T.News Blog • Page 13 of 20 • Tickets.com

T.Cares Teams Up With The Phillies To Host Memorable Day For Special Olympics Athletes

At Tickets.com we are always striving to deliver lifelong memories and experiences for patrons, and our latest T.Cares event with the Special Olympics and MLB’s Philadelphia Phillies did just that.

The Special Olympics is the world’s largest sports organization for people with intellectual disabilities, with more than 4.9 million athletes in 172 countries, and over one million volunteers. It aims to help people with intellectual disabilities discover new strengths and abilities, skills and success, through the power of sport.

Working with Special Olympics New Jersey’s Head Baseball Coach Tony Vlahovic and Volunteer Director Amy Simmons, Tickets.com teamed up with the Philadelphia Phillies to host a day that four chosen athletes wouldn’t forget.

The Special Olympics representatives were invited to the Phillies’ home game against Miami Marlins in September and were greeted with a personalized welcome on the big screens as they arrived at Citizen Bank Park.

After being presented with a Phillies welcome bag, the athletes headed down onto the field to watch batting practice, where they were met by Phillies first baseman Tommy Joseph and first base coach Mickey Morandini, who were more than thrilled to take photos with the Special Olympic athletes and sign autographs.

The athletes also presented Tommy and Mickey with gifts of their own; specially designed Special Olympics t-shirts, which both Mickey and Tommy wore throughout the rest of batting practice.

The athletes even got the chance to meet a member of the opposing team, Miami Marlins’ third baseman Derek Dietrich, before heading into the Media Room to meet local broadcaster Tom McCarthy and field questions for themselves from Phillies staff members.

In what was a closely fought game, the Phillies came out on top claiming a thrilling victory and coming from behind to win 8-9, capping off a memorable day for all involved.

For Bucky Heath, Head of Marketing at Tickets.com, it was also a day to remember: “The goal of any T.Cares project is to provide great memories for all those involved, and the athletes didn’t stop smiling the whole time! The Special Olympics has been doing outstanding work for many years, and it was a pleasure to work with Tony & Amy to provide these young athletes with a memorable experience. I also want to thank the Philadelphia Phillies, Miami Marlins and everyone at Citizen Bank Park who helped make the day so special.”

“These types of events create a once-in-a-lifetime experience and exposure for all Special Olympic athletes and the overall experience with the Phillies was amazing,” said Special Olympics New Jersey’s Head Baseball Coach, Tony Vlahovic.

“I had tears in my eyes a few times watching the four athletes’ reactions to meeting the players on the field and listening to them talk about how much fun it was to be in the ballpark.

“The passion that these athletes demonstrate for baseball is incredible, and I would like to thank Bucky and all the wonderful people at Tickets.com for their time, patience and dedication to making the event a success!”

To find out more information about the Special Olympics, visit www.specialolympics.org.

To read more about the T.Cares program and to find out how Tickets.com could get involved with your community or charity, please click here.

Registered Developer Program International Integrators

This month we’d like to highlight our incredible Registered Developer Program members who are based around the globe.

New Image Systems

New Image is a web development shop based in Berlin, Germany. Working with Semperoper in Dresden, they launched a fully integrated ticket sales website in early 2016 using the ProVenue DirectConnect APIs. All ticket sales occur directly on the client’s own website without redirecting to ProVenueOnline. Using the New Image solution, patrons can choose from best available or select individual seats, as well as purchase programs and other items in advance.

Soap Media

Another entry in the website development space, this UK based development house provides the web sales front end for the Rheged Centre in Cumbria. Patrons never leave the client’s website. Information about ticketed events is presented side by side with food, shopping, and other entertainment options.

Fortress GB

One of our earliest API adopters, Fortress’s platform provides loyalty, access control, and stored value functionality for arenas and stadiums. While based overseas, they began working with Tickets.com & the Washington Nationals in 2011. Since then they’ve expanded to support ProVenue clients both in the US and UK. In addition to RFID member cards, loyalty program members can access their profile and barcoded ID via MLB.com’s Ballpark mobile app.

SKIDATA AG

As the name implies, if you’re into winter sports, you may be familiar with Austrian based SkiData. That said, their products go well beyond just ski resorts, and include car parks, museums and football stadiums (or Soccer for those of us state-side). Their first foray into the RDP came just last year, providing integrated loyalty services for the One Buffalo app used by the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres along with other regional sports teams.

Are you interested in learning more or becoming a member of the Registered Developer Program? Contact us!

