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The Tickets.com annual conference, ProVenue Exchange, takes place in different cities each year bringing together thought leaders, technologists, marketing experts and architects of change who are committed to innovating the experience industry. With attendees representing MLB teams, major attractions such as Smithsonian Enterprises and Medieval Times, numerous performing arts clients such as Soka Performing Arts Center, Wolf Trap and the Bushnell, AT&T, partners such as Google, Givex, VetTix and many more, the genuine collaboration amongst these groups sets the foundation for building the next big idea. The family-like atmosphere makes the conference fun and engaging while attendees learn and share ideas through a series of discussions during breakout sessions and social events.

The 2017 ProVenue Exchange held at the Vinoy Renaissance Resort in St. Petersburg, Florida from June 11-14. The Tickets.com vision for the 6th annual conference focused on transforming the way we experience networking, technology, client services and live events. The conference included captivating speakers who entertained and educated the audience with industry knowledge.

Joe Choti, President and CEO of Tickets.com, kicked off the 2.5 day conference with his vision and direction for the future of Tickets.com beginning with creativity and transformation. “We are in transformative times. Our world is changing; technology is changing, the way we work is changing but most importantly how we, where we, and when we engage our patrons is changing. I am challenging all of you to embrace creativity and innovation, and together we will transform this industry”. He also highlighted the importance of understanding and speaking to the millennial community. “With our technology-focused approach together we must be pioneers, innovators, influencers and industry transformers to meet and exceed these important demographic expectations.” He concluded that to reach this community, we must be inspired by their desire for transparency and their fortitude for creating impact. Joe also shared about the launch of the T.Cares program with the commitment to using our resources to impact and change the world. This year, we introduced Matt Coulter, Co-Founder and Executive Director of The Young and Brave Foundation.

The opening remarks continued with Derek Argobright, Chief Technology Officer of Tickets.com who demonstrated groundbreaking voice command technology from the Amazon Echo. Derek communicated directly to the device taking the audience through a journey of what the future is shaped to be with event discovery and ticket purchasing. Bernie Berry, Director of Ticket Sales for Wolf Trap was extremely enthusiastic as the Echo voiced different seating options at the incredible Filene Center at Wolf Trap.

During day one’s general session, Derek Argobright, Chief Technology Officer at Tickets.com, described how staying in your “lane” is not what the experience industry needs but rather, it needs creativity, exploration, and leaders obsessed with great ideas and great people.

Derek highlighted that to meet the demands of the widely influential millennial audience, the ticketing industry must transform itself, bringing the digital age and self-service not just to the online purchase experience but to the Box Office. Derek also introduced the next big movement for event discovery and ticket purchasing with a demonstration of an Alexa skill using Amazon’s Echo, featuring DIDiT labs groundbreaking, natural language pack technology and ProVenue’s cutting edge, open API platform.

Bob McClintock, VP of Product Management, began the Product Roadmap presentation by highlighting top level changes in how Tickets.com is planning and delivering new projects, designed to increase the rate at which new features are delivered.  Bob then walked attendees through a series of new initiatives designed to deliver enhanced consumer experiences via rich content, increased context, and branding.  Bob also touched on a number of enterprise projects including the new Loyalty and Membership platform, integration with the CrowdConnect marketing product, extensions to Replay Ticket Exchange.

The T.Cares program, embedded into the culture of our company, is dedicated to making an impact worldwide by working with nonprofits by creating remarkable experiences for individuals and families facing hardships. At this year’s ProVenue Exchange, we were honored to hear from Matt Coulter, Co-Founder of The Young and Brave Foundation. The Young and Brave Foundation helps young adults, children, and families diagnosed with all forms of cancer by providing financial, emotional and educational support. Today they have raised over $1.5 million dollars for families.  “No matter how strong of a person you may be, there’s nothing that can fully prepare you for cancer. However, there is the strength and support of others surrounding you that can make you feel like you can take on any challenge that comes your way,” said Matt Coulter.  More About The Young and Brave Foundation.

Every year, Tickets.com takes a moment to recognize some of its clients’ finest achievements. Congrats to this year’s winners!

Success Story of the Year: Pegula Sports and Entertainment

Innovator of the Year: The Bushnell Center For The Performing Arts

ProVenue Newcomer of the Year: Smithsonian Enterprises

You can always expect the extraordinary at ProVenue Exchange with its full line-up of social events. This year included a speakeasy kick-off social, morning run, opening reception luau, yacht party and concert with Corey Harper, early rise golf outing, and dedicated time for poolside relaxation.

ProVenue Exchange Sessions

Breakout Sessions

Keynote with Peter Shankman

Opening Reception

Speakeasy Social

Yacht Experience and Live Concert

PVEX 5K Race

Golf Tournament

Product Showcase

Stop Spamming & Start Connecting

Attendees walked away with strategies and best practices for emailing patrons. Bucky Heath and Pete Bramson of  Tickets.com demonstrated ProVenue’s new cloud-based email marketing service CrowdConnect™. Together they showcased its new tools and features that help deliver the most effective message to the right audience while putting the power of automation and segmentation to work for the user.

Leveraging Visual Experiences for Fan Engagement

With social media at the center of their existence, fans more than ever are looking for compelling content to share from events. By wielding visual experiences as a fan engagement tool, you offer the visibility needed for social channels to drive peer-to-peer advocacy and collect valuable CRM insights as well. The session introduced innovations in the industry, how to organically collect data while driving engagement and how to wield that data.

The Power of Integrations

Through the Power of Integrations session, attendees were introduced to the ProVenue Partner Services and its new integrations and integrators since PVEX 2016. The discussion continued by focusing on how to integrate the features into a company’s operations with tips on how to work with Certified Solutions.

One Step Back. Many Steps Forward.

Marketing, when effective, reaches the right audience at the right place at the right time. It connects ideas and benefits the people who want them. Arts and entertainment marketing is no exception. In fact, it is one of the most challenging sectors since we, as art marketers, rarely have any control over the “product” for which we are raising awareness and creating demand. And because we are so close to the process and timing is compressed, our messages are very often singularly focused on the product. During this interactive session, participants took one step back from the product and product-driven approach, via case studies and open discussion of the motivations that compel key audience segments to participate.

MyTickets: Knowledge Beyond the Purchaser

This session discussed how patrons could successfully interact with their accounts, by helping them take advantage of account features and services, design standards, and best practices for deploying and using MyTickets.

UX Design and Your Website: Creating a Seamless Integration and Design Basics

What is good user experience and how can it be implemented in your website? The session focused on what works and what doesn’t work for your ticketing / venue website.  It helped you think like a UX expert and provided examples of websites both in and out of the industry and how these practices can be implemented into your current site. It was discussed how to make the handoff from your website to Tickets.com seamless, both visually and functionally as they went through the different customizable design aspects of MyProVenue and ProVenueOnline.

The Reporting Report

Attendees were given an insider’s view of the pipeline of the ProVenue reporting suite including a demo of recent reporting enhancements and new features followed by a dialogue discussion about its reporting priorities.

The Bushnell Integration

In 2016, The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts (Hartford, Conn.) rolled out a CRM powerhouse, integrating ProVenue with The Raiser’s Edge fundraising platform and a custom-built data warehouse. In this panel session, the Bushnell team revisited the process, shared lessons learned by the respective departments, and discussed their ongoing case study: the “Are You A Member?” campaign.

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