Industry News

Skiddle founder believes paperless industry is ‘close’

The ticketing industry is “close” to moving completely paperless, according to Skiddle co-director and founder, Ben Sebborn.

Sebborn told the Access All Areas website that the industry is ready for the move, although in the same report, Ticket Zone’s chief operating officer, Wayne Munday, claimed that ticketing will never go completely paperless.

Eventbrite UK and Ireland general manager Joel Crouch, who was also quoted in the article, said that the speed of adoption of paperless ticketing will ultimately depend on the consumer.

“Ticketing is ready to go entirely paperless. As well as contributing to the crackdown on touting, paperless ticketing is slick, convenient and hassle-free,” Sebborn said.

“We are close. In recent weeks, it was announced that some venues are now promoting mobile-only ticketing. For many, this may be classed as an innovative (and perhaps long-overdue) step forwards.

“However, we need to ensure we don’t exclude fans who like using other channels to buy tickets – for example, via their computers.”

Skiddle is a primary ticket outlet and events guide that deals with event bookings, registrations, promotion and online ticket sales.

Ticket Zone is a B2B box office and ticketing service provider for tour promoters, event organisers and venues for live music, entertainment and sport, and the company’s COO approaches the topic with a different viewpoint.

“Ticketing will never go completely paperless,” Munday said. “It’s not a matter of whether the paper ticket will disappear, but rather if the ticketing industry is ready, or fully appreciates the potential disruption to the current business model.”

He also noted that there has been a resistance by some promoters and venues to shift to e-tickets.

Crouch added: “The technology to go paperless has been out there for years: in 2011, Eventbrite was among the first 
to introduce apps for storing digital tickets and for scanning ticket barcodes.

“One year later, we created the functionality to store tickets in the iPhone’s passbook wallet the day it was introduced in 2012.

“In short, the opportunity to go fully paperless is already there; the speed at which we’ll get there depends on consumer preference.”

Eventbrite is a platform that allows event organisers to plan, promote, and sell tickets to events and publish them across Facebook, Twitter and other social-networking tools directly from the site’s interface.

Image: Ahmed Aqtai