Each year INTIX honors box office and ticketing professionals for excellence and their contribution to the industry. Below Venues Today profiles the winners, chosen by members of INTIX and honored at the closing luncheon on Jan. 30 at the Sheraton in downtown Chicago.
Russell Thompson, Young Ticketing Professional
Just four-and-a-half years into his first full-time job in the ticketing industry, Thompson has been responsible for a great deal of change in the School of Fine and Performing Arts box office at the State University of New York at New Paltz.
After graduating with a Masters in Business Administration in 2009, he was hired as Box Office manager and Events Coordinator. Shortly after, Thompson developed training procedures for his ever-changing group of student assistants and upgraded the operating system.
“Winning this award is a motivator,” Thompson said. “I had a soccer coach in high school whose famous saying was, 'What have you done for me lately?' That resonated with me. So while I am grateful and honored for winning the Young Ticketing Professional Award, I think back to my coach and understand there is still a lot of good work left to do out there.”
Thompson's efforts to improve the university's ticketing infrastructure resulted in WiFi in each theater lobby, portable ticketing machines, electronic drawers that interact with software and new glass ticketing windows.
The 28-year-old Indie music fan still feels there can be more improvements around campus.
“There are tons of events that happen on campus every day that aren't being ticketed as professionally as they could be,” he said. “There is not a lot of sharing of information between the different departments. I would like to see the box office here at New Paltz becoming a bigger department that has more permanent staff that can service more events.”
While his efforts have resulted in tangible improvements, he has been equally praised for his emphasis on customer service.
As the only full-time box office employee, he and his crew of about 20 student assistants are responsible for ticket offices and front-of-house operations for about 80 events per year in five different venues which totals in the range of $100,000 and 13,000 tickets.
Thompson hopes his work and training will help his students go on to have success in their first full-time jobs.
“I have seen students do great work here,” he said. “I have been able to place some of my students in patron services and at ticketing software companies and I have more graduating this year who are interested in the business. These are the people who eventually become your colleagues in the industry.”
Contact: (845) 257-7869
Gary Lustig, Patricia G. Spira Lifetime Achievement Award
For Gary Lustig, receiving the Lifetime Achievement award was the culmination of 30 years leading innovations in the ticketing industry and contributions to INTIX.
The current vice president and managing director of Philadelphia Ticketing got his kick-start in the industry when he answered a “Help Wanted” ad at The Dallas Opera. Lustig’s creativity was on display when he spearheaded the turnaround of the Opera’s ticketing software. The system he worked with vendors to develop in Texas became an industry leader for a decade.
“It is exciting to be recognized for the things that I have done with passion,” Lustig said. “Especially to be recognized by the people who you have so much respect for because of all the great things they do day in and day out. They share the same passions, same troubles and same values that you do, so that's a really special feeling.”
In his next position, he laid groundwork that would affect the future of the ticketing industry. At the Fort Worth Symphony, he was behind the creation of a real-time web ticketing program which was integrated with the in-house system. It became the first symphony of any size in the United States to have such a system.
“We let people choose their own seats,” Lustig said. “A decade before people were doing it everywhere, we were doing what you take for granted today.”
Utilizing technology put Lustig ahead of his time in ticketing, but he said the driving force was always trying to improve access for patrons. In attempts to further achieve that goal, he designed training programs at each stop. Ticket Philadelphia is one of the only performing arts organizations that employs a full-time training position based on customer service.
“We just need to make sure that everyone understands the implications of technology,” he said. “For me, technology never replaces the human touch. I believe in everything about technology but technology should never become an obstacle for customers.”
Contact: (215) 875-7606
Anthony Esposito, Spirit Award
For the last 17 years, Anthony Esposito has been working his way up through the ranks of the professional sports ticketing industry. He started as an intern in minor league baseball and has risen to director of Ticket Operations for the Atlanta Braves.
The Spirit Award was given to Esposito because of his willingness to get involved in furthering progress in the ticket industry. He is the president of the Georgia Professional Ticketing Association and currently acts as co-chair for the INTIX Professional Sports/College Athletics committee, a member of Regional Advisory task force, a Conference Planning committee member and Co-chair for the Education committee.
“For me the award means being a champion within the ticketing industry and pushing networking and sharing practices,” he said. “We’re all doing ticketing. We may be doing it on a scale of a couple hundred seats for a small theater or up to 100,000 seats for a large outdoor venue. At the end of the day, we all go through the same things.”
Contact: (404) 522-7630
Stephanie Viegas Dias/Portland’5 Centers for the Arts, Outstanding Box Office
The Portland'5 Centers for the Arts manages five venues ranging from 165 to 2,992 in capacity. The center hosts a variety of acts from major performers such as Jerry Seinfeld to classical music to professional dance.
The box office, which worked 481 of 636 total performances last year, has found success working with a small staff of only three full-time employees who are supported by seven part-time supervisors and 11 sellers. While small, Portland’5 has an experienced staff, most of whom have been with the company for five years or more.
“We empower our staff, including sellers, to problem solve for the customers directly,” Dias wrote. “They can perform refunds, exchanges, reprint tickets, and run certain reports without having to ask a manager.”
Portland'5 Centers for the Arts’ venues have ranked very high in terms of sales. Keller Auditorium and Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall ranked in Venues Today’s Top 100 venues in North America in gross ticket sales. The two venues ranked No. 12 and 15 for venues with seating capacities from 2,001-5,000.
“We have an excellent reputation with promoters because our No. 1 priority is meeting their needs,” she wrote. “Fan clubs receive the information they need to start presales on time and events are up, built correctly and on sale on the date the promoter has designated.”
Contact: (503) 248-4335