by Mike MacPherson, Director of Gross sales and Advertising for VBO Tickets
2021 was presupposed to be the 12 months that we have been hoping for all the things to return to regular. Then got here Delta, Delta+ and, our present nemesis, Omicron. For the occasion business, this implies a continued patchwork of native laws, some demographics that will not present up resulting from fears of being contaminated, and uncertainty throughout. The excellent news is that nobody is severely speaking of shutting down all ticketed occasions once more. The present should go on, in any case, even when it must be a digital occasion.
Listed here are three finest practices for safely shifting ahead in 2022 – and past.
1. Outline venue capability limits.
When native well being officers set capability limits on venues or massive gatherings in response to the pandemic, the venue can use our VBO Tickets software program to set the share of tickets they need to promote for the occasion so as to keep in compliance. For instance, in case your venue usually holds 200 seats, however the regulation is at 50% of capability, you possibly can specify that solely 100 seats could be bought and our software program takes care of the remaining. When a patron is choosing seats on your seating map throughout the ticket shopping for interface in your web site, they are going to see a message on the prime that explains there’s a capability restrict of 100, in addition to what number of seats are nonetheless out there. As soon as this restrict is reached, no extra seats could be bought. It is a terrific technique to keep clear with native authorities and your patrons, in addition to automate reopening occasions with out the necessity to manually take away seats out of your venue’s seating map.
2. Reopen occasions with social distancing.
After all, the entire level of capability limits is to make it possible for company from completely different households stay socially distanced, so the VBO Tickets software program platform additionally enables you to modify the variety of enforced empty seats between people who have already been bought. As a ticket purchaser, when viewing the seating map throughout the ticket shopping for interface, you possibly can choose as many seats subsequent to one another as you want. However as soon as these seats are chosen, one other ticket purchaser–who’s additionally choosing seats on their very own laptop or cellphone–will see non-selectable seats to the left and proper of the seats bought. That is, once more, a clear technique to keep inside native laws with out risking confusion or confrontations out of your patrons. And promoters now not must manually cover or disable seats so as to meet social distancing tips.
3. Promote merchandise forward of time.
A remaining concern with reopening occasions throughout a pandemic is the method of patrons shopping for meals and merchandise as soon as they’re on the venue. With improper social distancing at vendor stations, massive crowds can simply develop, placing the well being and security of patrons in danger inside your venue. To alleviate this concern, VBO Tickets suggests promoting merchandise and even meals forward of time, when patrons purchase their tickets on-line. As soon as a patron checks out via the white label VBO Tickets plugin in your web site, for instance, they’ll have an e-ticket displaying their seats in addition to any merchandise they’ve bought. On the occasion itself, your workers can entry every patron’s ticket data and ship to them their merchandise or meals, whereas they continue to be seated. (It’s price noting that worldwide airways have been utilizing this technique for duty-free looking for years, and it’s labored seamlessly.) Alternatively, when a patron’s ticket is scanned on the door, their merchandise and/or meals order will mechanically seem and so they may subsequently be handed their purchases upon entry.
Both means, promoting merchandise and meals forward of time slightly than forcing patrons to queue a second (or third) time creates a smoother and safer reside occasion expertise when reopening.
Mike MacPherson is the Director of Gross sales and Advertising for VBO Tickets. Mike is a passionate, confirmed chief of gross sales and advertising and marketing, with three many years of profitable expertise in motivating and main gross sales/advertising and marketing groups. His most up-to-date success was serving to information VBO Tickets via the dramatic circumstances ensuing within the shutdown of occasion venues and ticketing gross sales in response to security measures from the Covid-19 pandemic.
