Who?

Who came along in 2017?

Each year we bring together the industry’s key thinkers, movers and shakers from the world’s leading organisations spanning the entire ticketing spectrum – including:

• Venue Owners & Operators
• Rights Holders
• System Suppliers
• Ticket Agencies
• Marketing and Digital Agencies
• Payment Processing
• Consultants
• Potential Disruptors and other New Market Entrants

Each year, we assemble a world-class speaker line up of those who are disrupting the industry to share, debate, discuss and decide the future of live entertainment ticketing.

2017 Speaker Line Up

• 

  James Charrington

  CEO, Dewynters, UK

  James draws on 25 years of expertise in arts marketing – both as an independent consultant and through leadership positions in the UK and continental Europe, including 7 years as International Commercial Director for Stage Entertainment. He started his career with a 12-year stint at theatre marketing agency Dewynters, returning to the agency after a 15 year gap in April 2016 as CEO. It’s an agency that has both changed with the business and changed the business itself. Remember that Dewynters was the agency that created the first entertainment show brands like Les Miserables and Cats in the 80s.

  Ultimately, everything Dewynters does for its clients is about growing the audience, selling more tickets, driving more revenue and improving marketing effectiveness. Most recently, Dewynters opened its operation in Hamburg, Germany as it looks to provide a “seamless service” for producers working across Europe and the US. As one of our keynote speakers for 2017, James will be exploring how these key drivers are reshaping the agency business (as it moves to provide a seamless service across international markets) and how the digital and real worlds are blending.

• 

  Luke Xiang

  VP of International Business, Weying, China

  After five years we are a truly global Forum. So, naturally, we need to embrace the biggest ticketing market in the world: China. We are delighted to welcome to the 2017 programme Luke Xiang, Vice President of Weying.

  One of China’s tech unicorns, Weying has fully embedded and integrated a ticketing service for movies, shows and sports into the popular WeChat and QQ mobile social platforms. It is now the Chinese leading ticketing, marketing and distribution platform for film, performance, sports and other entertainment projects based on mobile social network. To put this in perspective: For its cinema offers – which include a partnership with cinema systems provider Vista Group – WeYing’s daily sales peak has rocketed to 6 million tickets representing more than 30% market share and 95% cinema penetration in less than three years. It also offers on-line ordering for merchandise and concession services for movie goers and fans.

  In the year up to August 2016, its box office contribution for released, distributed and co-distributed movies exceeded US$3bn. Global media player Wanda Group is a strategic investor and partner in Weying. Wanda itself has acquired the AMC (USA), Odeon (UK) and Hoyts (Australia) cinema chains in recent years. Weying is in process of expanding its services to Hongkong, Malaysia, Taiwan, USA and other markets with local offices.

  Luke will guide us through Weying’s approach to “mobile social marketing as the key driver for leisure and entertainment consumption.” He says “we are always chasing one dream to provide the nextgen ticketing experience by connecting entertainment market with social networks to connect user, content and venue with value added services.”

   

• 

  Carolyn Sims

  Director of Marketing & Audience Engagement, English National Opera, UK

  Carolyn Sims is a highly respected, hands-on, marketing strategist who has worked in a range of entertainment and retail organisations in her career including Ticketmaster, Really Useful, Live Nation Entertainment and Time Out.

  Carolyn’s innate ability to be able to put the customer first means that she has forged and shared her skills across a range of customer channels in digital marketing, CRM, audience development and marketing strategies that enable organisations to become profitably customer centric. Carolyn is an experienced professional in developing and implementing innovative growth strategies through the delivery of customer focused ticketing and commercial excellence.

  Her passion for new technologies that provide “a great experience for customers to be able to get to and buy the ticket they want” lies at the heart of #TTF17 programming. We’re very pleased to have Carolyn on board our Ticketing Technology Awards’ Judging Panel and in our 2017 speaker line-up.

• 

  Jasper Hope

  Chief Executive, Dubai Opera, UAE

  In January 2015, Jasper joined Emaar Properties as Chief Executive of the under-construction Dubai Opera, the centerpiece of The Opera District development in Downtown Dubai. The 1900-seat facility opened to worldwide acclaim in 2016. Dubai Opera passionately embraces its role as the creative heart of the city, producing and hosting the finest, most authentic, and engaging performing arts experiences from Dubai and the world. He serves as Dubai Opera’s lead officer and international advocate; focused on setting its artistic direction and driving global stakeholder relationships. He is also mandated with ensuring the commercial success of Dubai Opera and developing its profile internationally. Formerly, Jasper was Chief Operating Officer of London’s Royal Albert Hall having previously served as Senior Director of Live Events. In Dublin, Jasper will recount the opening experiences of Dubai Opera, with critical learnings in how to programme, market and fill a new venue in a ‘new market’.

• 

  Ana Morillo Arroyo

  Global Strategic Pricing Director, NH Hotel Group, Spain

  With over 8 years’ consulting experience in top line growth for companies across numerous industries such as automotive, retail & distribution, Ana is currently responsible for Global Pricing Strategy at NH Hotel Group, a hotel chain operating more than 375 hotels in 30 countries across the world. Her main responsibilities include the definition of the necessary strategic frameworks and vision for the revenue management department in coordination with marketing and sales to ensure top line growth maximisation is achieved with a customer centric approach.

  Ana has a Bachelors in Business Administration and is a frequent speaker at international conferences and business school programmes on an international level. Ana was very well-received at last year’s Forum. For 2017, she’ll be going deeper into travel and tourism pricing strategies and processes – and how these can be applied to sports and entertainment. Once again she’ll be making the case for “pricing to be board level imperative.”

