SkyTics – SkyBlog

SkyTics is an exhibitor this week at the annual INTIX conference in San Francisco. For those of you making the journey to San Francisco to attend the conference be sure to look for SkyTics in booth 511 to see what we have to offer.  Our marketing staff will be in attendance to answer any questions about our ticketing solution and give you a live demo of how our software works. We think you will love the quick and easy way our system operates and the fact that you can train your box office operators and volunteers in minutes. We can have your account set up and online selling tickets in less than an hour!

We have two special INTIX offers for January. First is the SkyTics INTIX DEAL,  we are offering special pricing for INTIX attendees who sign up with SkyTics at the conference, and for everyone who calls SkyTics before 01/31/11 and ask for the INTIX deal. So stop by and see us at INTIX, booth #511, or call 1-800-947-2393 and select option 1 and request the INTIX deal.

The second special is our INTIX iPad giveaway. SkyTics is giving away a free iPad! If you are at the INTIX conference in San Francisco, just stop by our booth, #511, and we will scan your badge and enter you in the contest. If you are not attending the show,  go to our web site at www.skytics.com and sign up. The winner will be announced in our January 2011 SkyNews Newsletter issue. Good luck to everyone who enters.

Bob

For the last two years, SameSky Tickets has worked diligently to develop an online ticketing and local box office solution that is faster, easier to use and more affordable for all groups and venues, no matter what their size.

In keeping with our quick and easy to use philosophy, we have decided to rebrand SameSky Tickets to SkyTics. Our new name is more efficient while still letting you know who we are and what we do. We are still the same company, with the same great ticketing system and dedicated team of professionals ready to handle all your ticketing needs. We will officially launch this new brand Jan 18th, 2011 at INTIX, but have already begun the process.  In honor of our new brand and SkyTics’ first appearance at INTIX we are giving away an iPad!

For those of you making the journey to San Francisco in January to attend the annual INTIX Conference, be sure to look for SkyTics and visit booth #511 to see what we have to offer. SkyTics CEO, Bob Clay, and our marketing staff will be in attendance to answer any questions about our ticketing solution and give you a live demo of how our software works. We think you will love the quick and easy way our system operates and the fact that you can train your box office operators and volunteers in minutes. We can have your account set up and online selling tickets in less than an hour!

SkyTics is giving away a free iPad! If you are planning on attending the upcoming INTIX conference in San Francisco, be sure to stop by our booth, #511, and sign up and confirm your email for our SkyNews newsletter. This will automatically enter you in our contest to win an iPad. We look forward to meeting you there!

If you are not attending the show, simply go to our web site at www.skytics.com to sign up and confirm your email address for SkyNews. The winner will be announced in our January 2011 SkyNews issue. Good luck to everyone who enters.
* Rules:

INTIX DEAL! SAVE $2,160 We are offering special pricing for INTIX attendees who sign up with SkyTics at the conference and for the month of January we will offer this special INTIX pricing to all new Customers. If you are at INTIX stop by and see us at booth #511. If you didn’t make it to the show give our sales staff a ring at 1-800-947-2393.

We hope to see you in San Francisco! 

Bob

As 2010 draws to a close, we just wanted to wish one and all a Happy Holiday season.  Big changes are in the works at SameSky Tickets and we will be announcing these in the next week!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Bob

Figure 1. Box Office interface

SameSky Tickets has streamlined the Box Office checkout process to expedite you local box office ticket sales.  With our latest software release we have made it simple and easy for your box office operators to rapidly checkout and expedite ticket printing.  With our new Box Office interface your operators require almost no training to sell GA or Reserve Seating tickets.  From the Box Office Venue view shown above in Figure 1, your operators simply click their seats and then click proceed to check out.

They will be presented an easy to understand screen with the ticket list on the left, and the checkout tabs on the right.  The screen defaults to open to the last tab used, then the operator completes this screen, or selects the appropriate payment method.  Figure 2 below displays the Credit Card screen with the mandatory data on top so scrolling is not required to check out.

Figure 2. Credit Card check out

Figure three below displays the Cash screen where all data entry is optional. Your operators will only be given the Comp tab if their UserID has access to process complimentary tickets.

