SkyTics – SkyBlog

In mid January SkyTics headed to the Zermatt Resort located in the beautiful Utah Wasatch mountains to attend the 5th annual Art House Convergence. As a first time sponsor of the event, SkyTics had the privilege of meeting with Art House Theatres from all over the country. Also in attendance were numerous film distributors as well as film producers, and film equipment suppliers.

The event was well organized offering time slots filled with informative sessions on everything from programming and fundraising to the latest in technological innovations that are changing the face of cinema as we know it. Round table discussions were held during the lunch hour focusing on the issues and challenges faced by art houses in an era of a dwindling donation base coupled with fierce competition for a shrinking amount of entertainment spending.

The Art House Convergence impressed us as a true meeting of the minds and exploration of the passions that surround independent films today. These theatres tend to be locally owned and operated, and mission driven weaving them into the cultural fabric of their communities in a truly unique way.

The Art House Theater clearly appeals to a different type of movie enthusiast entirely than the movie theater chains that market the big budget blockbuster movies do. Seeing an independent film in an art house offers an experience that is much more intimate and evocative in both subject matter and atmosphere than your typical trip to the cinema.

I was stunned by the number of movie posters displayed and trailers playing in the common room all of which piqued my interest. Most of these films I had never heard of, and yet found myself going back to look at the posters over and over again. I definitely have a list of new must sees for the next couple of months.

Many of the Art House Convergence attendees continued on to the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, UT which followed. Next year SkyTics plans to not only attend the Art House Convergence but the Sundance Film Festival as well. Who knows, we may be championing our own favorite independent film come next year!

Please feel free to contact us for more information on Art House or for information about SkyTics capabilities supporting theaters and distributors email sales@skytics.com, or call us toll free at 1.800.947.2393.

Patricia

Patricia@skytics.com

Happy New Year and welcome to 2012! This year brings some changes to SkyTics, namely our evolution in executive staff. Our original CEO and Founder, Bob Clay, has moved from the role of CEO to CTO of the company allowing him to be more involved in the ongoing technological development of SkyTics products. The role of CEO is now being filled by yours truly, Patricia Clay, former VP of Marketing for SkyTics. It is with great pride and a sense of anticipation that I step into the role of CEO. Having known Bob for many years now on both personal and professional levels, I realize that filling his shoes will be no easy task. However, I am looking forward to the challenge of bringing the SkyTics Ticketing System to the attention of performing arts groups, sports teams and theatres across the USA and beyond.

I have been involved in the performing arts since I was a child having performed with numerous dance troupes, singing groups and various amateur theatre groups. Since moving to Missoula, I have become engaged in the operations side of various performing organizations, sitting on the board for the local Symphony as well as serving volunteer roles in many of the local arts groups. I am well aware of the difficulties facing performing groups with regards to budgetary constraints affecting operating efficiency. In todayʼs current economic environment, many non profit performing groups have seen a decrease not only in donor support, but in attendance as well. There is also increased competition for the diminishing amount of entertainment dollars available. Therefore, it has become increasingly important to carefully manage your bottom line. Implementing a ticketing system that will help you to maximize ticket revenue, market to your patron and donor base and more effectively manage your advertising dollar is imperative. SkyTics offers you the tools in our system to do all of the above.

An added bonus is the SkyTics facebook integration application. SkyTics allows you to sell tickets directly from your website and your facebook page. Patrons that click to buy tickets from facebook will be taken into your ticketing system to purchase, then have the option to post their purchase back onto their facebook page. They make the purchase without having to navigate away from facebook. This creates a word of mouth viral marketing approach that is virtually free for your organization, and SkyTics includes this feature in the base system.

At SkyTics, our goal is to provide a system that is both time and cost effective for any size organization, providing the tools necessary to run your business more efficiently without requiring your staff to invest in the steep learning curve required by most ticketing software. The SkyTics Ticketing System is a revolutionary ticketing solution for small to medium sized performing arts groups, venues, and sports organizations and for their patrons. We absolutely have the best price to value proposition in the industry!

Please feel free to contact us for more information at sales@skytics.com, or call us toll free at 1.800.947.2393.

Patricia

Patricia@skytics.com

The first week of December SkyTics attended and was a sponsor at the 3rd annual 2011 International Music Festival Conference (IMFCON) and the 8th annual 2011 International Film Festival Summit (IFFS), which were held concurrently in beautiful Austin Texas at the Omni conference center.  These festival conferences are committed to promoting and strengthening the film and music festival industries through education, networking, dissemination of information, and the cultivation of high standards.

