ticket buyers, designed to sell more tickets”.

Kayhan Ahmadi, CEO of Ticketbud.
Mobile Event Page
Ticketbud mobile optimized checkout with Apple Pay integration
Mobile Optimized Checkout with Apple Pay

With people searching for events on mobile devices, ensuring the ticket buying experience is easy to navigate on any device is important for all events. Large multi-day festivals with many different ticket types or time slots will particularly benefit from the enhanced interface, which significantly improves the user experience therefore conversion rates. 

The latest in a series of updates from Ticketbud, these new interfaces enhance the platform’s user experience. We are continually improving the customer experience for event organizers and ticket buyers. Ticketbud’s ongoing commitment to customer experience has been recognized by the Greater Austin Business Awards, announcing Ticketbud as a finalist for the 2019 Customer Experience Award.

Ticketbud Announced as Finalist for Customer Experience Award

Ticketbud is proud to announce we are a finalist for the Customer Experience Award at the 2019 Greater Austin Business Awards.

The Customer Experience award goes to a company in any industry, dedicated to outstanding customer service and satisfaction in all aspects of sales and services.

Presented by the Austin Chamber of Commerce, The Greater Austin Business Awards recognize businesses and organizations for achievements, community contributions and milestones. It is the largest business event in Central Texas, bringing together 1,000 business leaders, entrepreneurs, organizations, government officials and regional chambers.

Customer Experience is Everyone’s Role at Ticketbud

Every Ticketbud team member understands they can directly impact the customer experience. Customer service, sales, marketing, development and operations teams all have the opportunity to share ideas and insights from their vantage point, to improve the customer experience. This collective ownership ensures everyone has a stake in continually improving the experience, it doesn’t just sit with front facing customer service staff.

Customer Service is What Sets Us Apart

Ticketbud is a customer service stand out. We have real human customer support every step of the way. It’s all part of the service.

We are known for our customer service, continually receiving excellent reviews and feedback. Independent software reviewer Capterra recognizes Ticketbud’s 5 star customer service, based on customer reviews.     

Ticketbud maintains a deliberate focus on customer support and it is a key differentiator from our competitors. In the ever-growing world of AI and the low cost appeal of outsourcing customer support to international call centers, Ticketbud’s in-house Customer Success promise sets us apart. Organizing an event can be stressful, we want our clients to know we are more than a platform, we are a partner. Our clients success is indicative of us doing our job well.

You have enough to organize, avoid the frustration and get the support you need. Our customer service staff are available for support 7 days a week, through email, phone and online chat.

Real help, real people, real answers.

Ticketbud Values Customer Feedback

Ticketbud encourages feedback to ensure awareness of where we are excelling and where we have room to improve. Often we are able to address issues immediately, sometimes there are more long term improvements that we add to our development pipeline. We collect and evaluate all feedback, and prioritize improvements to our service, based on the value to customers and the resources/investment required. Ticketbud is committed to continuous improvement, with new features and product advancements usually a direct result of customer feedback.

When we have a new feature or product release, we work closely with established customers to test and provide feedback. This feedback is then relayed to our development team to refine. This is an important part of our development process, before wider releases.

The Greater Austin Business Awards

Started in 2000, the Greater Austin Business Awards is one of the largest award programs in the region. It is a great event to have your own table to share with your customers, prospects and employees. Whether you are an individual or company, join your peers for dinner and a celebration.

Honoring excellence in business for achievements, and community contributions that impact the Central Texas region. It brings together business leaders, entrepreneurs, organizations and government officials in one of the largest business events in Texas. The annual awards dinner will recognize companies in multiple categories, with winners determined by an expert panel of judges.

SAVE THE DATE – GREATER AUSTIN BUSINESS AWARDS

AUGUST 21, 2019 – JW MARRIOTT AUSTIN

Ticketbud Tidbits Ep 21 – SHOW NOTES… Event Marketing and Integrating Events with Salesforce

With Teri Smart from Forefront Networks.