• 

  Matt Rosenberg

  Chief Revenue Officer, Eventbrite, USA

  As Chief Revenue Officer at Eventbrite, Rosenberg is responsible for driving customer value, revenue growth and global revenue strategies. Prior to Rosenberg’s promotion to CRO, he led the strategy and growth of Eventbrite’s growing global sales and business development organisation as Senior Vice President. In 2016 alone, Eventbrite supported more than 2.5 million events, processing about 150 million tickets in more than 180 countries.

• 

  Vincent Larchet

  Chief Technology Officer, SecuTix, Switzerland

  There’s a lot of discussion about blockchain* and its potential impact on global business transactions. But is there substance behind all the hype? Does blockchain provide the missing solutions to so many of the biggest challenges in ticketing? Lifting the lid on blockchain and its potential for ticketing, we are delighted to welcome to the #TTF17 line-up Vincent Larchet, CTO, SecuTix SA. In Dublin, Vincent will explore the potential future impact of blockchain in the ticketing industry, with reference to user cases. He’ll also be sharing where SecuTix as a ticketing technology provider is integrating blockchain into its roadmap.

  Vincent Larchet is Chief Technology Officer at SecuTix, a SaaS Ticketing Engagement Platform that helps organisations boost ticket sales and enhance audiences’ experience before, during and after events. Heading the “Innovations and Architecture” department, Vincent is defining the company’s innovation directions and technology partnerships, focusing on creating a marketplace of third-party digital applications that build on the open nature of the SecuTix ticketing platform. Vincent is also looking at several technology initiatives – one such stream being the Blockchain. Get the heads-up on blockchain from one of the industry’s key players – only at #TTF17!

• 

  Ian Campbell

  Director, Club Services, Major League Soccer (MLS), USA

  Ian works with all MLS clubs to help maximise their business operations. He also works closely with MLS Strategic Planning and Partnership Marketing on key projects in the areas of ticket sales and sponsorships including managing strategic ticketing partnerships for the League.

  Prior to joining MLS, Campbell earned his MBA from the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon after six years at the Chicago Board of Trade where he worked as a fixed income trader. Campbell resides in New York City and works out of the MLS League Office in Manhattan.

• 

  John J. Elliott

  President and CEO, Elliott Marketing Group, USA

  We wanted to build on our exploration of ‘ticketing data insights’ for arts and entertainment, and have been on the hunt for the best analysts in the business. Our research paths led us to Pennslyvania-based John Elliott. He co-founded Elliott Marketing Group (EMG) in 1999 with the mission of helping customers develop and execute more effective direct response campaigns by focusing on their target, offer, tests, and response and relationship management processes.

  Today, through the aggregation of data sources, he advises numerous arts organisations how to be more effective. His work with Pittsburgh Cultural Trust on the SmArt collaborative database in Pittsburgh’s Cultural District landed the ‘Oscar’ of the database world. Prior to founding EMG, John was Senior Vice President of Database Marketing for DMW Worldwide, a direct response advertising agency specialising in the insurance, healthcare, financial services, energy, communications, and non-profit sectors.

  While at DMW Worldwide, John was responsible for creating the database marketing and data mining division, making it one of the agency’s most profitable businesses in 1998. We welcome his insights into getting the most out of the data you have (and addressing the data you will need).

• 

  Sita McIntosh

  COO, WhatsOnStage, UK

  Prior to her appointment as Chief Operating Officer at WhatsOnStage in 2014, Sita worked at Ticketmaster, where she headed up the Theatre Division. She began her career in theatre and the arts in 1988 at Mentor Advertising working on accounts including the National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company and English National Opera.

  Since then she has held key roles at Ticketmaster, See Tickets and Stoll Moss Theatres amongst others, gathering over twenty years experience in sales, marketing and ticketing.

  Sita is also Chair of the Board of Trustees for Tonic Theatre and recently joined the Development Advisory Board of Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts.

• 

  Tim Chambers

  Managing Director, TJChambers Consultancy, UK

  An international ticketing specialist and senior executive with over 20 years’ experience within the live entertainment industries, Tim’s career expertise includes direct knowledge of Start-Up’s, UK and pan-European M&A including geographical roll-ups, operational consolidation, definition of cost-savings and synergies, and leading corporate growth initiatives.

  He is currently advising a number of European and US- based sports, media and entertainment businesses, at various stages of corporate development, which are seeking to transform their business operations. The ticketing sector’s networker par excellence, for our 2017 edition Tim will be hosting our new Incubator session, showcasing (and grilling) startups on their innovations, business plans and impart change to the business.

• 

  Liam Negus-Fancey

  Co-founder, StreetTeam, UK

  Liam Negus-Fancey co-founded StreetTeam (formerly The Physical Network) in 2012 after running the largest under-age events company in the UK – Lets Go Crazy – which sold 65,000 tickets in two years. During that time he noticed a trend in the way people were buying tickets (peer-to-peer) and set out to build a platform that reflected this form of social advocacy. Today, StreetTeam is the world’s leading peer-to-peer sales software for live entertainment and has recently just closed $10m in funding.

  It has offices in Los Angeles, Australia, New Zealand, Australia, London and Poland – and has sold more than 300,000 tickets in 14 countries. StreetTeam enables its customers to turn their most influential fans into ambassadors who promote their events and sell tickets to their friends in return for rewards. Its growing list of clients includes more than 250 festivals, such as Bonnaroo, Bestival, Forecastle, Reading, Leeds and Electric Zoo.

  Liam has a deep knowledge of the festival and events industry, and specific expertise in peer-to-peer sales and marketing. Learn how rewarding your best customers as P-2-P ambassadors can help transform your ticket sales.