The conference attendees were all energetic, highly motivated, and eager to learn and interact with their colleagues, sponsors, and panel members. The sessions were very informative as the panels were composed of true industry veterans openly sharing their experiences both positive and negative.  Overall the conference was reasonably well orchestrated. The new Director, Laurie Kirby, made every effort to maximize the conference value to the attendees and to the sponsors and personally followed up with SkyTics during and after the conference.  Even though this was one of the smaller conferences we attended this year, for the film and music festival industry it is a very worthwhile event.

There were a number of ticketing companies in attendance and the booth layout was a little different but functional. After the conference we packed up the booth as the final social wound down and then we had a fun time getting FedEx Ground to ship everything back to our facility. We found out if you go over your weight limit they will leave you hanging.  Just because it fits in the box doesn’t mean it can go in the box. After FedEx picked up our 46 inch LCD monitor they decided it was too heavy and we had to contract another freight company to pick it up from the FedEx Ground office.  Thanks FedEx!    But we did have a wonderful experience and some phenomenal food, Fajitas and Margaritas at the Iron Cactus, Texas Beer, BBQ, and bacon wrapped Jalapeno chicken bites at Stubbs, and some great Tex-Mex and more Margaritas at Chuys (I highly recommend the Elvis Platter).

SkyTics is a busy place right now as we prepare to wrap up our 2011 efforts.  We will celebrate the Holidays with our annual Christmas Luncheon and will enjoy a white Christmas with the new snow this week.

Happy Holidays to all, and to all a good night!

Bob

bob@skytics.com

You can sell tickets directly from your facebook page. SkyTics now supports automatic placement of your buy tickets event graphic into your facebook page. Just create your event in SkyTics and we will automatically place it on your facebook page where your fans can click and purchase their tickets! We can have you selling tickets on facebook in literally minutes.

Call SkyTics sales today at 1.800.947.2393 and press 1, or email us at sales@skytics.com.

We look forward to helping you sell your tickets on facebook!

Patricia

RollerCon 2011 was a blast! The Bouts were really exciting and the competition intense as the skating was fast and the hits were hard. The bout SkyTics sponsored was especially exciting, Team Awesome verses Team SeXY.  Team Awesome made a tremendous come back attempt but just could not overcome the faster skating of team SeXY and the excellent coaching from Val Copone. The Derby News Network provided the team rosters and in the end, both teams can be very proud of how they skated.

SkyTics gave away several prizes at RollerCon 2011!

Congratulations to our Winners:

• Thursday – Annita-Hit-A-Bitch and Sugar ShankAskank with Hub City Derby Dames.
• Friday – Dawna Destruction with Cherrybombs and Lyka Brickhaus with VTown Derby Dames.
• Seminar winners were Pabst Smear Ribbon with Ventura County Derby Darlins’  and Ms. Ama Slamma skating with Route 66 Roller Derby.
• Winners of the raffle for a free ticketed bout were, Semper Fatale with Mission City Brawlin’ Betties, Bo Deckher with the Lakeland Derby Dames and Feisty Hooligan with NOtown Roller Derby.

This was the first time SkyTics attended RollerCon, but I’m sure we will be at many more in the years ahead.

Calamity Clay

SkyTics is headed back to Vegas again this summer. This time to RollerCon 2011 where  we are a sponsor!  We will also have a booth, HB11 in the Vendor room, and we will be presenting a ticketing seminar.  The Seminar entitled “Increase your Ticket Sales” will focus on teaching how to increase attendance and how to maximize your ticket revenues. It will be Saturday, July 30th, from 4:00-5:00pm on Room 201.

We hope to see you there!

Bob

Earlier this month we shipped the new 3.2 version of STS. This new release adds a number of exciting capabilities and this blog will name a few of the most interesting. The image above is the new Home page with embedded “What’s New” context sensitive help that will (show) you exactly how to access the feature, and our new “Did you know?” tool tips display has been added to the top menu bar.  Also in 3.2 is our new Ticket Wizard Tool. Ticket Wizard is our graphical drag and drop ticket template creation tool where you can create your own default ticket templates.

With the new Ticket Wizard you can put anything on a ticket, images, System generated QR barcodes, your own barcodes, and text. Apply your templates as you wish, to a single performance, all performances within an event,  or as a system default. You simply select the desired Ticket Template when you create your performance or the system will default to the defined default template.

A new eMarketing feature was added in this release. When new Patrons or Donors are imported they may be tagged with any tag you wish to create, and you can create new tags and apply them to existing Patrons.  This enables you to select your mass email distribution targets by Event(s), Performance(s) or by tag.

3.2 has a number of other new features we would love to tell you about.  Contact SkyTics sales for more information and schedule a demo today!  We are still running our conference specials, waving the system creation and startup fees and your initial three venue maps are free. Call 1-800-947-2393, and press 1, or call Amber at 406-552-1811, ext 1007, or Patricia at 406-552-1811, ext 1006 to cash in on these savings.