UK T.Cares initiative: the Christian Foundation’s Growing People Project

Our Tickets.com UK team took some time away from the office last week to support the Milton Keynes Christian Foundation’s Growing People project as part of the UK T.Cares program.

A worldwide initiative, the T.Cares program sees Tickets.com employees better the communities where we work and live, by supporting local community efforts with raising funds for various charities and providing community service.

The latest organization supported by the UK team is the Milton Keynes Christian Foundation. Their Growing People project is a horticultural social enterprise, which works with disengaged young people to grow organic seasonal fresh fruit, vegetables, salad and flowers for the local community at their Urb Farm based in Wolverton.

Natalie Jones, the internal sales manager at Tickets.com, was part of the committee that organized the day. She said: “Initiatives like Urb Farm really do make a difference to our local community and we were only too happy to dedicate our time to support the project.

“A few members of our team have previously attended open days at the farm and experienced the fantastic work that the Milton Keynes Christian Foundation does to support those in need, so it was a great fit for our T.Cares program.”
The Tickets.com team spent the afternoon of Friday, September 22nd helping out on the farm, gardening, tidying, and providing general maintenance work to support the staff who run the project.

Lisa Hodgson the Learning Tree Coordinator/ Special Educational Needs Coordinator at Urb Farm said: “I just wanted to say a huge thank you for all the work that the lovely team at Tickets.com carried out at the farm. Those were all jobs that have been on our ‘to do list’ all season, but we just haven’t had the time, so everyone involved has made a big difference! We hope the team enjoyed it and that no one was too stiff and achy the next day!”

For more information about the Milton Keynes Christian Foundation and their work, visit www.mkchristianfoundation.co.uk.

To learn more about T.Cares and to make suggestions for communities and projects to be considered as part of the program, visit www.provenue.tickets.com/uk/t-cares.

T.Cares and Vet Tix partner to Deliver Unforgettable Experience for USMC Veteran

At Tickets.com, we believe that experience is everything, and through our latest T.Cares initiative we partnered with military charitable organization, Vet Tix to provide one very deserving US Marine Corps veteran with a day to remember.

Ryan Taylor served in the US Marine Corps from 2002 – 2006. As a lifelong Detroit Tigers fan, Ryan’s dedication to his military career meant opportunities to watch live games had been few and far between, so we got together with Vet Tix to treat Ryan to a VIP experience at Comerica Park this Summer as the Tigers took on the New York Yankees.

Vet Tix supports troops by honoring their service and providing positive family and life experiences. They work with currently-serving military, veterans and immediate family of troops killed in action to build life-long memories and encourage service members and veterans to stay engaged with local communities and American life. Since launching in 2008, Vet Tix has given out almost 4 million tickets to individuals across the U.S.

For Ryan and his three friends, securing great tickets to cheer on their #1 team was only the start of it; they received a scoreboard message and swag bags, and even went on the field for Batting Practice, only to be invited back to play catch with the players, accompanied by Tickets.com President & CEO Joe Choti and Tigers’ Senior Director of Ticket Services Grant Anderson.

Despite the Yankees winning the game 10-2, the result was clearly outshone by the once-in-a-lifetime experience Ryan and his friends enjoyed that day: “The experience was truly one of a kind, shows that there are people out there who still care. That was something that I won’t soon forget, makes me want to do more to give back to other veterans. Thank you VetTix for an incredible night! We were able to go on the field at Comerica Park, meet some of the players, and even play catch on the field! Thank you!!” ” -Ryan Taylor, MSHROD

Tickets.com President & CEO Joe Choti said: “It was a fantastic day at Comerica Park and we are proud to be able to work with such an amazing organization as Vet Tix to give something back to individuals like Ryan, who have spent so much of their lives putting others first. The T.Cares program is a huge part of who we are and what we do at Tickets.com, and we can’t wait to deliver our next awesome experiences to deserving individuals and communities.”

To find out more information about Vet Tix, visit www.vettix.org.

UK T.Cares initiative: the Christian Foundation’s Growing People Project

The UK team took some time away from the office last week to support the Milton Keynes Christian Foundation’s Growing People project as part of the UK T.Cares program.

The latest organisation supported by the UK team is the Milton Keynes Christian Foundation. Their Growing People project is a horticultural social enterprise, which works with disengaged young people to grow organic seasonal fresh fruit, veg, salad and flowers for the local community at their Urb Farm based in Wolverton.

Natalie Jones, internal sales manager at Tickets.com, was part of the committee that organised the day. She said: “Initiatives like Urb Farm really do make a difference to our local community and we were only too happy to dedicate our time to support the project.

