The team at Tickets.com is excited to announce that the recent roll-out of ProVenue^® at Semperoper has been shortlisted for the Moving On Up Award at the Ticketing Technology Awards 2017. The category acknowledges the best in recent migration, upgrade or implementation projects and seeks to find a winning entry that demonstrates a boost in revenue and retention aligned with the introduction of the new platform.

In the case of Semperoper, a Tickets.com client for more than 25 years, the globally-renowned opera house migrated across to ProVenue^® in 2016, becoming the first venue in Germany to do so. Since introducing the new platform, Semperoper has benefitted from an increase in online sales across many of its events; at any one time, the venue can be selling tickets for up to 300 events at its main venue and 200 events at sister venues.

The advanced functionality of ProVenue^® has also facilitated a range of up-sells, including guided tours, event programs and food and beverage options; this, coupled with the growth in online ticket sales has seen the venue’s online revenue increase by approximately 30% in the first three months of utilizing ProVenue^® (August – October 2016) compared to the same period last year.

Commenting on the announcement, Derek Palmer, Managing Director and Executive VP, International “We are delighted to be shortlisted for the Moving On Up Award at this year’s Ticketing Technology Awards; Semperoper is a fantastic venue and very progressive as an organization; we are proud to continue our longstanding relationship with them.

“Over time, its ticketing requirements have developed and we’ve worked closely with the project team to ensure that ProVenue^® not only meets these requirements but offers advanced levels of functionality and flexibility to allow the system to evolve in line with the venue’s projected growth.”

Tickets.com will be up against entries from Regiondo Pro, Ingresso, TiXX Sports and Skiddle, who have also been shortlisted for projects from across Europe.

“As Europe’s leading gathering of entertainment ticketing professionals, each year Ticketing Technology Forum brings together the very best of the industry to showcase what’s new, explore the challenges we face and debate the future trends,” says Ian Nuttall, Founder, Ticketing Technology Forum.

“Alongside the conference and workshops, this year we will also celebrate and recognize those people and organizations which are changing the way we service the ticketing needs of our customers.

“The public nominated and after careful consideration, the judges have delivered a comprehensive shortlist of worthy finalists for Ticketing Technology Awards 2017 – which Tickets.com and Semperoper have been selected for.”

 The Ticketing Technology Awards recognize leadership, innovation, and achievement in the application of technology in ticketing across sports, performing arts, music, cinema, live entertainment and visitor attractions. The Awards aim to increase the standards and best practice of ticketing, drive awareness and adoption of future ticketing technology, and improve the customer experience for ticket-buyers across all sectors.

 Click here for more information about the Ticketing Technology Awards and follow @tickettechforum on Twitter for live updates.

University of Vermont students are now able to access athletic tickets online through the MyUVM portal for all Catamount men’s basketball and men’s hockey games. Students can log in to their MyUVM portal, click on the “Quick Links” tab in the upper right corner, and click the “Athletics” link for tickets.

Students can now print tickets at their convenience or download tickets to their phone to be scanned at the event. Student tickets sold out for both men’s hockey games against No. 5 Boston University this weekend in less than six hours, which set a new record at Vermont. Students can still use the stand-by line at Gutterson for a chance to see the action.

“UVM students bring an energy and excitement to our games that is unmatched,” said Director of Athletics Jeff Schulman ’89. “Anything that we can do to make it more convenient for them to access tickets is a high priority.  Students told us that mobile access was important, and thanks to the hard work of Director of Ticket Operations Jason Young and our ticket operations team, we were able to respond with this new online program.”

The online ticket initiative was executed in collaboration with the Registrar’s Office and Student Life. UVM worked with Tickets.com, the department’s integrated ticketing solution, to launch this new online initiative. The launch comes as the UVM Athletic Department and Tickets.com have extended their partnership for another five years. Vermont has been working with Tickets.com since 2004.

Wolf Trap features high-quality entertainment, presenting artists across all genres at three distinct venues: the architecturally stunning Filene Center and the charmingly intimate Children’s Theatre-in-the-Woods, both outdoor amphitheaters located in Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts, and the historic The Barns at Wolf Trap, which features music on a year round schedule.

Over the past three years, Wolf Trap has grown its membership base by an impressive 37% and its paid attendance by 23%. In the 2016 Summer Filene Center season alone, 22 shows were completely sold out!

To consistently increase the number of new buyers every year, Wolf Trap embraces the community aspect of their audience. They have found great success with community and grassroots campaigns by participating in cultural and community events, working with area businesses, and networking with embassies, chamber and civic organizations.

Director of Marketing at Wolf Trap, Heidi Kibirsky, quotes “Wolf Trap has found success bringing in new ticket buyers by increasing its community, grassroots, and cultural outreach and promotional activities, as well as through executing robust digital and social campaigns. To retain new patrons we have been successful implementing a new campaign sending first-time ticket buyers a ‘Thank You’ email that includes a three question survey, recommendations for upcoming shows, and an opportunity to opt-in to future Wolf Trap emails.”

Wolf Trap has had an increase in attendance across all three of its venues and has grown its opt-in email database to over 160,000 unique email addresses.

For more information about Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, please visit wolftrap.org

Do you want to learn about how Tickets.com technologies can improve your fans’ experience? Connect with us!

To attract new buyers, the Oakland Athletics utilize fan-friendly ticket offers, such as value days and family packs. They have also added themed fireworks nights to their home game schedule to attract patrons who may not be die-hard baseball fans.

The A’s organization has taken full advantage of Tickets.com technology, ensuring a positive patron experience from ticket purchase to gate entry at the Oakland Alameda Coliseum. To cater to their on-the-go fan base, the Athletics were early adopters of mobile ticketing, allowing fans to buy tickets anytime and anywhere. The A’s have equipped fans with a variety of convenient ways to obtain the seats they want, including the ability to select seats directly from an interactive seat map and the ability to redeem vouchers online. The organization also continues to focus on digital delivery, which allows fans to use a mobile device to enter the ballpark.

After a ticket has been purchased, the Athletics utilize event reminder and alert emails to communicate pertinent information to fans, such as traffic advisories or event changes, to ensure ticket buyers have a smooth experience getting to the ballpark. The moment a patron enters the gates, the fans’s experience is taken to the next level by having mobile access to offers, such as seat upgrades, photos on the field, press box tours, and the opportunity to purchase game-used merchandise all through the MLB.com Ballpark App.

The Oakland Athletics also utilize Tickets.com reporting tools to better understand their audience. David Adame, Director of Ticket Operations for the Athletics, stands behind the scenes but is at the forefront of enhancing fan experiences. David quotes, “As an organization, we strive to always create a memorable experience for the fans both digitally as well as in the ballpark. With the use of data analytics we have a better understanding of the driving force behind our ticket buyers making purchases. This information gives us the ability to create ticket offers that first time fans are more likely to take advantage of by specifically targeting buyers based on day of the week, price, opponent, special event or giveaway item.”

For more information on the Oakland Athletics, please visit oakland.athletics.mlb.com

Do you want to learn about how Tickets.com technologies can improve your fans’ experience? Connect with us!

Marketing automation is one of the many “buzz words” these days. There are so many articles written on why marketing automation is important for companies to better communicate to their customers. I hear it all the time, “do you want to improve higher engagement and create more personalized email messages while increasing ticket sales?” The obvious answer is, ummm YES PLEASE! However, what does marketing automation really mean and more importantly how can I use it to forge relationships with my patrons?

Thankfully, we hear you loud and clear. Our CrowdConnect Marketing Automation tool is a great way to plan out a series of personalized communications or recurring tasks that keep you connected with your subscribers. This tool makes your patrons feel like they are valued by your organization. Patrons that feel good about their experience with your brand will continue doing business with you. It’s as simple as that!

CrowdConnect automations, combined with segments, give you the tools to create the following useful campaigns and more:

• Welcome Trigger
• Birthday trigger
• Emails with Reminders
• Reactivation Campaign

There are 4 main tools to make these campaigns happen:

1. Templates (the email build itself)
2. Segments (determine the starting audience for the automation)
3. Marketing Automation (mapping out the journey)
4. Calendar (to schedule the automation and map it to the appropriate segment)

Seeing is believing right? Below are the steps to create a Birthday Trigger with a reminder email in CrowdConnect.

1) Build the email as a template in the system

2) Build a segment to isolate everyone with a birthday today

3) Create a Marketing Automation to send the birthday email

4) Create a reminder after 4 days to everyone who didn’t open the first email

5) Launch the campaign by scheduling the Marketing Automation to run every day

You are now an expert at creating a simple but effective Marketing Automation campaign with CrowdConnect – a few easy steps to cultivate better relationships with your customers!. Connect with us to learn how you can start using CrowdConnect today!

Sending love to the rescue^®, the mission behind the 2nd annual Walk For Love event, rallied 300+ participants held at LuLu Shriners in Plymouth Meeting, PA. With the weather unclear, this rain or shine event was determined to go on!

Moms, dads, kids, friends, colleagues, and dogs(!) rallied together to show love and support to Shriners Hospitals for Children celebrating their incredible work of providing life-saving and life-changing care to kids for over 90 years.

With two miles accomplished, guests also enjoyed a post-walk celebration and patient party, featuring food, entertainment and the opportunity to connect with other supporters, current and former patients and hospital staff.

This year, we were honored to sponsor Walk For Love as Shriners is a proud T.Cares partner. Through the T.Cares program we’ve been able to provide memorable experiences for some of the Shriners warriors with VIP treatment to baseball games, concerts and more; we continue to looking forward to providing so much more! Read more about our T.Cares program here.

Shriners Hospitals for Children is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and relies on the generosity of donors. All donations are tax deductible to the fullest extent permitted by law. Please consider supporting their great cause. Learn more here.

“Kids make us better. That’s why we do everything within our means to make kids better.” This is the heart and soul behind Shriners Hospitals, whose mission is to “provide the highest quality care to children with neuromusculoskeletal conditions, burn injuries and other special healthcare needs within a compassionate, family-centered and collaborative care environment”. (www.shrinershospitalsforchildren.org)

The T.Cares Program stands firmly behind the Shriner’s mission and we’re honored to help create memorable experiences for their warriors, just like how we were able to surprise Caiden with a fun-filled afternoon with the Phillies.

After overcoming the rare disorder he was born with, Caiden was given the memory of a lifetime (as you can see through his smiling face in the photos). But truly, it was his strength and determination that encouraged us all.

It was through our T.Cares program that we were able to partner with Shriners Hospitals and the Phillies to host five year old Caiden, his brothers Michael and Brandon, and their parents Katie and Mike to a VIP meet and greet at the Philadelphia Phillies game on August 18 at Citizens Bank Park. They were able to meet many of the players including Catcher, Cameron Rupp who later shared via his Twitter: “Definitely made a memory of a lifetime yesterday!! Caiden you are the man!”.

Caiden and his family have an incredible and inspiring story, which is why we were honored when Caiden’s mom spoke to our Tickets.com family about their journey.

In Katie’s words…

Caiden was born with Amniotic Band Syndrome (ABS) and Ectrodactyly. ABS occurs when the fetus becomes entangled in string-like bands, it occurs randomly. In Caiden’s case it completely amputated his right leg at the knee. Ectrodactyly- Split hand/foot malformation is a rare form of a congenital disorder in which the development of the hand/foot is disturbed. Caidens right hand and left foot were affected.

This syndrome was discovered early on in the pregnancy, at my 11th week ultrasound. The doctor asked if we had family history of Dwarfism, I told him “no”, he then went on to say that it didn’t look like the baby had any legs.

Mike’s unit was set to deploy to Iraq in a couple weeks, I was prepared to be a pregnant single mom for the next year, but to now have a complicated high risk pregnancy on top of it was a little scary! Luckily, his unit allowed him to stay back (Rear Detachment).

I had so many appointments that I lost count, and with each appointment it seemed like we got more bad news, at one point they weren’t sure if he had any legs or hands. Finally at my 20 week scan when we found out we were having a boy they saw that he had 2 hands, one was “normal” the other had a couple digits, and that he did have a foot!  I’m grateful that we found out early, because it gave us time to educate ourselves and prepare for what we could do. We had 2 little kids at home as well, (Michael was 3 and Brandon just turned 1). We took every opportunity we got to explain to the boys about their brother.

As a mom your job is to protect your kids so I was going to do whatever I had to do to make sure all 3 of my boys were okay!

Caiden’s Challenges

The only thing that I would consider a challenge was the fear of the unknown! Google could only answer so many of our questions! Even with high tech ultrasounds we weren’t going to 100% know what we were dealing with until he was born. When a child is born with bone deformities there is always the chance that there could be other issues, so wondering if his heart would be ok, or if he was going to be deaf or blind or if there were any other internal problems that an ultrasound wouldn’t be able to tell us was scary. So instead of driving myself crazy over things that were completely out of my control, I took it one day at a time. I had to have faith that I could handle whatever was going to be thrown at me. It’s kind of funny to think about how much we worried because if we would have known then what we know now we would not have anything to worry about!!

Shriners saw Caiden for the first time when he was 6 weeks old and from that moment we were part of a family, a family that I didn’t necessarily plan to be a part of but one that I am thankful for everyday. I remember our first appointment and Doctor Kozin looked at Caidens foot and said, I want those toes, they will make beautiful fingers. I’m sure I probably looked at him like he was crazy! But at the same time I knew we were in the right place and that Caiden was in the best hands!

Day in the Life

A typical day in the life of Caiden is just like any other 5 year old. He just started Kindergarten this year so he spends his days at school, he gets to ride a bus so that’s a big deal to him!

He loves WWE, any chance he gets to play with his wrestlers or wrestle his brothers he takes it. He took a break from fall sports this year, running is a challenge for him so until he gets running legs we will have to find other things for him to do. He does attend a motor development class at the Kennedy Krieger Institute that will start up again next week, there they work on all kinds of skills. They teach him wheelchair basketball, tennis, baseball and swimming. He started wrestling last year and that will begin again in the winter. He loves to play outside…..baseball, soccer, riding his scooter. He loves swimming, he would spend all day in a pool if he could!

Shriners means everything to us! Without them, I honestly do not know how things would have turned out for Caiden. As a single income Military family, I don’t know how we would have been able to afford all of the things that Shriners has done for us! They have done everything – prosthetics, equipment, surgeries and therapy…… all without asking us for anything!

Caiden’s First Phillies Game and T.Cares

Caiden just thought we were going to a game. He had no idea that he was going to get VIP treatment! He won’t really describe the experience for me…… however, when asked what his favorite part was he said ” When they won, duh!” He also ranked his dance off with the Phillie Phanatic and being allowed to have two water ices a close 2nd!!!

The T.Cares program gave Caiden and our family a once in a lifetime opportunity! Without the program we would have never met the Phillies players or been able to go onto the field for batting practice. We are just a regular family that was given the chance to be treated like VIP for the night and that was pretty awesome! All of us had an amazing time, especially my 3 boys!    

As for what’s next, I have no idea! We are in for some major changes this year as Mike is getting Medically Discharged from the Army, so we will be moving and changing from the military world to the civilian world! Trying to decide where we want to live and finally put down our roots after moving every 3 years is a big deal and at the top of our list! But I also want to grow Caidens Celtic Warriors and do more fundraising on behalf of Shriners and Camp No Limits.

On behalf of our Tickets.com family, we thank Katie and her family for being a voice for children everywhere who have a similar story to Caiden and for including us in their journey. Today, Caiden is cared for by Scott Kozin, MD, and Corinna Franklin, MD, at the Philadelphia Shriners Hospital. Caiden’s newest prosthetics include Ironman and Phillies logos!

With 22 locations around the U.S. Shriners Hospitals are constantly providing for the education of physicians and other healthcare professionals and conducting research to discover new knowledge that improves the quality of care and quality of life of children and families.

Learn more how to get involved in serving your community with our T.Cares program on ProVenue.Tickets.com #ExperienceIsEverything