Figure 3. Cash Checkout Screen

To expedite processing your Will Call tickets we have now automated Will Call ticket printing which automatically prints out your Will Call tickets with the purchaser’s name and invoice number on the ticket and prints them presorted in alphabetical order.

SameSky Tickets also provides the capability to advance print all email print at home tickets which have not been viewed, as we can see if the print ticket link has been clicked or not. So for those patrons who forgot to print our their print at home tickets, the box office operator can advance print them and put them in Will Call or at a print at home window.

If you would like a quick demo or just want more information about SameSky Tickets, give us a call on our toll free line at 1-800-947-2393 and select option 1, or drop sales an email, amber@sameskytickets.net.  We would be happy to fill you in on everything we’re doing to provide the best and most cost effective ticketing solution in the industry.

Bob Clay
Founder/CEO
SameSky Tickets

www.sameskytickets.com

We were a sponsor of the 2010 RMAF convention last week, Nov 10th -Nov 13th, in Missoula Montana. This was the first time SameSky had participated in this event and it was one of the most interesting conventions I have ever attended in 20+ years of going to and participating in conferences.  The configuration was unlike any conference I have ever attended before.  Instead of booths all of the “Service Members” had rooms in the hotel which doubled as their trade show booths. Which as an unknown newcomer made it a bit challenging to connect with the potential customers we hoped to meet with. However, the entire feel of the conference was not the typical competitive situation I am accustomed to at trade shows.  Business was definitely taking place, but the whole event had an atmosphere of friendship, and everyone approached the event not as competing for business, but as an opportunity to present your act or service as well as possible, but not at the expense of someone else.  From Pippi the clown, whom I met when she almost knocked my breakfast OJ into my lap, to Tyzen the Hypnotist across the hall who ran the first Rock, Paper, Scissor Championship I have ever witnessed, to Jim Calhoun, who came out into the hall to see who’s voice that was when my daughter was singing to the entertainment Robot. The people we met were kind, caring and all unique in their own right. We learned more that I ever expected, made some new friends, and maybe even found a couple of new clients. We left exhausted, but I think wiser for the experience, and SameSky will likely attend next year.

We will have a short write up in the November SkyNews Newsletter on this RMAF convention.

Have a great week!

Bob

This post is a little off the normal business path we usually follow (I blame the evil Fox News), but it is relevant to all businesses and how we treat our customers, partners, vendors and our employees. I have the privilege of calling the former Montana Secretary of State, Bob Brown, my friend.  He no longer lives in the same town as I so we don’t get  see each other very often, but he was in town yesterday and rejoined my, his former, Rotary club for breakfast.  Afterward he and I had a spirited discussion about the Tuesday election results, the ramifications of China’s economic growth,  and then the conversation turned to capitalism and he mentioned that the comment had been made to him once that capitalism is “just so heartless.”

I pondered this for a moment and then I began to express my belief that capitalism, when truly working properly and unencumbered, is actually fair and equitable. I said this because “equitable” by itself, is not always fair.  To share equally sounds good and right on the surface, because most people assume if you share equally it is fair and just.  However, equitable sharing among all is not guaranteed to be fair and I assert is never fair across a group of people or companies being rewarded for performing the same or similar task.  The reason for this is because not all will exert the same effort and care in fulfilling the requirements.  If we promote and pay the exemplary employee who takes pride in his work, performs flawlessly, works hard, stays late, and studies to learn new skills without being instructed to do so, at the same rate as the employee who is often late, performs slovenly, leaves early and never improves his or her skills, is it fair to pay and promote them both at the same rate?

Most sane people would say of course not, you should reward the person who puts forward the exceptional effort to do a good job more than the person who does not.  This same analogy can be applied to companies. What capitalism does is reward performance.  It rewards those who strive to far exceed the minimal requirements, and yes that means that stronger, smarter, people will likely do better and this does produce Darwinian results, as in survival of the fittest. But should not everyone strive to be stronger and smarter tomorrow than we are today?   Don’t you want the very best Doctor, Lawyer, Mechanic, Cleaner, Chef, lawn service and yes Ticketing Company, your money can buy? Everyone can strive to be the best at what they do, and the best should be rewarded fairly based on the quality of the service/product they provide. Nothing more and nothing less.