The Tickets.com team spent the afternoon of Friday 22^nd September helping out at the farm, gardening, tidying, and providing general maintenance work to support the staff who run the project.

Lisa Hodgson, learning tree / special educational needs coordinator at Urb Farm said: “I just wanted to say a huge thank you for all the work that the lovely team at Tickets.com carried out at the farm. Those were all jobs that have been on our ‘to do list’ all season but we just haven’t had the time, so everyone involved has made a big difference! We hope the team enjoyed it and that no one was too stiff and achy the next day!”

For more information about the Milton Keynes Christian Foundation and their work, visit http://www.mkchristianfoundation.co.uk.

To learn more about T.Cares and to make suggestions for communities and projects to be considered as part of the program, visit https://provenue.tickets.com/uk/t-cares.

Tickets.com welcomes new UK signings to ProVenue

It’s been a busy few months for Tickets.com UK with a number of clients going live with ProVenue®.

As Tickets.com’s most advanced system, ProVenue® is a fully customisable ticketing solution that not only provides industry-leading technology, but also enables venues to capture, retrieve and own their customer data. Click here to find out more.

The latest venues to introduce the system include Wigan Little Theatre, Watersmeet in Rickmansworth and Chipping Norton Theatre, all existing Tickets.com clients who have migrated across from ProVeneDatabox™.

These latest signings are in addition to the Harlequin Theatre and the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre, both of whom moved onto ProVenue® in May and have already seen online ticket sales and bookings boosted by the introduction of the new system.

Trinity Arts Centre in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, is another longstanding UK client that recently launched ProVenue®. The popular theatre, which hosts live music, productions, stand-up comedy and cinema, has been a Tickets.com customer for over 15 years and migrated across from ProVenueDatabox™ as part of its strategy to drive online ticket sales.

“We’d been using ProVenueDatabox™ for many years but as our customers’ buying behaviours have changed, so have our technology requirements, so the move to ProVenue® was a natural migration for us,” said Lisa Weller, Centre Manager at Trinity Arts Centre.

As part of the system upgrade, Trinity Arts Centre also introduced MyProVenue™, Tickets.com’s next-generation web application, to optimise patrons’ mobile ticketing experience. The new interface streamlines everything, from buying tickets to managing account preferences, within a responsive framework for mobile and tablet.

And since the introduction of MyProVenue™, Trinity Arts Centre has reported a significant increase in online sales, as Lisa confirmed: “We’ve experienced almost three times the number of online bookings over the last couple of months, which is fantastic and exactly what we wanted to achieve with the migration across to the new system.

“This has meant not only an increase in revenue for the Centre, but a much more efficient process for our Box Office team, who have been very well supported by Tickets.com throughout, ensuring minimal disruption for both our staff and our customers.”

For more information about ProVenue® and to discuss how the system can benefit your venue, contact the Tickets.com team at uksales@tickets.com or on +44 (0) 1908 232 404.

Richard Baldwin completes Land’s End to John O’Groats cycle challenge

Tickets.com’s Richard Baldwin has completed the notorious Land’s End to John O’Groats cycle challenge, cycling an average of 96 miles a day for ten consecutive days!

Arriving at the finish line on Saturday 2^nd September, Richard – Tickets.com’s Manager, Product Management EMEA – made the journey back home to Milton Keynes the following day and even cycled to the office on Monday – quite the effort!

The route covered many picturesque locations including Dartmoor, the Wye Valley and the Lake District. Day Eight presented the most challenging ride, up and over the Cairngorm Mountains in Scotland with an elevation of 2420m (7939ft) – what Richard wasn’t told was that the second summit, the Lecht, was in the top ten toughest cycle climbs in Britain! Luckily the weather was forgiving though, with only one hour of rain for the duration of the trip.

Richard took on the feat after recently turning 50 and wanting to experience the ‘ultimate physical challenge’, he took the opportunity to also raise money for the mental health charity MIND. The trip itself was completely self-funded, with all donations that Richard received going directly to the charity to fund their support services for people with mental health issues.

After finishing the challenge, Richard said, “I will probably never push myself to this extent again, but I am delighted to have completed the trip and raise money for a fantastic charity that has helped my family in the past. I’ve also created some lasting memories and had fantastic support along the way. To everyone that has donated, I just want to say a massive thank you!”

At the time of writing, Richard’s Just Giving page had raised an amazing £1,359.43, 34% over his original target of £1000. The page is still live and taking donations so if you would like to contribute, please click here.

