Several hundred ticketing professionals strolled through the exhibit floor and sat in on discussion panels on the first full day of Ticket Summit in Las Vegas on July 15, in what is proving to be the most successful edition in the event’s five-year history.
Organizers said the conference has reached its projections of more than 600 attendees, and another full day of networking, delicious food and topical industry discussions awaits the audience on Friday, July 16.
“It’s been great,” Yoav Bruck, managing director of Israel-based tickets and travel packages provider Issta Sport, told TicketNews. Issta Sport was one of the official travel partners of the recent FIFA World Cup and the Beijing and Vancouver Olympics. “This conference exposes our company to a lot of brokers and industry professionals.”
In addition to fostering a slew of business opportunities for attendees, Ticket Summit has provided a wealth of industry insight through panel presentations, such as one on trends within the ticket broker community. College professors Joris Drayer, soon-to-be joining the faculty of Temple University, and Stephen Shapiro of Old Dominion University, used the discussion to debut findings of a 23-page report they co-authored called “Understanding Ticket Brokers,” which was commissioned by Ticket Summit host company TicketNetwork.
The report, which surveyed nearly 300 ticket brokers, is the first industry wide study to look at the attitudes and perceptions of members of the broker community, and the authors hope it will help the industry overcome some of the negative stereotypes associated with it.
“There are a lot of misconceptions about the secondary ticket market, and while we weren’t necessarily trying to refute them, we wanted to illuminate that fact,” Drayer said.
Among the key findings in the report:
-63 percent of the respondents were college graduates.
-More than 76 percent of the respondents conducted more than 60 percent of their business online, and of newer brokers (those with five years or less experience), 71 percent of them conducted more than 81 percent of their business online.
-For 65 percent, being a ticket broker is their primary job.
-Public relations and word-of-mouth remains the top marketing strategy for most brokers.
-State and local ticket legislation has some impact on how brokers conduct their business, but has little effect on their pricing decisions.
-40 percent of respondents had three to five years of experience, while 24 percent had 12 or more years of experience.
Attendees also packed presentations on the growing global ticketing industry, and a lively panel discussion on legal issues facing brokers, where the conversation centered on the recent New York ticket resale law, which offers consumers the most protections in the ability to resell tickets.
The new law, the first to regulate paperless tickets, is also considered a victory for ticket brokers, who showed their appreciation by loudly applauding the efforts of the panelists who worked on the bill, Dan Pullium of TicketNetwork; Jason Berger of All Shows; Dustin Brighton of eBay; and lobbyist Bob Ungar.
“Ticket legislation is not something a senator or legislator normally thinks much about,” Brighton said. “In New York, we had a good, working coalition, because legislators want to hear local voices.”
TicketNetwork is the parent company of TicketNews.
