Jason Blumenfeld of Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, S.C. and Monty Jones, Jr. of Gila River Arena in Glendale, Ariz., talk ticketing with Paciolan's Jane Kleinberger and CrowdTorch's Jim Bilus. (VT Photo)
REPORTING FROM LONG BEACH, Calif. — The inaugural VT RISE (Raising the Industry in Sports and Entertainment) brought industry insiders here, Sept.13, to discuss trends in ticketing and how to sell your building when booking events.
During Ticketing Trends: What is the Fan Experiencing and Why?, Cheryl Swanson touched on a much-lamented issue in older facilities and all of those trying to keep up with connectivity.
“Students want to connect while actually at the game,” she said. “If they can’t get online, they don’t want to be there.”
It’s an issue that the developers face, too.
Jim Bilus of CrowdTorch said the company “has stuff that we’re building that may not even be able to be used at venues and festivals if the connectivity isn’t there.”
Some companies are looking at developing products that work well in little-to-no reception zones, or at least have features that don’t require a connection. Meanwhile, facilities continue to make the investment to improve wireless networks and reception as quickly as budgets will allow.
Gila River Arena in Glendale, Ariz., is currently integrating WiFi and upgrading to make sure all four major mobile networks have 4G service within the facility.
“Fans will be able to have free WiFi with an opt-in data grab,” said GM Monty Jones, Jr. of Global Spectrum. Attendees can have free access to the internet, but only if they provide the facility with some information that can later be used to market to them.
Data collection is a hot topic when it comes to ticketing, with companies looking to ease the process of transferring a ticket in order to gather more data.
“The more that we can ease the buy and transfer of a ticket, the more that we can forward, transfer and capture that data” of the person receiving the ticket, said Ticketmaster’s Patti-Anne Tarlton.
From a practical standpoint, Tarlton said that data collection using technology like geostamping can be helpful, especially in the festival scene, for showing fan behavior.
“If you have an app and those who download it accept to be located, you can learn which gate those fans use to get into the building and then can plan the event better next time,” she said, suggesting the data can help with optimal traffic flow.
Mobile delivery of tickets is also becoming par for the course. Panel moderator Jane Kleinberger of Paciolan said that University of Maryland recently introduced mobile delivery as an option and more than 50 percent of all orders chose to utilize it.
Bilus believes that we may soon be seeing building loyalty programs specific to venues to help with the challenge that facilities have of getting patrons to download apps that aren’t specific to a team or event, but for the venue itself.
Cashless payment is also cropping up at festivals and venues, with some loading money into the ticket barcode or RFID band itself and others opting for Bluetooth-enabled payment.
“From a venue perspective, fans are opting to spend more if the experience becomes easy,” said Tarlton.
Lynn Carlotto of Rogers K-Rock Centre in Kingston, Ont., and Adina Erwin of Fox Theatre in Atlanta shared some of their knowledge on a panel about booking your building. (VT Photo)
Making it easy to spend money is exactly what you want to do when booking your own building.
Fox Theatre’s Adina Erwin comes to selling from the perspective of a partnership.
“It insinuates or symbolizes a level leadership,” she said, adding “from a partnership perspective the relationship changes.”
Jan Addison of Orange County Convention Center in Orlando agrees that establishing a relationship is more important than securing a business deal.
“It’s very important not to have it just be transactional, because then it won’t be successful,” Addison said. “It really is all about the relationship.”
It's not just the process of making that particular deal that secures a relationship with a booking agent or promoter or meeting planner.
"We establish relationships with every conversation we have, with every email we return — or don't return," said Lynn Carlotto of Rogers K-Rock Centre in Kingston, Ont./SMG Canada.
Booking Your Building; Selling Yourself focused on negotiating techniques and selling strategies, as well as what to do when you’re caught off-guard.
As moderator Ed Rubenstein of ArenaNetwork put it, “it’s not just negotiating points ahead of time, it’s being able to do the tap dance when the time comes.”
AEG/Goldenvoice’s Susan Rosenbluth recalled a time when she had booked Chrissy Hinde, an outspoken vegan, for a facility that had a McDonald’s ad facing the stage. Hinde was uncomfortable, so Rosenbluth worked out a way that the facility would darken the ad for that particular event with little time to spare.
“As a promoter, I tend to advocate for the bands and work with venues to come up with a creative solution,” she said. “We work with venues who work with us and bands that work with us.”
Rosenbluth also added that mistakes will happen, but it’s how you present yourself when those mistakes happen that really matters.
“If you mess up, own up to it immediately,” she cautioned.
Kim Stone of AmericanAirlines Arena/Miami Heat hosted Lady Gaga last year and encountered a problem with the artists’ most loyal fans: little monsters. In one of Gaga’s videos, she smashes mirrors. The little monsters had created canes with glued-on pieces of mirror as a fashion statement to honor the star.
“It’s all about managing risk,” said Stone, who added that the canes were let in on a case-by-case basis. Those that literally were shards of glass were not let in, while those that were deemed safe and appropriate were allowed in the facility. The concert was an incident-free event.
“Sometimes you just have to be flexible on the fly,” Stone added.