• 

  Annabel Turpin

  Chief Executive, ARC Stockton Arts Centre, UK

  Who needs prices? Are you sufficiently brave (or stupid) to ditch the entire pricing strategy and let your audience decide what a show’s worth? Annabel Turpin threw out the rule book when she decided to adopt Pay What You Decide (PWYD) for all the 2015 theatre, dance and spoken word programming at ARC in Stockton on Tees, one of the North East’s largest arts venues. The results of what was an experiment in audience development have been astonishing: Audiences up by 34.5%; Income up by 52%; Average ticket yield up by 32%!

  The experiment is now part of the business plan and, inspired by ARC, PWYD has been trialled at other UK venues and is gaining fans in North America. But PWYD isn’t for everyone and there are potential pitfalls. Annabel will be sharing her experiences in taking the risk and explaining how we can all benefit from being brave and experimental when it comes to pricing.

  Annabel was previously Director of Norden Farm Centre for the Arts, Maidenhead and Events Manager at Warwick Arts Centre. She is co-chair of Future Arts Centres, a national network championing arts centres, and manages a number of other venue partnerships.

• 

  Chloé Julien

  Founder & CEO, BandSquare, France

  Chloé holds a MBA from ESSEC and started her career at Accenture before joining the Digital Marketing Strategy team at Universal Music Headquarters (London). Convinced by the importance of empowering artists with data knowledge, she launched BandSquare in 2013.

  BandSquare products turn social fanbases into qualified email databases for retargeting. The company was acquired in 2016 by French conglomerate Fimalac and its ticketing subsidiary.

  We look forward to welcoming Chloé to the #TTF17 stage to join our New Faces and Disruptors panel.

• 

  Emily Gonneau

  Director General, MyOpenTickets, France

  Emily Gonneau started her career in the music industry, successively working at EMI’s Continental Europe’s headquarters in London and marketing department in France. She left to start Unicum Music, her own artist management and music publishing company, the first of a series of entrepreneurial endeavours, followed by the founding of nüagency, a thriving digital communications agency tailored to cultural events and artists before joining MyOpenTickets as Managing Director in 2015.

  Emily also teaches Music & Tech at The Sorbonne university and released L’Artiste, le Numérique et la Musique in 2016, a book to help artists make the most of tech.

• 

  Rick Jurkiewicz

  Head of Ticketing, The Rugby Football League, UK

  Starting at See Tickets in 1997 as a sales agent, gathering experience through Customer Services, Ticket Fulfilment, Event Operations and Box Office Management, Rick relocated to Ticketmaster Manchester in 2004 as Senior Account Manager working with Live Nation and SMG venues. In 2012, Rick moved to Ticketmaster’s International Projects team working on EURO2012, London Olympics, 2013 Rugby League World Cup, 2015 Rugby World Cup. Spending a year with Ticketmaster Business Development, he moved to the Rugby Football League to head up the current ticketing system consolidation project which aims to provide all clubs a level playing field off the pitch.

• 

  Luca Scafati

  Head of Business Development, Euroleague Basketball, Spain

  At Euroleague Basketball since 2008, Luca was originally responsible for the corporate entry strategy into markets in the Far-East, overseeing any commercial deals (TV, new media, sponsorship and on-site event deals).
  Since 2013, he has been the Head of Business Development adding to his responsibilities of international business management, the coordination of the Euroleague Basketball Ticketing Programme – a consulting service for top European clubs focused on the implementation of a professional strategy aimed to increase and consolidate game-day revenues. He oversees the ticket and premium seating sales for the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four.

• 

  Adam Webb

  Campaign Manager, FanFair Alliance, UK

  Launched July 2016, FanFair has helped propel the issue of industrial-scale ticket touting onto the UK’s political and media agenda – as well as unifying those in the music business who want a transparent and properly-functioning secondary market that benefits fans. More than 100 managers, agents, promoters, ticket sellers and trade bodies are now formally supporting the campaign.

  Adam is also an experienced and award-winning PR executive, who has worked for organisations including UK Music, Merlin, Iceland Airwaves, Roundhouse, Attitude is Everything, the Music Publishers Association and PRS for Music Foundation. Before jumping to the dark side, he was a freelance music and business journalist and wrote Dumb Angel, the acclaimed biography of Beach Boy Dennis Wilson.

• 

  Jessie Scoullar

  Founding Director, Wicksteed Works, UK

  Jessie Scoullar is Founding Director of Wicksteed Works, a London-based agency specialising in direct-to-fan (D2F) strategy and management for bands, labels and brands. Clients include Laura Marling, Mumford & Sons, Paul Kalkbrenner, Yann Tiersen, Paul McCartney, and Neil Finn.

  In 2014 Jessie wrote the first comprehensive comparison of direct-to-fan music marketing and retail services, Direct-to-Fan: Which Platform. Now in its 3rd edition, her report is seen as the definitive guide to the various D2F platforms on the market. She cut her teeth on the world of direct-to-fan with three years in the fast-paced environment of Topspin Media’s Creative Services team. Before leaving New Zealand in 2007, she worked with CRS Management in Auckland and practiced as a Commercial Solicitor in Wellington.

  For #TTF17, Jessie will be co-curating and hosting our “D2F Ticketing Workshop” which – with an invited group of experts – will explore the options for music and sports organisations to take ownership and control of their ticketing, CRM and fan-relationships.

• 

  Ian Nuttall

  Founder and CEO, Ticketing Technology Forum, UK

  Ian Nuttall is the owner and founder of Ticketing Technology Forum, presented by his Xperiology events business. His working life began in sports hospitality events management (including Formula 1, horse racing and Wimbledon) before pursuing an award-winning career in B2B magazine publishing. He has co-launched and edited numerous business titles (ranging from energy and industrial processes through to airport design and Intelligent
  Transportation Systems). He has also founded many of the sports sector’s most respected publications and news sources. In addition to his ongoing commitments as a sports business writer and speaker, Ian provides highly-valued, specialist consultancy to the sports and entertainment venue sector.