Bob

As first time attendees at SETC we found this conference to be a fantastic experience.  The new SkyTics booth looked great, thank you TRT Banners, and the Atlanta southern hospitality was of course beyond compare.

The energy at SETC from all of the student’s and the excitement of 4000 plus attendees preparing for competitions, auditions, and workshops made this a unique and memorable conference.   SkyTics made a number of new friends and I have to give a special shout out to one in particular, Clayton Whitfield from The ShowHub.  For going out of his way to help us find our way through the malaise which is show setup, and get settled in as a new exhibitor.  The SETC staff were tremendously helpful, and  I want to send a thank you to Betsey and Ginger for working with the Hilton to try and address the heat issues we had in the exhibitor area.

SETC activities presented opportunities throughout the conference to experience the tremendous talent of its members. Fried Green tomatoes with a Miss Scarlet’s peach ice tea at PittyPat’s Porch really made an excellent end to a long day on the show floor, and Atlanta graced us with a couple of beautiful sunny days during the week before the rain came.

The Gala dinner the last night was a wonderful event. I have never heard so much teenage screaming for awards. I also have to mention that our little SkyTics light up ice cubes were a huge hit at the Gala.  I had the great pleasure of giving one to Ben Cameron, the 2011 Distinguished Career Award recipient (Congratulations Ben!) and one to “The Diva” the incomparable Denise Halbach. Denise also must be recognized with our sincere congratulations as the 2011 winner of SETC’s highest honor, the Suzanne M. Davis award!

I also want to recognize our SETC 2011 iPod winners. SkyTics gave an iPod shuffle away each day of the show and our winners were April Issacs, Mieko Thomson, and Dan Ellison.  We hope yall enjoy your Shuffles!

SkyTics will definitely be at SETC in Chattanooga next year, but don’t wait until then to give us a call. We can help you with your ticketing needs today, so go ahead and give us a ring at 1-800-947-2393.

Bob

SkyTics will be heading to Atlanta the first week of March to attend the 62nd Annual Southeastern Theatre Conference.  This convention brings together theatre venues, performing groups and individual artists of all ages in a forum designed to enhance and educate those involved in theatre throughout the country.

The conference features a variety of informative workshops covering everything from teaching strategies to theatre management offering something for everyone involved in the theatre industry in the South.  Workshops and performance opportunities are available to actors of all ages ranging from high school to professionals already established in the business.

SkyTics will be one of the commercial exhibitors at the conference offering theatres and performing groups a chance to view our innovative and intuitive online ticketing solution.  I will be on hand along with the SkyTics marketing staff to answer any questions you may have.  SkyTics will be located in Booth #125 and the exhibits are open to the public from 10:00 am till 6:00 pm.  If you’re in Atlanta March 2-6, we would love for you to stop by our booth and say hello.

SkyTics will also be giving away an iPod Shuffle each day the exhibits are open.  To win, all you have to do is stop by and give us your business card.

We hope to see you in Atlanta!

Bob

January marked the debut attendance of SkyTics at the 2011 INTIX conference in San Francisco, CA. INTIX is the premier entertainment, arts, and sports ticketing member organization bringing together more than 1100 ticketing and entertainment professionals from all over the world and in all areas of the ticketing industry.  This was SkyTics first appearance at INTIX and over all I give the conference high marks for being well planned and executed.  It was a very worthwhile conference both to gather industry data and to forge new partnerships and find new opportunities.  SkyTics also gave away an iPad as part of the INTIX special we offered in January and the winner was PAM SULLIVAN, from STAPLES Center & Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE.  Congratulations Pam!

One of the most important reasons to attend a conference is to stay on top of what is going on in the industry beyond your locale. To be able to spend a couple of days working with and listening to your counterparts across the country and around the world is crucial to your success. It facilitates learning and discussion that can help you turn challenges into opportunities, participate in a forum that will answer questions, and help you to better leverage your assets to your advantage.

The track sessions at INTIX were comprised of hot industry topics ranging from Customer Development and Retention to New Technology in the industry. For instance, Social Media was a topic that was on everyone’s radar and SkyTics reps attended most of the sessions offered on this subject. The information was wide and varied from statistics about the reach and impact of things like Facebook and Twitter, to developing a strategy to implement social media into your marketing plan. You will see more articles on social media, and especially facebook, in future posts here in this SkyBlog and in our SkyTics Newsletters.

Looking forward, there is tremendous industry interest in exploring the benefits of mobile ticket purchasing and the evolution of scanning technology using smart phone scanners and dedicated wireless networks. These technology areas are in work now or on the feature development schedule at SkyTics.  If you are interested in participating in technology discussions in these areas please contact me, bob@skytics.com.

Check out the new SkyTics Video:

Have a Great Week!

Bob