Overview

In this episode we talk to Teri Smart, the Vice President of Marketing at Forefront Networks, an experiential and entertainment agency in Austin Texas. Forefront designs events that build connections between brands and their audiences. They specialize in event production, sponsorship sales and corporate hospitality.

Teri discusses the different ways organizations can utilize events for various goals and audiences. She dives into event marketing, visual direction and creative design, ticket pricing, programming, promotions and gaining traction in the media. Teri emphasizes the importance of having thorough research and data backing your sponsorship valuations. As well as assessing the financial sustainability of your event.  

Teri shares how Forefront Networks utilizes the CRM platform Salesforce as a key part of their strategy to maximize the success and profitability of events.

Listen now or read the show notes below

About Teri

Teri Smart is the Vice President of Marketing at experiential and entertainment agency Forefront Networks. Teri’s expertise is in marketing strategy, brand management and outbound communications. In her role at Forefront Networks, Teri oversees ‘business to consumer’ and ‘business to business’ marketing for events.  

Topics:

Forefront Networks events

Forefront networks partners with and produces a range of events, both business to business, and business to consumer events. They are known for producing the 400,000 attendee holiday festival Trail of Lights, in Austin TX. This is both a community event open to the general public and also a corporate event, with corporations using the event to host Christmas parties.

Deriving value from Salesforce as a CRM platform

Teri explains that it’s important to utilize salesforce as more than just a database for collecting client data. It’s a place to cultivate a relationship from a basic lead, to a multi-tenant relationship. It’s an opportunity to build a full picture of the relationship; how did you contact them and when? What was the message? What was the response? What events have they participated in? Did this interaction move the relationship forward?

This information is much more valuable in a shared accessible application than in someones head or in a spreadsheet. It allows you to progress and deepen all kinds of relationships (consumers, sponsors, partners etc).

How can Salesforce help make an event more profitable?

Teri says, “If we can’t measure it, we can’t manage it”. Salesforce helps the team at Forefront do that, it is their single source of truth. It allows them to keep track of all activity and relationships over time. Including:

Why is Salesforce particularly valuable for large events?

While some of the other tools that are our there may initially seem cheaper than Salesforce, they can quickly get expensive when you load a large volume of contacts from a big event.

Forefront Networks also utilizes Marketing Cloud within Salesforce, which is their email marketing tool. This is valuable when you have to manage high volumes of contacts. It allows them to send email marketing campaigns to contacts and log the behavior.

How does Salesforce data help you make more informed decisions and build your business?

Teri explains that knowing your clients and their behaviour year after year, is invaluable to your ongoing business strategy and pipeline management. This all comes from the reports generated from Salesforce.  

What are the benefits of having your event ticketing platform connected directly to Salesforce?

Ticketbud can now be connected to Salesforce through the AppExchange. This allows event organizers to easily report on opportunities generated from events. It also ensures the continuity of event data, reducing duplication of information. Teri states that given the size of some of their largest events, they don’t have the luxury of time to manually import data. They also can’t risk the chance of mistakes. Automating this process is critical to Forefront Networks and their events.

It allows them to see trends, such as:

To have this information come straight from your event ticketing platform to your Sales database is incredibly important. It also allows you to easily run email campaigns targeting segmented audiences. For example, you can directly target the people who bought VIP tickets at your last event when promoting the VIP experience at your next event.    

What are the different ways events can be utilized by an organization or brand?

Events are a great way for brands to connect with their audiences. Your audience can be defined in different ways, depending on a particular goal.

What is a Brand Activation and why is it a valuable marketing strategy for brands at events?

“It’s finding a way to take a brand and bring it to life, in an interactive and unique experience with that audience that you’re trying to reach”.

Teri Smart

Teri shares that a brand activation is about a brand saying, I want to interact with this audience. I want to activate my brand and have people to understand my brand. They are looking for a way to integrate into an event experience.

Teri shares an example of a brand activation that Forefront Networks did for the Home Away brand. The VIP backstage experience at the music festival Austin City Limits, was turned into a home away from home backstage.