We would like to say a big congratulations and well done to Richard from everyone at Tickets.com on a phenomenal achievement!

International case study: INTRUST Bank Arena

The INTRUST Bank Arena is a multi-purpose facility and second largest indoor Arena in the state of Kansas. Featuring 22 suites, 40 loge boxes and more than 300 premium seats, the venue has a capacity of more than 15,000. The venue hosts 100+ events every year. Additionally, the Arena serves as the home venue for the Champions Hockey League’s Wichita Thunder and Champions Indoor Football’s Wichita Force.

What makes INTRUST Bank Arena unique is its full service in-house ticketing system, Select-A-Seat. In addition to the Arena, the system manages ticketing for a number of local venues, including the 1,200 seat Orpheum Theatre, Scottish Rite Temple, Wichita Grand Opera, and the U.S. Baseball Park. The system also manages a variety of large events, such as the Miss Kansas Pageant and the National Baseball Congress Tournament.

The ease-of-use, flexibility, and functionality of ProVenue® are key features in managing the variety of events held at INTRUST Bank Arena and other venues using Select-A-Seat. As Matt Hackler, Ticketing Client Representative for Select-A-Seat at INTRUST Bank Arena, explains: “Before migrating across to ProVenue®, we reviewed options from other ticketing providers and felt that the Tickets.com® system was not only best suited to our current requirements, but would be able to meet the ever-changing requirements of our clients.”

The technology provided by Tickets.com® has also underpinned the Arena’s Digital Initiative: “Our ticketing system has allowed us to make a number of significant steps forward in our digital strategy,” confirms Hackler.

“The white-label solution that Tickets.com® provides has not only enabled us to implement the technology as part of our Select-A-Seat in-house system brand, but its open architecture means that we can integrate it with other systems, including TixTrack – which provides automated historical reporting. This has been a great source of information for not only us, but our promoters, too.”

Hackler recalls one particular event where the partnership with Tickets.com® delivered: “In 2015, we welcomed Garth Brooks to INTRUST Bank Arena and we needed to ensure we could sell a high volume of tickets and quickly.

“We started working on this with Tickets.com® almost a year in advance of the on-sale date and together we created a plan that managed every detail; from the flow of information and messaging to how we would deal with the amount of orders we anticipated to take via phone – the Tickets.com® team even stepped in to support us with this. Our extensive planning and partnership with Tickets.com® meant that we were able to sell more than 65,000 tickets in one hour and successfully execute the ticketing for six sold-out shows – the promoter even referenced how good the sales conversion rate was!”

Four years running for Tickets.com’s Andy Buckland in the Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett

Service Delivery Director Andy Buckland recently represented Great Britain at the 61^st Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett (The Gordon Bennett Gas Balloon Race). Often referred to as ‘the Olympics of ballooning’, the Gordon Bennett Gas Balloon Race was initiated by adventurer and newspaper tycoon James Gordon Bennett Jr. in 1906.

The objective of the race is simple – fly the furthest straight-line distance from the launch site without landing. This year’s start point was in the Swiss town of Epagny, where 22 teams representing 13 countries set off on the evening of Friday 8^th September. The teams then had until Monday morning to travel as far as possible.

Andy took on the role of Crew Chief for his fourth year with the GBR-01 team, the only British team taking part in the 2017 race. They set off from Epagny at 19:30 CEST on the Friday and maintained flight for an impressive 37 hours and 41 minutes before landing in Burztynowo, Poland at 09:11 on Sunday. Their flight path saw them fly north east out of Switzerland and into southern Germany, before heading north through Czechia and into Poland. Their final distance of 1139.29 km put them in a record best equalling ninth place overall.

Andy said afterwards, “Representing your country in any competition is a proud moment and is guaranteed to bring out the patriot in all of us. I think we can be proud of our performance as a team and use this experience to help with going even further next time around.”

The winning team was from France who made it all the way to Võru, Estonia to be crowned new World Champions.

Everyone at Tickets.com would like to congratulate Andy and the rest of the GB team on their impressive performance!

For more information on The Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett (The Gordon Bennett Gas Balloon Race) please click here.

Tickets.com chosen as official MiLB provider

Originally published on MiLB.com

New York — Tickets.com today announced a new long-term partnership with Minor League Baseball® (MiLB™), the governing body for all 160 affiliated professional baseball teams, making it the organization’s first-ever Official Ticketing Provider. Effective immediately, the long-term agreement furthers Tickets.com’s commitment to the Minor Leagues™ by providing fans with a great customer experience, powered by Tickets.com’s ProVenue® platform technology on the devices fans use most.

