Rob Williams has a vision. He imagines a world one day in which ticketing companies don’t sell tickets, they sell experiences.
“We put smiles on people’s faces. We sell dreams, hopes, and experiences,” said Williams, the operations director of The Ticketing Factory, during his session at the 2015 International Ticketing Association (INTIX) conference. “We sell the promise of something better the moment a customer considers attending an event.”
Williams’ session was refreshing in that it challenged attendees to look forward and to take ownership of the entire ticket buying experience. He presented this experience as a life cycle of epiphany (want to go to a show), hunt (seek tickets), capture (got ticket), longing (holding ticket and waiting for show date), event (at the show), and letdown (wish the show wasn’t over).
“This whole cycle is no fun, but it’s built around functionality, control, and tradition,” Williams said. “We, as in industry, can be better.”
If not, some company will come along and disrupt the industry much like Uber has disrupted the taxi industry.
Attendees learned about some companies that are already making headway into changing the industry’s landscape, companies such as Rabbl (crowdfunding shows) and DICE (a U.K.-based ticketing agency about to launch in the U.S.).
“2015 is the year ripe for change,” Williams said. “Let’s stop talking about tickets, and start talking about experiences. Let’s openly collaborate and share information, refuse to accept the status quo, and let’s be the ones that are disruptive.”