• 

  Miguel Afán de Ribera

  Director, Simon-Kucher & Partners, Spain

  Pricing is by far the most important profit lever, but most ticketing businesses hugely underestimate its impact. Rightly, you wanted to know more about pricing strategies – well, we’ve landed the world’s leading pricing consultancy for our 2017 programme line-up. Simon-Kucher & Partners is a global consulting firm specialising in TopLine Power®, which encompasses strategy, marketing, pricing, and sales.

  Founded in 1985, the practice – with nearly a thousand professionals in 33 offices worldwide – has been built on evidence-based, practical strategies for profit improvement via the top line. Simon-Kucher & Partners is regarded as the world’s leading pricing advisor and thought leader. Its biennially conducted Global Pricing Study: is the only one of its kind – developed through interviews with 2,000+ executives and managers from companies of 25 industries and over 40 countries revealed that each second company is involved in a price war. Increasing low-cost competition and clients’ growing negotiation power are just two of the reasons for rising price pressure. Companies can counteract through effective price management.

  Miguel Afán de Ribera heads up Simon-Kucher & Partners’ Leisure, Tourism & Transportation operations in Iberia & LATAM. Simon-Kucher helped key players in their respective industries such as Roland Garros, National Express, NH Hotels and Parques Reunidos (the global theme park operator).

• 

  Steve Statler

  Principal, Statler Consulting, USA

  Is your venue ready for the beacon revolution? If not, then book your seat at #TTF17 and meet Stephen Statler – world-leading expert on all things ‘beacon’. He’s flying in to Dublin from San Diego to share his insights into how the emerging beacon ecosystem will impact ticketing, access control, visitor experiences and new marketing opportunities. And here’s a chap who knows his onions – or rather his beacons.

  He has, quite literally, written the book – which is called Beacon Technologies: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Beacosystem. (If you want to brush up on your beacon knowledge, you can buy a copy of Steve’s Amazon Besteller book here). Steve is a writer, public speaker and consultant working in the beacon ecosystem.

  Checkout his video intro here. He trains and advises retailers, venue owners, VCs, as well as makers of beacon software and hardware. Previously he was the Senior Director for Strategy and Solutions Management at Qualcomm’s Retail Solutions Division, helping to incubate Gimbal, one of the leading Bluetooth beacons in the market. “There has been a major disruption to the ticketing ecosystem. The digital and physical worlds are converging,” says Stephen. “Major opportunities and risks are manifesting themselves. There will be winners and losers in the race to respond.”

• 

  Dr. Marcus Garbe

  Managing Partner, Transaction Consulting, Switzerland

  Alongside the technology, we are adding more business insights to the 2017 speaker line-up. Sharing his take on the ticketing industry eco-system (and highlighting where future M&As, startups and potential failures may be), Marcus Garbe brings 20+ years’ industry expertise in the Live Entertainment & Ticketing sectors.

  He has completed numerous M&A transactions in this field – and advised on many more, including most recently as exclusive advisor to Jetticket Software’s sale to CTS-Eventim Group. Previous assignments have included work for ifo-institute, Roland Berger & Partner, argonauten / Grey Global, REPLY, Ticketcorner and various, diverse Start-ups.

• 

  Kirill Slavin

  General Manager, Kaspersky Lab, UK

  Our delegates requested more on cybersecurity and how to protect our ticketing systems and customer data. We reached out to the world leader in the field: Kaspersky Lab, the global cybersecurity company founded in 1997. Kaspersky Lab’s deep threat intelligence and security expertise is constantly transforming into security solutions and services to protect businesses, critical infrastructure, governments and consumers around the globe. The company’s comprehensive security portfolio includes leading endpoint protection and a number of specialised security solutions and services to fight sophisticated and evolving digital threats. Over 400 million users and 270,000 corporate clients are protected by Kaspersky Lab technologies.

  Kirill Slavin is General Manager, Kaspersky Lab UK and Ireland, based in London. Kirill joined the company in September 2013 and is responsible for overseeing the company’s operations in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

  Kirill has over twenty years’ experience in finance and strategy, previously holding senior positions at inter alia, Wang Laboratories, PepsiCo Inc., Deloitte & Touche, and DiamondCluster International (now PwC’s Diamond Advisory Services). Kirill is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, holds an MBA from Cambridge University and is also an Associate Member of the Cambridge University Centre for International Business and Management (CIBAM).

  He regularly speaks in Cambridge and London both academically and to business executive audiences. His areas of business expertise include retail and private banking, value and risk management and corporate governance.

• 

  David Andrews

  Senior Vice President, Shubert Ticketing, USA

  David Andrews is the Senior Vice President of Shubert Ticketing, the division of the Shubert Organization responsible for the sale of half the Broadway tickets each year.

  Working at the forefront of technology in ticketing, David has spent his career testing, implementing and optimizing new technologies and advances in live entertainment ticketing.  During his tenure at Shubert, his strategic oversight and guidance have facilitated major advances in ticketing including: consumer sales over the phone, online ticketing, API inventory integrations, and enterprise-level wholesale partnerships.  Today, one of David’s focus areas is spearheading initiatives that fully integrate attendee and buyer data into the live entertainment experience.  Technology continues to be the driving force behind his career and has shaped trajectory of The Shubert Organization in the digital era.  This focus on nimble tech development continues to shape the scope and impact of the Shubert Organization’s involvement in the  live entertainment space – extending its reach  beyond commercial theatre and Broadway.

• 

  Ken Lowson

  Reformed King of Ticket Bots/TixFan, USA

  When you’ve invented Ticket Bots and purchased more than 1,500,000 tickets amassing more than $25 million in profits, you’ve learned a few things about the ticketing business!

