Eric Valley left Cirque du Soleil, where he has worked for 16 years, and has joined as a partner in PYE (Plan Your Event), a startup based in Montreal.
Valley, seen at INTIX Jan. 22-26 in Baltimore, said PYE was founded by CEO Dominic Chartrand, who also founded VenueParking. “This is the next level,” Valley said.
PYE's venue clients place a URL on the confirmation page of a ticket sold. Customers click on the URL to plan the rest of their night, including hotels, restaurants, parking and merchandise. The venue gets a percentage of the money paid to PYE by the retailers who benefit from the bookings. Clients to date include some Montreal theaters.
As to his decision to leave Cirque, Valley said it was just time to do something else. He was director of ticket sales when he left two weeks ago. His responsibilities there — including Big Top and arena show tickets, revenue optimization, dynamic pricing and the gift card program — have been divided among three employees,
Valley spent a lot of time in the past year opening Cirque’s Big Top in China. “There are so many opportunities at Cirque,” he said. During his more than 16 years there he saw the show expand into 12-plus countries. “I met my wife on tour,” he said. “I’m going away happy and on good terms.”
Cirque now has 11 simultaneous tours performing 3,300 ticketed events a year. The organization has sold about 4.5 million tickets a year, with 32 million to 35 million tickets sold over the past seven years. Now there are even more tours with the acquisition of Blue Man Group, Valley noted.
And while booking China was complicated by lots of regulations, which change by city, and major cultural differences, it has happened and is showing potential. Hiring Cheryl Zhao, whom Valley met when she was working for AEG, made a big difference, he added. The Big Top opened in China for the first time in September.
Three years ago, Cirque sold. The new owners inspired Valley to stay on board because they were aggressively growing the brand. But it was time to move on and try something new, he said, declaring that despite appearances, he’s going to lay low for a few months and plan his future.