WINTER | SECTOR FOCUS
SPONSORED BY:
land and are able to mitigate and
continue even when up against
adverse weather conditions.”
TICKETsrv operates across
a large percentage of outdoor,
agricultural and country shows,
including events at some of
the best-known venues in
the country like Chatsworth,
Blenheim and Hatfield. “We’re
probably the most widely-used
ticketing provider that you’ve
“never heard of” - this is because
almost all of our business comes
via word of mouth. Our clients
are very vocal about us within
their industry circles and we
use their feedback to continually
improve and expand the service.
“This year we have taken on
two of the largest events in the
country (over 250,000 visitors)
- Badminton Horse Trials and
the Great Dorset Steam Fair. It’s
fair to say that the latter had not
had a particularly positive foray
into e-ticketing previously. Both
were a huge success this year
which resulted in us securing
long-term future relationships.
“We’re also seeing approaches
from outside our traditional
market, e.g. from fixed venues
and conferences - so we would
see business in these areas
growing as we develop the
business further. We are also
continuing to expand across
equestrian events, steam fairs,
horticultural shows, as well as
smaller and very prestigious
events such as Sandringham
Flower Show and the Fine Art
Insurance Fair.”
Other organiser ticketing
options are also springing up.
LIVE IT was created when it
joined forces with Fan Inc back
in 2017, the aim of it being to
44
offer a full service experience
including promotion and
customer service. LIVE IT’s
Beckie Hood says: “Through
close collaboration with event
organisers the team here work
to help develop events as well
as streamline the booking and
check in process. Making us an
integral part of the organiser
team rather than purely a
ticketing company. I think our
personality within the company
creates great chemistry and
energy with our clients and has
allowed us to exceed our own
expectations of success.
“We strive to grow each event
audience on a global basis, with
an experienced and passionate
account team offering a wealth
of advice on how to energise
ticket sales, offering much
appreciated added value to
those clients that use us. As a
result of this quality service
offering, we boast a strong
client retention record and are
able to offer a wide range of
services through our member
companies. (Bookitbee, LIVE
IT Live for live events/festivals,
LIVE IT Participate for mass
participation events, LIVE
IT Venue for attractions and
venues and the LIVE IT Platform
for more complex white label
ticketing services).”
Performance Ticket Printers
based in Cheshire, meanwhile is
a small family business printing
event tickets, vouchers and
Tyvek wristbands. “We’ve been
printing tickets since the early
80s,” says director John Arnold.
“We mostly serve smaller events
and venues that don’t have a
ticketing system of their own
“A QR code with a decent database is as good
security as anything if you get it right”
or are too small to use one of
the larger ticketing service
providers. Our customers order
and pay online but much more
importantly, because we’re a
very small business of only a
few people, when you call us
you tend to always get the same
person. We actually have a public
phone number and welcome
calls. We try very hard to give
great customer service and
always put things right when
a mistake has been made. We
have printed tickets for some
very prestigious clients over the
years including the BBC, The
Yehudi Menuin School and the
Edinburgh Fringe.”
John Arnold from OTN,
meanwhile, says he’s honed a
dedicated national business.
“There wouldn’t be enough work
in the local area to support us.
Occasionally we send tickets
overseas but not too often.
The advent of e-ticketing has
definitely made it harder for us,
which is why we print vouchers
too now. When we moved into
full colour printing we set about
making a lot of ready-made
templates too. Anything that
makes it easier for the customer
to design their tickets helps win
us business.
“So our typical customers are
smaller venues, one-off events or
local groups like drama groups,
schools, night clubs or choral
societies. When we serve larger
events organisers it’s usually
because a special event needs
tickets. We’ve done things like
BBC summer festivals or one-off
gigs. We also do pretty good
business making wristbands
for outdoor events like festivals.
Sometimes bands need tickets
when they’re adding gigs to
a run or putting on a gig at a
venue that doesn’t do their own
ticketing. We’re a good fall-back
for when the big boys don’t fit.”