  Ken was the principle founder of the infamous Wiseguy Tickets. He cornered the majority of premium tickets for the hottest events and became the leading source for secondary markets. At his peak, Lowson was running an international network of 100,000 IP addresses using co-located servers.

  Wiseguy had zero inventory risk, unlimited broker credit cards, and 1000+ individual primary seller accounts. Their Bot performance was measured in milliseconds ensuring the front of the online queues plus automated visual and audio CAPTCHA without using Optical Character Recognition. The Wiseguy operation became so powerful that for one US Football Rose Bowl game, it purchased 990 out of a 1000 seat allocation. Federally indicted in 2011, Ken pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

  Ken has returned to the ticket world to share his inside knowledge and benefit Live Event Creators by eliminating unwanted reselling and recapturing Fan spending power. As the “Catch Me If You Can” guy of tickets, he can stop Bots, reduce fraud and boost PR.

  At the 2017 Forum, Ken Lowson will share his unique take on 21st Century ticketing, take open questions on stage and showcase some of the new services he’s offering to improve in-house ticket revenues and fan loyalty.

  You can find Ken’s company, TIXFAN at tixfan.com.

• 

  Barry Grant

  Client Partnership Manager, Ambassador Theatre Group, UK

  In case you need reminding, The Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) is a major international theatre organisation headquartered in the UK, with offices in London, New York, Sydney, Mannheim and Cologne. ATG’s key operations comprise three inter-related activities: theatre ownership and management; theatre producing activity; and ticketing and marketing operations. ATG runs 46 venues in Britain, the US and Australia. The company is among the most prolific theatre producers in the world with co-productions in the UK, New York and across North America. ATG Tickets issues more than 11 million tickets annually and its .com address is the UK’s most visited theatre website with 120 million page views and 20 million unique visits per annum. ATG also boasts the UK’s largest theatre membership program, ATG TheatreCard, with over 100,000 members.

  Running ATG’s CRM for the past 7 years, Barry is based in ATG’s Head Office with responsibility for Affiliates, Partnerships and Third Party Contracts. He deals with major National and International clients across many industries, including Travel Trade, Lifestyle Concierge and Financial Services. He’s been with ATG for 15 years, joining from The Lowry. Barry will be joining “The Social Selling” workshop, sharing insights into the effectiveness of social marketing tools to drive attendance and loyalty.

• 

  Hans Ober

  Co-founder, Ticketswap, The Netherlands

  Hans Ober came up with the idea of TicketSwap during his Master International Management in Amsterdam because he encountered several issues with buying and selling tickets on Facebook. With only experience in car sales and investment advice, he always was very interested in entrepreneurship and the power of internet. After finishing his Master degree in 2015, last year he is won the Leading Online Entrepreneur of the Year talent awards.

• 

  Einar Sævarsson

  CEO, Activity Stream, Iceland

  Einar is the CEO / Co-Founder of Activity Stream. He is passionate about organisational innovation including people, technology, operations and data. Prior to Activity Stream, Einar successfully created ticketing companies in four countries, including as one of the founders of Venuepoint, a leader in Scandinavian ticketing.

  Einar holds a degree in industrial engineering and is now combining his passion for engineering excellence with his knowledge of sports and entertainment ticketing. Unveiled at last year’s Forum, Activity Stream is bringing world-class data visualisation, insight and analytical tools to ticketing and revenue management. For 2017, he’ll be showcasing some of their recent successes in “bringing light and vision to the dark recesses of ticketing data.”

• 

  Tom Rowell

  Marketing, Communications and Ticketing Manager, Hull City FC, UK

  Tom is a very driven and passionate marketer currently combining his love of football with his academic skills as Marketing, Communications and Ticketing Manager at Hull City. Tom has strong experience with all aspects of marketing, particularly with CRM/loyalty programmes. He has gained valuable and varied experience from his time with four current and former Premier League teams; Leicester City, Wolves, Birmingham City and Hull City.

• 

  Milos Nenadovic

  Business Development Executive, Euroleague Basketball, Spain

  Milos began his career at Euroleague Basketball in 2013, initially managing VIP ticket sales for the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four. Milos now manages all ticketing issues for the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four, as well as managing ticketing & attendance issues for the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague and the 7DAYS EuroCup.
  In addition, Milos helps coordinate the Euroleague Basketball Ticketing Programme – a consulting service for top European clubs focused on the implementation of a professional strategy aimed to increase and consolidate game-day revenues; as well as helping coordinate Euroleague Basketball events happening in countries across the Far-East.

• 

  Eddie Robb

  CEO, Make It Social, UK

  Got those group bookings sorted? Integrated social invite with your marketing and booking touchpoints? Eddie Robb is the man to show you how! Eddie is the CEO of Make It Social, where the mission is simple – “to make the world a truly social place”. The idea is also simple: by making a platform that ensures simple and organic social group bookings, more people will do more with more friends. The company’s innovative technology – a set of APIs with multiple SDK’s which can be integrated within a matter of hours to allow for group booking technology – has been adopted by sports and entertainment businesses to drive incremental revenues.

  Eddie originally set up a youth travel brand called As You Like It Holidays. During his time with As You Like It he discovered the pains of organising groups of youths and designed and developed a tool to make life easier for his team and to allow larger groups to form. This technology has evolved into Make it Social. As a non-technical founder, Eddie’s focus is on ensuring the product is driven towards its ultimate goal and to deliver on sales and marketing. He’ll be sharing the social success with case studies from Surrey County Cricket Club, Harlequins RFC and ATG.

• 

  Kyle Wright

  Interactive Marketing & Analytics Manager, Shubert Ticketing, USA

  A hit with our 2016 audience, Kyle was at the top of our ‘must get that speaker back’ list. Shubert Ticketing is a division of The Shubert Organisation, Broadway’s largest theatre owner and operator, with additional venues in Boston and Philadelphia, and one of the leading forces in American theatre over 100 years. Last year, Shubert Ticketing’s central platform processed sales of 12 million tickets, totaling over US$1 billion, via box offices, online, by phone, and through hundreds of third-party agents.