So, is this heartless?  I don’t think so, I think it is fair.

(Thanks for the great conversation Mr. Brown!)

Bob Clay

Taking advantage of his position as CEO

Box Office Managers (BOMs) are often frustrated with the existing reporting tools available to them.  SameSky Tickets has listened to their requests and we have extended our reporting capabilities.  Our latest SameSky Ticketing System release gives BOMs the reporting tools they need to accurately track sales in real time, thus making sales analysis and performance tracking even easier.  Our new release provides stacked bar graphing of ticket sales by performance, by event and across multiple events. The All Events bar chart provides a view of tickets sold for each event in a stacked bar chart by month.  A single event with all performances displayed lets you know at a glance which shows are selling best and what day you may have peeked sales.

A detailed report of a single performance within an event displays current seat revenue and provides real time visibility of sold, comped, held, total occupied, and available seats as well as pre-box ticket sales for GA events. This allows BOMs to view performance sales’ status whenever and wherever they wish.   This data is presented in an easy to read chart like the one below, providing immediate performance sales status clarity.

Patron, Ticket, Billing, and Revenue reports are now printable and exportable as excel and as a .csv (comma separated value) for Windows and Mac operating systems.

This print and export mechanism allows the user to page through data output and set the number of lines to display on the screen and then export or print with the click of a button.

Another new feature in this release is our new Promoter report.  For venues who need to do a daily report to promoters, this feature allows you to generate the sales data to date required by promoters and export the report.

This STS release now offers to our clients the same security Audit Trail Admin Tool used by SameSky personnel for tracking access and box office user actions and to see details of patron actions.  A user with sufficient system access privileges can login to their STS and view every action performed in the system, from ticket purchase to refunds, to user login attempts.

Additional features of this new software version include an improved graphic user interface, instant link updates for your website to auto embed a new performance, an extended patron search function, bulk loading of patron/donor lists, client customizable client ticket receipt (embedding ads for more revenue) and more!

If you would like a quick demo or just want more information, give me a call on our toll free line at 1-800-947-2393 and select option 1, or drop me an email, amber@sameskytickets.net.  I would be happy to fill you in on everything we’re doing to provide you with the best and most cost effective ticketing solution in the industry.

Amber Dudley
Senior Sales Associate
SameSky Tickets

This week’s blog will showcase the latest software release, v. 2.2.1a, of  the SameSky Ticketing System (STS) and specifically cover the new features most useful to the BOM (Box Office Manager).  There are a number of system enhancements for patron management, reporting, security, but this release offers an array of new features that will simplify tasks for Box Office Managers.

First, we have added a new Pre-Box Sales ticket printing and management feature. Proper tracking and accounting of tickets generated for outlets and promotions is the key function of the STS Pre-Box Sales feature.  Using Pre-Box allows box office managers to remove GA tickets from inventory and print and distribute them to remote ticketing outlets.  After unsold tickets are collected, box office managers simply enter the number of tickets sold, the revenue amount collected and the number of unsold seats to release back into the system.  Pre-Box will process the data and generate a summary report that provides easy tracking of ticket sales across multiple outlets and place unsold tickets back in the system to be sold online or in the box office.

Second, SameSky now makes it easy to setup and activate your Day of Show pricing.  All you have to do is create your performance, click the checkbox for Day of Show pricing, set the start time and date you want to activate your Day of Show price and fill in ticket prices for Preshow and Day of Show.  SameSky takes care of the rest!

Third, we have added a new Promoter report to make it simple to generate the key data for a performance or across multiple performances for a promoter. You can simply  export this report to excel, to a csv (comma separated variable) file or print it and send it to your promoter.