How to communicate value when sourcing event sponsorships

Teri emphasizes the importance of developing sponsorships with data supported valuations. Forefront Networks has provided staff training to ensure they are able to get this equation right.

  1. The first place to start is with the goal of the sponsor. The value begins when you can see there is a match between the potential sponsors goals and your event. Otherwise you have nothing to build on.   
  2. Make sure you value your sponsorship correctly. Don’t just guess. Sponsorship valuation is often overlooked. There’s research and math that can be used to support and justify sponsorship packages relevant to the event. Equipping sales or sponsorship staff with the data and knowledge that supports the sponsorship price point is highly valuable in closing a deal.

Event marketing

Know your audience. Identify what has to happen to make it a successful event and be clear about the associated costs.

Questions to ask:

One half of the marketing equation is look at things like a competitive set, a pricing analysis, and a cost benefit analysis. The other half is the communication side, where are the people we are trying to reach?

The importance of the visual direction and creative design of an event

Teri talks about how the visual direction is part of the brand of the event. Making sure that visual look of the event speaks to the target audience is incredibly important. Ensuring consistency across all visual and design elements of your event (from tickets, to advertising and then the event itself) is highly valuable for brand impact and recall.  

How to determine ticket pricing and programming

Event sales and promotions

There are various promotional strategies that can be used to boost sales leading up to an event. The goal is generally to get people to buy early. This lays the foundation for the financial success of your event, and reduces event day stress and guesswork. This can be done with things like early bird tickets and flash sales.

Forefront Networks like Ticketbud, uses Event Protect, which protects the ticket transaction in case of unforeseen cancelation. This can be used as a valuable marketing tool, particularly for outdoor events where people may have weather concerns.

Strategies for getting people to buy early:

Key elements of an outbound communication strategy

For Forefront Networks their email database is their number 1 ticket selling channel. Which is why Salesforce is such an important part of their strategy.

  1. Owned email database
  2. Utilize partnerships – identify key partners to help you promote events
  3. Identify relevant publications/media – where people look for events and things to do
  4. Owned social media channels
  5. Consider broadcast and outdoor media options.

Where possible, use tracking codes so you know where traffic is coming from. Knowing how many people were driven from a particular ad, and how that converted to a certain number of ticket sales is really powerful information when determining future advertising spend. Record and track what people are buying, so you get to know their interests for future promotions.

Tips for earning PR and gaining traction in the media

You need a unique story. What angle do you have that the press will pick up on? Think of it as a story and present the story.  

Assessing the financial sustainability of an event and evaluating the financial risk

Teri explains that Forefront Networks spend a lot of time on this, particularly for consumer events. Just because you think it’s a great event with good turnout, doesn’t make it financially sustainable. There are a lot of factors to consider.

Corporate events are more straightforward because you can build the offering around the budget.

Managing remote teams

Teri has experience leading remote teams and shares tips for managing a remote team and keeping them connected and working together.

Teri’s career advice

Teri’s recommends developing skill sets, rather than just being a generalist. While you can evolve to manage all different sides of marketing for example, it is incredibly valuable to get some specialist knowledge in a particular area. Become known for a particular skill. That makes you hirable and promotable.  


Ticketbud Tidbits Ep 19 – SHOW NOTES… Speaker Tours and Building a Social Media Profile

With Gerry Brooks from Celebrate Educators

Overview

In this episode we talk to social media star, event speaker and elementary school principal Gerry Brooks. We invited Gerry to the podcast to talk about his rise to internet stardom and what it’s like to be both the talent and the event organizer for a traveling one man show.

In the podcast we talk about:

Listen now or read the show notes below

About Gerry

Through his popular YouTube videos focused on real-world educational experiences, Gerry has amassed a social media following of over 1 million people. His most popular viral video this year was viewed by over 10 million, and received national media coverage.

Gerry’s relatable stories and tell it like it is style, combined with his passion for education, has proven to be a winning formula, which now sees him booking speaking engagements across the country, and hosting a sell out event series called Celebrate Educators.

Find Gerry’s upcoming Celebrate Educators events on his Ticketbud Showcase Page.

