Podcast - 11 - How to manage event ticketing

Good morning, happy Tuesday to all from Stefano and Clappit.
Today we return with our podcasts to speak directly to all the event organizers who have to choose a ticketing platform. Then we will give some fundamental points to help them decide more responsibly.

I will present the five main complexities of ticketing management, the macro complexity that you need to know. Because I have to say it, I'm sorry if an event organizer hasn't discovered it yet, but besides having a thousand thoughts, a thousand activities to carry out for the production of the event, it's correct that it takes everything that concerns the management of the event ticket office with great seriousness.

So not just simply selling tickets online or at the box-office, but also access control, people flow, venue organization, venue choice. In short, there are many activities that involve more or less the ticketing system and these must be considered very carefully. We will soon see, which are the five, the five fundamental points you need to take into great consideration.

Before starting, only a small note, because we have brought and will bring all our podcasts also on YouTube. So, for the lovers of this platform that can be useful even if it is not a video but only a simple listening, the videos will soon arrive on our channel.
So sign up if you like our content, sign up for the channel and follow us on YouTube, click on the bell so you won't miss any new content.

Let's go back now to our organizer who has to, has this responsibility to choose, to understand how to manage the ticketing service of his event. Because then, certainly in his mentality the production of the event and the success of the show, of the performance, or even the corporate event, his first thought is never the ticketing partner. And this from a certain point of view is understandable, but then we must also succeed in giving the right importance also to the choice of the ticketing platform, as we said before.

We are talking about the choice of the ticketing partner, because from this decision then a whole series of activities occur which also impact on the success of the event. The desire of the organizer that, apart from the economic aspect clearly in the first place, to sell tickets, is also to ensure other forms of success at an event such as the safety of spectators.

Among other things, an organizer or a theater manager, or in any case companies, people who have to manage, organize so many events during the year will be much more concerned with the ticketing partner. They will also be obviously even more experienced and compared to an organizer, maybe even a new organizer, who decides to launch into this market, sell an event, produce his event, once a year. So, this can be taken for granted, but at the decision level then fundamentally it does not change so much, because both of them will have to face a whole series of critical issues.

And we really decided to do this podcast to give more elements, more points of view to the organizer regarding the choice and management of that too.
What are the reasons that lead to choosing a ticketing partner and knowing what the organizer actually needs? There are events that are really, always different cases, there is never one event like another and therefore for what concerns us at least, at Clappit we do, we give very customized services. To us every event is a new story, it's a new adventure.

Among other things, it seems a contradiction because, generally, the first source of the success of an event consists precisely in the tickets sale. Now, clearly, there may be different cases, perhaps more related to sponsorships rather than corporate events that have other objectives. But one thing is always, this one applies to everyone, but also for any type of event, whether it is open for free, business, entertainment. For any kind of event, the organizer wants only one thing: the sold-out. He wants the venue full because if it's not for cash, it's because there's a TV camera.

The TV clearly cannot afford to have empty stands, sponsors cannot afford not to have at least a return of visibility from the public, so what all the organizers want and this applies to all types of events, is the venue full of people, the building crowded with spectators, fans.

So, back to our critical aspects of ticketing that you need to know in order to make a choice of a more reliable partner, is also better suited to the type of event that the organizer wants to promote. So, the first critical aspect consists, as we have said many times, in the Italian fiscal legislation concerning the sale of entertainment tickets.

We have said this many times, we will always repeat it, it happens to receive contacts or requests for information, or to see too many events that are managed by organizers who ignore, but not for any particular reason, that is, they just don't know it. No one, even the ticketing platform they use, is accurate and warn the organizer that it is the one who then receives the fines, the penalties. So pay attention! Now, returning to our topic, the first criticality is the existence of regulation (in Italy) and the need, the obligation to be compliant to what the rules are.