  Working at the intersection of data acquisition and digital marketing for Broadway’s ticketing leader, Kyle has spent the last four years developing an integrated data marketing platform which leverages the power of the venue data to better mine audiences and increase ticketing conversion. Integrations with more traditional marketing channels – email, social, and retargeting/re-engagement – provide additional fuel and added-value to the platform. Prior to The Shubert Organisation, Kyle managed marketing for an entertainment marketing startup – Plum Benefits – which provides online access to live entertainment discounts to employees as a corporate benefit through HR departments.

• 

  Lyndsey Jackson

  Head of Operations, Edinburgh Fringe Festival Society, UK

  Lyndsey wowed our international audience with the scale and complexity of Edinburgh Fringe’s ticketing operation. In her hectic working life, Lyndsey oversees the Box Office, operational, financial and administrative aspects of the Charity.

  Lyndsey joined the Fringe Society in 2013 after six years as a producer and general manager in independent new writing theatre companies in Belfast and Lincoln, preceded by four years managing research support at the University of Manchester. She brings her considerable expertise (and energy) to chair various panels and get the debate flowing at #TTF17.

• 

  Clive Humby

  Chief Data Scientist, Starcount and Director, Purple Seven, UK

  Clive Humby is a renowned entrepreneur, marketeer and pioneer in customer data and loyalty programmes. In 1989, he formed dunnhumby with his partner Edwina Dunn which went on to manage Customer Loyalty programs for retailers around the world. In 2011, dunnhumby was sold to Tesco (aka Club Card) and he and Edwina are now working on helping organisations build valuable products from their data.

  He is a Director at Purple Seven, helping the arts and entertainment industry understand, develop and engage their audiences using ticketing data. Clive also has extensive experience of working with summarised geographic data and issues around Privacy of commercially sensitive data. He was one of the first commercial users of census data in the late 1970’s and one of the architects of ACORN system, widely used by government and commerce for local area planning.

  At dunnhumby, they developed an extensive range of analytics of shopping data and developed methods for sharing insights from this data with commercial partners whilst protecting consumers’ personal transaction data.

  His work has been recognised by the Market Research Society, where he is both an Honorary Fellow and Patron and Ambassador for the “Fair Data” initiative, designed to give consumers confidence in their data being protected.  He also holds honorary Fellowships from the Institute of Direct Marketing and the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications and was made Companion by the Operation Research Society in 2014.
  Clive is a patron of the Sir Isaac Newton Institute of Mathematics in Cambridge where he works on a number of projects with leading global academics to explore ways of anonymising and masking big data.

  He is a visiting Professor of North Western University in Chicago and Kingston University where he lectures in advanced Marketing Strategies.

  Clive was appointed as advisor to The Royal Academy of Arts in 2015 and is due to receive an Honorary Doctorate of Engineering from the University of Sheffield in 2016.

• 

  Karim Fanous

  Head of Research, Music Ally, UK

  At Music Ally we love music, and we love tech. We believe that these worlds should not be battling each other and so our mission for the past ten years has remained the same: to explore ways that the two worlds can work profitably together. Karim consults to clients across the recorded, live and digital music industry. He is also a regular speaker and has delivered keynotes at events including SxSW, Community festival, AIM Music Connected and Midem and chaired and programmed panels at events including the International Live Music Conference and by:Larm.

• 

  Grégory Six

  Major Projects and Development Manager, AS Monaco, Monaco

  As the Major Projects and Development Manager in AS Monaco, Grégory Six is responsible for promoting and facilitating development projects in strategic areas (primarily infrastructures, customer experience and information systems), managing all aspects to ensure successful completion.
  Gregory has a 10-year proven track record of managing projects in ticketing, eCommerce, and sport science for elite level soccer clubs in France. He joined AS Monaco in 2015 after 4 years as a consullting company owner specialising in technologies for the sport / entertainment industry.
  He assisted many of the best projects in France in this period like the refurbishment and construction of Stadiums for Euro 2016, France Galop for the new Longchamp racetrak, the St Quentin Velodrome, the World Equestrian Games Normandy 2014, the new Paris Zoo, and two editions of the Festival de Cannes.
  Gregory is also involved as an associate in Hoops Factory, the 1st concept of indoor Basketball centres in partnership with the NBA, Nike, NBA2K, Playstation and Pepsi Co.

• 

  Richard Howle

  Commercial Director, Really Useful Theatres Group, UK

  Richard is the Commercial Director at Really Useful Theatres Group, responsible for ticketing in its seven theatres including The London Palladium and The Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Previously he was Head of Ticketing at aka, one of the leading global marketing and advertising agencies for live entertainment. He has worked in ticketing for 18 years and has been responsible for ticket sales and strategy on productions all over the world. These include Billy Elliot the Musical, Dirty Dancing, War Horse, Walking with Dinosaurs, Shrek the Musical and Jersey Boys.

  As a ticketing consultant, he has worked with clients such as The Royal Opera House, The National Theatre, The Old Vic, The RSC, Arts Centre Melbourne, Working Title Films, Dreamworks, Cameron Mackintosh and Sonia Friedman.

  Passionate about ticketing, Richard has served on the council of STAR (Society of Ticket Agents and Retailers) since 2010.

  At #TTF17, Richard will be sharing RUT’s journey in its choice of in-house ticketing platform and how this world-leading theatre organisation envisages the future of its ticketing operations.