Topics

How Gerry became an internet sensation

It all began a few years ago with a video Gerry shared on his personal facebook page about ‘What Principals do on Snow Days’. This playful video of Gerry running amok around the empty school grounds, went viral. Gerry decided to keep producing videos and people kept watching. His online presence grew fast from there. Soon his following was too big for his personal facebook page (apparently they cap you at 5000 friends), so Gerry had to start a Public Figure facebook page. He continued to grow his following, as well as posting videos on YouTube and sharing content on other channels like Instagram and Twitter.

While Gerry’s core audience is educators, his videos often have a significantly wider audience when he hits on a current topic in the media. Some of those videos have been viewed by millions, significantly broadening his audience. Gerry knows timeliness is key. If you have an idea for something that’s topical, it’s important to share it right away.

Creating authentic relatable content that resonates with your target audience

Gerry says his success is an excellent example of the power of social media. The things that are happening in Gerry’s home town in Kentucky are happening across the US and around the world. The things that educators deal with are often universal. Gerry taps into the key relatable experiences and events, and uses humor to connect with his audience.   

Gerry’s advice is to be authentic and find your niche. Identify your audience and adapt content to appeal to your audience.

Leveraging a social media profile into a speaker event series

Gerry was initially booking speaker spots at educational conferences. As demand grew to hear him speak, he also got feedback that some fans couldn’t afford the conferences. This led Gerry to start his own event series on the weekends. In 2018 Gerry ran 36 events, this year he plans to do about 45 weekend events.

Wearing multiple hats – Event organizer, Promoter and Talent

Being organized is the name of the game. Gerry not only manages his social media profile and speaker events, but this is on top of a full time role as a School Principal.

Gerry makes sure he has a schedule of content lined up. He does a video each week, social posts, promotion for his events, as well as finding the right balance for sponsor promotions. Gerry then travels for the weekend events, before heading back to his day job during the week. To keep everything on track as things have grown, Gerry has recruited the help of event planners to assist in managing his busy schedule and all the event communications.

Marketing Events through Social Media

If you are hosting your own speaker or book tours Gerry says Facebook is a great place to start. It allows you to create social ads targeting a specific area, then you can create ads relevant to your visit in that location.

You can advertise to the people who like your page that live in a certain area. It allows you to target a city and the radius around it. An ad that promotes an event in a specific location is going to get more engagement and shares than a general ad promoting your event everywhere.

It’s important to encourage social engagement. Gerry runs promotions and giveaways, for people that share and tag friends in posts. He asks the host schools and teachers in the district to like and share the event posts. The more engagement you get on a post the more opportunity it has to be seen by a wider audience.

Event Logistics

Gerry decided to host his events in schools rather than paying for event spaces. The schools provide the venue for free and in return the event becomes a fundraiser for the school, with 10% of ticket sales going back to the school.

When Celebrate Educators is visiting a location they put a call out to schools in the area who might have a suitable venue. Venues have to meet certain criteria as part of the contract, things like having a tech person on location, and the availability of a school auditorium with a certain seating capacity.

Building ongoing relationships with event attendees

Gerry explains that with Ticketbud’s platform he can email attendees with updates and communication around a specific event they’re attending. As well as being able to export all the email contacts from his events into an email marketing system, where he communicates with them on an ongoing basis. Gerry currently has around 28k email contacts, developed through event attendees on Ticketbud.  

Working with a ticketing provider

Gerry likes having a ticketing customer service manager that’s familiar with his events and keeps things running smoothly. Someone who knows what he’s looking for and can pick up potential issues.  

Gerry’s events have between 500 to 1400 attendees, and sell out across the country, often the day of release. Gerry admits there is no way he could manage the volume of ticket sales on his own. He did a lot of research on ticketing providers and saw Ticketbud had such great reviews.

It’s just been a great collaboration, and something that’s been tremendously helpful in my business”.