For a quick demo just call our sales department:
Sales: 1-800-947-2393  option 1

My next blog will highlight more of the latest features offered in our new software release v.2.2.1a and give a quick overview of the upcoming Montana Economic Development Summit SameSky will be exhibiting at, where Steve Ballmer, Jeff Immelt, and Warren Buffet will be speaking .

www.montanaeconomicsummit.org

Bob

Bob Clay
Founder/CEO
SameSky Tickets

www.sameskytickets.com

Ticket Summit 2010 in Vegas was not exactly what I expected.  The event listed Ticketing Agents, Venue Managers, Box Office Managers, Event Promoters, and Legal Entertainment Experts as “Who’s Attending” on their web site. The reality was the majority of attendees were ticket brokers and most of the sessions were geared to support the secondary market. This conference is actually conducted by TicketNetwork, which is  not obvious until you actually attend.  The conference was enlightening in that previously I had minimal exposure to the secondary ticket market as we supply software to the primary market.  I had no idea that TicketNetwork Direct (TND)  www.ticketnetwork.com was processing over a $Billion dollars a year in their exchange system with over a thousand brokers signed up.

Relevant Sessions

Of the 8 sessions I attended, only three provided useful content relevant to the primary ticketing market. First, the Marketing Plan session had two presentations. The first presentation from Acronym Media regarding online search marketing had a  couple of interesting points regarding Geo ad targeting and employing negatives to filter ppc (pay-per-click) candidates. Here is a link to some interesting downloads from Acronym, http://www.acronym.com/brilliant-ideas.html.   The second presentation in this session by Ticket Sizzle, also had a few of salient points strongly advocating blogging, putting out a newsletter,  and adding social media links. The second session I found interesting was the “Legal Issues & Ticketing Trends” which provided an in depth analysis of the recent Paperless Tickets law passed in New York. The New York law went into effect immediately an it now mandates that ticket companies, artists, teams and venues offer consumers the choice of traditional tickets in addition to paperless tickets. Paperless tickets are not banned in the state, but they must be among the offerings listed at check out when a fan purchases a ticket, and all of those ticket options must cost the same amount. I’m not sure if that means an overnight FedEx has to costs the same as a USPS snail mail or not.  Paperless Tickets were a hot topic with the “brokers” at this conference.  The last Keynote on Friday was titled “On the Merger” and this was of course a session regarding the TicketMaster Live Nation merger.  The panel consisted of a representative from Veritix, Tickets.com, and TicketNetwork.  The net take away from this session was that legally Live Nation cannot pressure venues to use TicketMaster, however behind the scenes there appears to be overt pressure and even direct intimidation. Also, it was said that “deals” were being constructed across the ticketing and shows that are difficult for and out side company to compete with.  The net effect of this merger will be negative for the industry in terms of ticketing fees and open competition, which ultimately leads to consumers paying more to attend an event.

Conclusion

This conference was useful and informative in terms of learning about the secondary market. The event was very well organized and well managed and I met several brokers that were attending for the third or fourth time since it’s inception five years ago. Multiple brokers mentioned that this is a critical event for their business to network and establish broker to broker relationships.  However, the majority of the content was not that relevant to venues, promoters, and ticketing software companies.

Check in later this week as our Senior Sales Rep, Chris Marlow, will blog an overview of the new SameSky Ticketing System (STS) software release 2.2.1a. There are many new features with 2.2.1a which will be released the end of July. Demonstrations of the new software will start the week of July 19th after we migrate our demo systems to the new code base.  Give us a call for a “Go-To-Meeting” live demo, 406.552.1181 and press 1 for sales.

Have a great week!

Bob

Bobby A. Clay

Founder/CEO

SameSky Tickets

Greetings!

The next software release from SameSky has taken all of my time the last few weeks, but now as we move into final dev test I have a little breathing room and I am heading to Ticket Summit in Vegas next week.  The conference this year looks very interesting with speakers from eBay, the New Orleans Hornets, the NBA, and of course from some of those other ticketing companies.

The sessions range from Branding and Marketing to broker-to-broker and new technologies, which I am very interested in seeing.  I will provide a review of the conference next week when I return.

Also, check in next week as we will be providing an overview of the new SameSky Ticketing System (STS) software release 2.2.1a. There are many new features and an updated look and feel with 2.2.1a which will be released the end of July. Demonstrations of the new software will start the week of July 19th after we migrate our demo systems to the new code base.

Give us a call for a “Go-To-Meeting” live demo, 406.552.1181 and press 1 for sales.

Have a great week!

Bob

Bob Clay
Founder/CEO
SameSky Tickets

www.sameskytickets.com