• 

  Federico Smanio

  Head of Digital Marketing and Fan Relationship Management, Lega B, Italy

  Federico Smanio has designed the overall digital, CRM and social media marketing strategy and is currently Head of Digital and Fan Relationship Management at Lega B, where he also co-ordinates the Supporter Liaison Officers across all 22 clubs of Italy’s second league.

  He graduated in Economics at the University of Bologna, is a fluent multi-lingualist (English and Spanish) and a passionate learner of Mandarin Chinese!

  Previously, he was a professional football player from 1997 to 2008, managed to start a new career in the sports industry at Lega Nazionale Professionisti Serie B, the Italian second division football league, where he has been working since June 2010 assisting the CEO in the implementation of the Marketing Department of the most dynamic sports organisation in the country.

  He is passionate about all things digital and fascinated by the way the new media will affect the lives of people and businesses. 1h 23 min half marathoner and hopeless gourmand, he also writes blog posts on the web, commenting on sport, marketing, language learning, travels, economy and current affairs.

  At the Forum in Dublin, Federico will be showcasing how Italian clubs are grouping their digital assets and utilising emerging channels to drive ticket sales, renewals and reward loyalty.

• 

  Joseph Lee

  CEO, Cityline, Hong Kong

  Since 1993, Cityline has grown from a ticketing solution provider that is cinema centric to covering live events, visitor attractions and sports. Cityline have transformed their booking engine to create a tailor-made solution for restaurant bookings and online enrollment systems. In 2017, they will also become a payment gateway service provider.

  Joseph Lee is currently CEO of Cityline. Joining in 2004, he has been the spearhead in successfully expanding the company from a movie centric e-ticketing platform to a multi-dimensional comprehensive ticketing service provider with customers throughout China, Hong Kong and Macau.

  Joseph has over 30 years of experience in the information technology industry. He previously held management positions in renowned multi-national corporations such as IBM, Powersoft and Centura Software, specialising in IT operation, technology and architecture, project management, software development and business development. He obtained a First Class Honours Bachelor Degree in Computing Science from Simon Fraser University, Canada and e-Commerce and an Internet Computing Masters Degree from The University of Hong Kong.

  Joseph has been invited to speak at major industry events such as CIO Leadership Forum 2013 Macau and PMI Asia Pacific Project Management Congress and was a panelist at CineAsia Hong Kong 2016. In 2016, Joseph was awarded the Asian Chinese Leadership Award by the Asian College of Knowledge Management to recognise his outstanding contribution to business innovation and economic development.

  Joseph (and we) liked the idea of sharing Cityline’s experience and evolution in becoming an e-commerce total solutions provider at the Forum in Dublin.

• 

  Francis Casado

  Co-Founder and Head of Business Development, 3D Digital Venue, Spain

  Francis Casado is one of the founders of Mobile Media Content – 3D Digital Venue and is currently serving as Head of Business Development. Prior to founding MMC- 3D Digital Venue, which revolutionised Interactive Digital Venue Management for the Sports and Entertainment Venue Industry – Francis made his career around the beneficial application of 3D Technology and Virtual Reality for various sectors.

  A true entrepreneur, Francis’s previous time at Barcelona Media was primarily focused as a product manager responsible for developing innovative 3D solutions for use in construction of new urban developments by Barcelona Smart City Council.

• 

  Bernie Mullin

  Founder and Chairman, The Aspire Group, USA

  Dr. Bernie Mullin is Chairman and CEO of The Aspire Group (TAG), a leading global management and marketing consulting business that partners with its clients in implementing “Next-Practices” to produce winning brands, revenue enhancement and strong sales and service cultures. TAG provides a distinct competitive advantage in maximizing organisational and marketing effectiveness, growing sales and building an avid and sustainable fan base. The Aspire Group has clients located in seven countries located on four continents representing best-in-class leagues, teams and brands.

  An internationally-acclaimed management and marketing consultant and speaker, who literally wrote the book, entitled “Sport Marketing”, Bernie has over 30 years of experience as a chief executive or senior director in iconic and highly visible sport and entertainment organisations.

  Dr. Mullin was formerly the CEO of Atlanta Hawks (NBA), Atlanta Thrashers (NHL) and Philips Arena; SVP- Marketing and Team Business at the NBA; SVP Business at MLB’s Colorado Rockies and Pittsburgh Pirates; Vice Chancellor of Athletics at the University of Denver (NCAA); and Business School / Sport Management faculty member at the University of Massachusetts.

  Bernie is the ‘godfather’ of sports marketing… and we’re honoured to have him back with us to share his insights into how technology is changing the way we reach and retain our fans.

• 

  Luke Massie

  Owner and Founder, Vibe Tickets, UK

  Luke Massie 23, is one of the UK’s youngest and most exciting tech entrepreneurs. He’s the founder of Vibe Tickets, an online platform that puts buyers and sellers in touch with one another, with an added social element. Vibe is the first ethical, transparent market place. Real fans, real tickets, real prices.

  After launching several other companies, and successfully selling his first company for £96,000 (a week before his 18th birthday), Massie founded Vibe Tickets in 2013, with £50,000 of his own money.

  He successful raised £400,000 at seed rounds and a further £612,000 in his most recent funding round; an investment opportunity which Luke opened up to the Vibe community. Vibe successfully smashed their crowdfunding target and attracted over 300 new investors and VC’s, as well as Lancashire County Council, becoming the first company that the Council have ever formally invested in. Vibe achieved a £6million pre-money valuation in the process. Having also gained the support of Sir Richard Branson after being runner up in Virgin Media’s VOOM 2016 competition, Vibe is ready for expansion.

  The Vibe team is currently working on developing a premium service, allowing users to be first in line for sold out tickets, as well as developing a secure payment platform.

  We’re thrilled to welcome Vibe Tickets to our #TTF17 ‘New Faces & Disruptors’ panel.