Gerry Brooks on working with Ticketbud

Outsourcing and getting expert advice

If you want to achieve more, Gerry advises getting expert help. Sometimes we can get caught in the mindset of not wanting to give away a percentage of profits or pay out money. But the reality is that it can take you to the next level of success, and free your time to focus on what you do best. Gerry has agents helping him manage his social media profile and sponsorships, event planners to help with the logistics of his many events, and Ticketbud to manage ticketing.

Ticketbud Tidbits Ep 18 – SHOW NOTES… Immersive Art Installation Pop-up Event

With Jimmy Carilo from World of Light

Overview

In this episode we talk to Jimmy Carilo the Creative Marketing Director for World Of Light, an immersive art installation pop-up event debuting in Los Angeles in June. Jimmy shares the challenges and learnings from putting an event of this nature together – working with artists from around the world and transforming a space into an experience that people haven’t seen before.

Jimmy talks about the need to schedule bookings for an experience like this to ensure everyone can enjoy it. He shares some unique marketing tactics for getting the word out about the event. He also talks about his experiences working with different ticketing companies and why Ticketbud’s approach made all the difference to his team.

Listen now or read the show notes below

About Jimmy

Jimmy Carilo has a background in events and marketing. He runs Hint Creative Group a boutique agency with an emphasis on visual and conceptual business strategy. Their event services include complete branding development and marketing execution.

About World of Light

World Of Light is an immersive art installation event debuting in Los Angeles in June and running until August, 2019. The experience is described as an otherworldly journey of visual imagination, with the transformation of a 50 thousand square foot space. Designed to be the world’s first fully interactive exhibition, with immersive installations, mixed media, live art and 360 VR mapping incorporated into the experience.

Discussion Topics

Designing a unique user experience

The first part of the conceptual planning process for this event was working out how to create a unique user experience. Jimmy and the World of Light team got together to share their research and experiences of these types of immersive art installation events. They looked at what had and hadn’t been done before, to help them work out how they could offer something different.

Key challenges and learnings – testing ideas, event production and logistics

One of the key learnings was the importance of spending more time in the conceptual phase. Understanding the restrictions and capabilities that you have to work within before heading into production. Particularly if you’re doing something you haven’t seen done before, its valuable to test your ideas before trying to find funding, or the space or getting art developed.

Long distance event management

Jimmy explains that with the technology available today it’s easy to manage events and collaborate with people in different cities. He says that even looking at an event space can be done via facetime or having a walkthrough recorded and sent to you. You don’t have to be physically be there anymore.

However Jimmy said that he did find that press seems to be more responsive when you are in the same city as the event.

Research on immersive experiences

Prior to undertaking this event, Jimmy conducted research on what people are looking for in these types of experiences. The research showed that more people are driven toward experiences that are different, something that they don’t see regularly. There was particular interest in short availability experiences, which has given rise to the pop-up market. There has been a trend for brands to host pop-up experiences, with the limited time experience tending to drive more people to act sooner so they don’t miss out.

People are also interested in seeing things from different countries and have experiences they can’t readily have access to at home or where they live.  

The idea behind World of Light was to not only have a multisensory immersive experience, but to bring art from all over the world that people can view and interact with. Something that people may not have had the opportunity to see before.  

Ticketing for immersive events

The reality of these types of immersive experiences is that people are going to want to stop and interact, take it in or take a photograph. You have to allow time for that, it’s part of the experience. However, there are certain times in the week that are going to have more demand than others. Having ticket programming that allows people to book a specific time slot becomes very important. It gives everyone time and space to have the full experience. This also included designating a time limit, for the experience, with premium tickets available for an unlimited time.

World of Light plans to tour multiple cities across the country, so for the initial event in Los Angeles the pricing was mainly about covering costs and getting people in to talk about the experience. The team wanted to create a brand they are proud of, that gives a platform and recognition to artists from around the world.

Promotional tactics

World of Light is using social media channels and local publications in their event promotion. As well as trying different methods including wheatpasting with event posters, as well as soliciting local businesses to promote with branded collateral at their shops. Then in the spirit of the event, they have organized the illumination of City Hall in downtown Los Angeles. This promotion will include a ten minute light show, where City Hall will be illuminated with visuals inspired by the home countries of the artists involved in the event.