And this is not just a problem of the ticket office, chose a platform that is properly certified, it is also a complexity of the organizer that must know, at least, some aspects related to the legislation

And to collaborate with a platform that allows the organizer to be safer, faster, to manage in a simpler way all that is the transmission of data with the authorities, is one of the first aspects to consider when choosing a ticketing platform. Especially when we consider non-Italian realities that have the luck, or the bad luck, of not being so mentally inside the bureaucratic or fiscal aspects, as we Italians are used to.

The regulatory aspect is very important but there are also many events, such as corporate events that do not require the use of a certified ticketing platform, a fiscal ticketing system, but which however need to use a platform to send tickets or check accesses.

Here we see then what is the second point, the second criticality of the ticketing system. And that involves more actors, let's say at least four: the organizer, the venue (or location), the ticketing platform itself and the spectator.

And among other things, this industry can also increase in the number of figures depending on the situation. But even if we say, to a four-way communication, it is also understandable how difficult it is to satisfy everyone starting from the fans, who are then the engine of every event.
For us there is no champion, there is no star without a fan, then clearly the organizer himself, the ticket office and the venue manager must be super satisfied with what is the trend is the success of the event.

The complexity of having four, let's say, types of people who have to work, communicate, always be aligned, exchanging files, exchanging lots of information, different types of documents. This increases what is still, the complexity, the management of an event even so, only from a digital point of view.

Here we remain in the online arena because it is where most of the ticket sales take place to continue and talk about the third, the third critical aspect of ticketing activity.
Because everyone knows everyone... let's say that the idea of e-commerce is much more clear in a person mind. While the ticketing can be compared here, to e-commerce elevated to the nth power because it presents all the criticalities of an online sale, of e-commerce but with the addition of so many other particular aspects that the organizer has to manage.

Because yes, in e-commerce, in the online sale can follow a shipment, the management of a shipment, aspect that among other things there is also for the ticket office.

Because the ticket can be sent, it can be... the ticket itself can be of different types and can be sent in different ways. For us, shipping is already more complicated than any shipment of a common product that we can buy on any Amazon. But without going into this detail, which we will talk about in another podcast because, however, there are so many things to say about that.

The most important aspect, the fourth reason that presents the ticketing as complexity is that it does not end after the online purchase of the ticket but it will manifest on the venue, it will manifest itself on the day of the event. The day of the event is clearly, we have already said it on other podcasts, the go-live is certainly a great emotion but it is also an incredibly critical point, it is precisely where all the efforts are concentrated. Especially the organizer efforts, which followed all the aspects of the production just, hopefully after this podcast, also of the ticket office.

And the complexity is precisely in being able to better anticipate what can be manifested during the go-live because it will never go, everything will never go as planned, but the experience in this case of those who support us, the partners and the organizer himself, so let's go back to the choice of the platform and the right collaborators, it will allow us to be safer, more secure.

And speaking of safety, it is another complexity, the fifth complexity: it is the aspect of guaranteeing an important security level to the spectators. And the ticketing partner contributes in a certain way to the safety of the event because, on the one hand, even just the fact of avoiding fraud, beyond the obviously fundamental, very important, economic aspect, and not having economic damage.

But also the fact of controlling what are the capacities, which had a limit we also remember that a venue has a fiscal limit. I want to say if 2,000 people are expected and then enter 4,000 people there is a safety problem. Now I have clearly exaggerated the concept to explain myself, but the safety of the event also depends on this. It depends on access control because people must be able to enter with calm, in a comfortable way, in a safe way.

These, therefore, are the five main reasons, the five main points on which each organizer should make the right reflections and considerations before making a decision about which ticketing system use.
Clearly, in addition to what all the functional and economic evaluations are.

For any doubt, any suggestion you can also write to us in the comments if you listen to us on YouTube, or you can write to our e-mail.

Today's podcast ends here, I give you the appointment as usual for the next Tuesday at 9:00 am.
Greetings from Stefano and Clappit, bye!