Tickets.com and MiLB also will jointly create a first-of-its-kind consumer innovation lab to develop new ideas and initiatives through technology to connect fans to their favorite ballparks, teams, players and communities, while also providing a storytelling platform of the MiLB fan experience. The innovation lab will be constructed to embrace and expand the latest technology innovations from Tickets.com and serve as an extension of Minor League Baseball’s commitment to connect its fans to the game.

“We have continuously been an industry-leader in family entertainment with over 41 million fans attending games in our ballparks annually,” said Pat O’Conner, President & CEO of Minor League Baseball. “Looking forward, we have some lofty attendance goals, and our long-term partnership with Tickets.com represents a core pillar to our overall growth strategy.”

“Technology is at the forefront of our commitment to super-serve the MiLB fan,” said Ken Babby, owner of the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp and Akron RubberDucks and Chairman of the Baseball Internet Rights Company (BIRCO) Board. “After a 12-month process, it became clear that Tickets.com was the perfect technology partner to power our ever-evolving and growing ticketing needs.”

Tickets.com, which already has partnerships with a number of Minor League Baseball teams across all classification levels, will be providing its ProVenue® technology platform and infrastructure to participating teams over the term of the agreement, enabling widespread integration for crossover marketing and promotional opportunities. This marks the first time all participating clubs will have access to a universal ticketing technology and customer experience data, providing access to untapped business potential to drive meaningful fan experiences.

“Minor League Baseball is renowned for its creativity in crafting family friendly, affordable environments and we’re thrilled to be its first official ticketing provider,” said Joe Choti, President and CEO of Tickets.com. “Tickets.com is committed to building this partnership from a strong foundation of reliable and secure ticketing technology. We are excited to get started, working closely with Minor League Baseball and its clubs to exceed the expectations of today’s fans for user-friendly, intuitive mobile ticketing options.”

The Tickets.com ProVenue® platform is a full service, integrated ticketing solution designed to enable entertainment and sports organizations to sell tickets to consumers under the client’s own brand. MyProVenue is a next-generation web application, entirely devoted to optimizing the patron’s desktop and mobile ticketing experience. The intuitive interface streamlines everything from buying tickets to managing account preferences. It centers on the patron experience, providing a higher level of flexibility and usability compared to traditional e-commerce platforms and will further benefit MiLB and club patrons.

Tickets.com’s technology infrastructure will also provide a series of features and functionality, including interactive seat maps, ballpark pass subscription ticketing, ProVenue Access Control, ticket forwarding, Apple Wallet and email marketing tool CrowdConnect. These features are designed to further enhance the fan experience by providing flexibility for payment, speeding up access into the ballpark, allowing maximum choice on seat selection and even provide fans secure technology to share or transfer tickets to family and friends.

The new partnership also expands MiLB’s goal to continually improve the services and support it provides to clubs, including co-hosting a new annual ticketing conference – MiLB Ticketing Summit presented by Tickets.com – that will take place later this year. This event will provide a unique opportunity for key stakeholders from all 160 clubs to come together, share ideas and learn as everyone, including Tickets.com executives, shares best practices and the latest technology developments.

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About Tickets.com
Tickets.com is a leading provider of fully integrated event ticketing solutions and services for thousands of top arts, entertainment, and sports organizations worldwide. Delivering the latest in ticketing technology, Tickets.com offers the advanced ProVenue™ ticketing platform, which serves the core of a comprehensive suite of integrated features, products, and services that help clients enhance ticket sales, marketing efforts, and overall customer experience. A wholly owned subsidiary of MLB Advanced Media, LP, since 2005, Tickets.com is headquartered in Costa Mesa, Calif., and has regional offices across the U.S. and internationally in the UK, the Netherlands, Germany and Australia. For more information please visit www.tickets.com/provenue.

About Minor League Baseball
Minor League Baseball, headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida, is the governing body for all professional baseball teams in the United States, Canada, and the Dominican Republic that are affiliated with Major League Baseball® clubs through their farm systems. Fans are coming out in unprecedented numbers to this one-of-a-kind experience that can only be found at Minor League Baseball ballparks. In 2016, Minor League Baseball attracted 41.3 million fans to its ballparks to see the future stars of the sport hone their skills. From the electricity in the stands to the excitement on the field, Minor League Baseball has provided affordable family-friendly entertainment to people of all ages since its founding in 1901. For more information, visit www.MiLB.com.