In response to "A great (aggressive) ticketing idea," Dan P. writes the following:
(FULL DISCLOSURE: Dan does excellent work for my clients, and we are personal friends. That said, he has a significant amount of live event experience.)
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"Eugene, reading your email made me think a majority of professional conferences, expos, retreats, etc., are mostly all presale online-only and many of those sell-out.
I think about my past putting on TEDx events and we did all online sales only for those and we always sold out.
I can't think that for an outdoor air show or outdoor event the concept or outcome would be much different than a massively attended professional conference."
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And there you have an experience and results-based recommendation. Of which I encourage every event organizer to pursue ... no gate sales.
In the world of events and business, experience and results always trump opinions and feelings. Back to yesterday's email, the objections to the "don't sell tickets at the gate" were emotion and opinion based.
Ultimately yesterday's discussion ended with the following statement, "we're not there yet, we can try that in a few years from now." Opinions and feelings were in play!
Opinions often prompt lousy business decisions. Mainly when decisions are rooted in feelings and emotions. It's imperative that you focus on proven results (backed up with hard data) and actual experience.
If you have something new you want to try with your next event, implement it and measure the results. The same skepticism goes for any of my recommendations. Don't take my word for it, go and apply my recommendations. And then let me know how it turns out.
Want to get more data driven promoting your event? Check out the articles below: