Devin Wenig, eBay president and CEO; Dave Butler, Spectra Ticketing CEO; and Scott Cutler, StubHub president.
Beyond the new analytics and technology track, the influence of tech and digital permeated every track at PACnet ’16, as is the reality of today’s industry. In his keynote, Devin Wenig, president and CEO of eBay, challenged attendees to take a step back and zoom out from what is happening day to day in order to think about the huge waves of technology, those hitting the industry now and the ones that are building on the horizon.
“Every company is a tech company, or they’re dead,” said Wenig. “Every company needs to be a tech company because software is eating the world. I don’t mean use technology. I mean you have to think like a technology company, because the fact is the second you think you’re in a different business is the second you’re in trouble.”
What Wenig sees happening right now is the incredible mashup of the on-and-off-line world. What started out as two distinct areas are meshing more and more to the point where it’s really hard to distinguish what’s offline and what’s online.
“If I walk into a store and scan an item and then walk out and buy it online, is that online or offline?” asked Wenig. “If I buy something on eBay and pick it up in the store is that online or offline? If I’m standing outside the Super Bowl waiting for the price to drop and then hit buy and walk into the event, is that online or offline?”
He said the blurring will only continue with the introduction of virtual reality and augmented reality technology to the marketplace.
“This is the next frontier of the mashup between the physical and digital world,” said Wenig. “This is coming fast, and it’s not a feature, it’s a platform. There are loads of features that are cool and interesting, but they come and go. Platforms are like the internet. The internet was a platform with lots of people innovating on that platform. VR and AR are not going away. They are a platform.”
Obviously, the implications for how this technology will affect the live event industry are almost limitless. The fan experience will take on a new meaning, and expectation, expanding even further outside a venue’s walls and beyond an event’s allotted time.
“The cycle of creative disruption has never been faster than it is right now, and my argument is we haven’t seen anything yet,” said Wenig. “We’re about to enter the fourth industrial revolution. The pace of change now is faster and more rapid and arguably more destructive than the turn of the century when people started saying, what are those things going faster than horses over there? That was nothing compared to where we are right now and what’s about to happen.”
Part of that change is the abolition of the regional market and the reality of a global one. Wenig said the reason events and commerce have been regional for so long is that they were local monopolies in a way, they were your only choice.
“These local monopolies are getting torn down by technology,” said Wenig. “Obviously with events you still have to go there and there’s travel, but the percent of tickets that we sell outside a ring around that event goes up every year, because it gets easier, cheaper and more available. You have to think that way, because why would you serve a market of 50 miles, if you can serve a couple billion people around the planet. We’re trying to sell things. We’re trying to get people into our stadiums and theaters.”
This coming reality is where StubHub President Scott Cutler sees his company providing clients the biggest value proposition.
“One of the biggest things that I think we can facilitate as a platform is that opportunity to think beyond the region and the place where you have the ability to market to a much broader set of customers,” said Cutler.
The eBay-owned ticket platform receives 30 million visitors every month, selling a ticket every .9 seconds and servicing over 300,000 events and 200 partners, one of which is Spectra Ticketing & Fan Engagement.
“We really do believe this world of primary and secondary is going to be over,” said Cutler. “This view of having to go to one destination is over. We think these worlds are coming together. Fans want to be able to come to a platform that is trustworthy and secure. As we think about how we can operate in this world, we want to be a platform that enables a customer to come to an event through any device at anytime and anywhere.”
And though Wenig admits that his predictions are far from fact, there are certain waves he suggests the live entertainment business should absolutely be prepared for when they hit.
“Half of what I said is absolutely wrong, I just don’t know which half,” said Wenig. “But if you think we can isolate live events because they’re physical and not digital, that’s a big mistake. There’s no way the live event experience is not going to fully embrace digital in one way or another.”
Interviewed for this story: Scott Cutler, (415) 222-8400; Devin Wenig, (408) 376-7400