An important part of the promotion for World of Light has been to ensure the promotion was in line with the event experience. This meant incorporating highly visual design, using video, animation and light where possible, avoiding static ads.

Encouraging an interactive experience

In addition to the art installations themselves that visitors can interact with, take photos and share. World of Light have looked for other opportunities to increase engagement. This includes:

Jimmy’s career advice – Don’t take the shortcut

“If you ever shortcut anything, you are only ever going to get that much back. If you really believe in something that you’re working on, be diligent and do your part, research and test it”.

“Learn everything you can about it and always be challenging yourself…You will inevitably see the return on that”.


Coverage for Unexpected Event Cancellation with Ticketbud’s Event Protect Integration

Ticketbud is excited to be the first ticketing platform in the US to launch an integration with Event Protect, the industry standard for event cancellation protection for ticketing platforms. We launched this integration as a solution to address a growing problem for event organizers. How to protect your ticketing revenue in the case of an unexpected event cancelation.  

“Over the past couple of years, the Ticketbud team has focused on refining our core features, improving application performance and launching one of the most mobile optimized and streamlined ticket purchasing interfaces in the industry. With the majority of this fundamental work launched and live, we’re now able to re-focus efforts on driving innovation in the ticketing industry. Ticketbud is committed to finding innovate solutions to help event organizers and we are looking forward to rolling out new features and projects like Event Protect”.

Ticketbud CEO, Kayhan Ahmad

Ticketbud’s core mission is to create the best platform for event organizers. To deliver on that promise we communicate closely with clients to gain feedback and understand the evolving problems of the modern event organizer.

Why Event Protect coverage is so valuable

Even the most organized of event professionals can’t control acts of nature. In 2017 a major festival Ticketbud works with encountered severe weather. During their 15-day festival, 4 days had to be canceled due to severe weather and flooding of the event grounds. Standing water and unsafe conditions forced the city to close the park the festival was using. Although there was a clear rain or shine, no refunds policy, organizers still did everything in their power to mitigate the damage and flooding to the event grounds, transfer ticket holders to another date, and accommodate a shift in ticket inventory. Even with these efforts, not every ticket holder was available to attend at a later date.

Another Ticketbud client running a multi-day Halloween festival experienced a very unexpected cancelation, after a squirrel chewed threw a power line. The loss of power at this outdoor evening event was a major safety issue, resulting in the cancelation of the first day of the event.

It was these types of unforeseen cancellations that led Ticketbud to search for a solution. We wanted to offer our event organizers the added security of  comprehensive protection against unexpected cancellation and to deliver an effective refund process for their ticket buyers.

The result was Ticketbud became a Member of Event Protect, one of the global Membership Programs and integrations provided by Protect Group.

Event Protect’s value proposition is simple and straightforward. In the case of a qualifying event cancellation, the ticket holder requests a full refund. Where adopted, Event Protect takes over the entire refund process, responds to the refund request, and if approved the due refund is sent directly to the ticket holder. Event Protect reduces the refund risk and loss for event organizers, while also providing ticket buyers with a 100% refund of their transaction –  including booking and payment fees. 

How does the coverage work?

When event organizers choose to opt in for Event Protect coverage it is incorporated into Ticketbud’s service terms.

With Event Protect in place, should the event be canceled due to qualifying unforeseen circumstances, their service will take over to refund ticket holders who claim a refund of their complete ticket transaction, including taxes and booking fees.

Event Protect provides the broadest set of covered scenarios outside of the event organizer’s control including adverse weather conditions, key supplier failure, revocation of licenses etc. Threats like rain causing health and safety hazards or severe winds knocking down scaffolding, tents or structures are common examples of scenarios that would likely trigger an Event Protect qualifying cancellation.

Read more about protecting your investment with Event Protect and what coverage is included.

Learn more about Event Protect from their website.  

Review the Event Protect cancellation policy.

Keep your eye on Ticketbud as we continue to drive innovation with new features and integrations, including our soon to be released Salesforce connector.