• 

  Steve Pearce

  Co-founder & CEO, TickX, UK

  Steve Pearce co-founded TickX as a result of going out far too often whilst at university and finding it a real chore discovering which events were happening and where to find the cheapest tickets. After contacting his co-founder Sam – the technical brains behind TickX – with the initial idea they were both amazed there was not one single platform for event goers to see what’s on, who’s selling tickets and who is the cheapest.

  Launched in September 2015, having received financial investment by the music behemoths Ministry of Sound, they have since gone on to turn down three Dragons’ investment offers on BBC’s Dragons’ Den and subsequently raised over $1M in funding… with a global vision, TickX are looking to become the ‘Skyscanner’ of event ticketing!

  Steve joins the #TTF17 ‘New Faces & Disruptors’ panel in Dublin.

• 

  Eric de Rugy

  Co-Founder, Delight, France

  Eric de Rugy, Delight’s co-founder, started as a mediaplanner. He founded his own media agency in 1993, sold it to WPP; remained CEO of MEC Paris until 2006, then launched Naked Communications in France, now renamed Red Guy. Recognized as one of the most respected authorities in Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC), he applies the principles of that discipline to live entertainment’s digital marketing.
  Eric is a graduate of Europe’s top business school HEC. As chairman of the HEC Marketing &Communications Club, he very actively supports start-ups in their marketing plans. He teaches IMC at SciencesPo and la Sorbonne.

• 

  Peter Oliver

  Director, Green 4 Solutions, UK

  Peter has over 20 years’ experience in providing CRM solutions to Sports and Leisure orgainsations worldwide. Throughout his career, he has been a pioneer in helping organisations develop a CRM-based customer engagement strategy.

  As Co-founder of Green 4 Solutions, Peter helps organisations look ‘beyond CRM technology’ and maximise the success of CRM driven projects in order to increase customer satisfaction, customer retention and maximise revenue and profit.

• 

  Chris Carey

  CEO, Media Insight Consulting, UK

  Chris is an entrepreneur, strategist and data expert. He founded FastForward in 2015 and he is founder and CEO of boutique research company, Media Insight Consulting, specializing in Consumer Surveys, and Big Data Analytics, with a focus on the music industry. Clients include Spotify, Sony Music, The O2 and BMG Music. He previously worked as Global Insight Director at Universal Music Group and at EMI, and Senior Economist at PRS for Music. He has been quoted in The Financial Times, The Economist, Forbes, The New York Times, The Independent as well as BBC Breakfast, Sky News, BBC 4’s Today Programme, BBC 5 Live, BBC World Service and music industry press.

   

• 

  Ben Rapp

  CEO, Managed Networks, UK

  Ben founded Managed Networks in 1998 as a spin-out from his previous software business. Focused on IT support and outsourcing for small and medium-sized businesses, Managed Networks is the leading provider of IT services to the live entertainment sector.
  He is also the founder and a principal consultant at Securys, a boutique information security firm specialising in cyber-security governance and board-level consultancy.

  Ben holds a number of non-executive positions, including having served as a director of TechUK – the UK trade federation for technology – and serving on and chairing various TechUK committees. He presently also sits on the Professionalism Board of BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT.

  Ben is a graduate of Oxford University, with an MA in French & Philosophy from Wadham College; a Chartered Fellow of the BCS; a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists; a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) with the Information Security Systems Management Professional (ISSMP) concentration.

  Born in 1969, married with two school-age children, a keen cyclist and charity fund-raiser, Ben was awarded NSPCC Fundraiser of the Year for 2014.

  Ticketing Technology Forum 2017 warmly welcomes Ben to the stage in Dublin.

• 

  Steven Sunshine

  CEO, Tixtrack , USA

  The Forum is delighted to welcome Steven Sunshine back to the speaker line up for 2017.

  Steven focuses on business strategy and technology innovation at TixTrack. Steven combines his knowledge of statistics and business to oversee a team that is revolutionising ticketing, from inventory visualisation to ticket pricing optimisation, while delivering the results in easy to use products.

  With more than 40 issued patents and 40 pending patents, Steven is focused on creating new technology that solves customer problems. Steven has a Ph.D. in chemistry from Northwestern University and an M.B.A from the USC Marshall School of Business.

• 

  Julien Piwowar

  President, PACIFA decision, France

  Julien has a Ph.D. in Operational Optimisation concerning safety and security at major events. He founded PACIFA decision in 2009 following its research to develop innovative tools to improve daily management and general revenue for multi-purpose arenas.

  Julien has been a corporate member of ESSMA – European Stadium and Safety Management Association – since 2010 and teaches at the University of Technology in Troyes.

  PACIFA decision tools are today in operation in more than 125 venues in the world, and in 2015 became the European leader in 3D seat mapping for online ticket sales and interactive staff management.

• 

  Reshad Hossenally

  Director, Ticket Arena & Event Genius, UK

  Founder and Managing Director of Ticket Arena & Event Genius, Reshad ‘Resh’ Hossenally started out selling tickets by hand as a part-time job while studying at University. Since 2008, he has developed the company into one of the UK’s leading primary ticketing and event technology providers, with operations spanning the globe.

  Tried and trusted by some of the industry’s biggest events, club promoters and artists – including Ibiza Rocks, Carl Cox, Parklife Festival and The Warehouse Project – under Resh’s strategic direction the company’s in-house developers apply innovative technologies to create flexible solutions that improve sales, amplify promotion and deliver greater efficiency. Throughout 2017 he will lead a £3 million programme to redesign the company’s brand and software solutions.

  By staying true to his original goal of providing gig-promoters with a better way to sell tickets online, the company has created robust solutions for longstanding industry issues, such as selling tickets via your own website, creating intelligent reports, improving social media visibility, as well as enabling peer-to-peer selling and cashless RFID payments.

  Reshad joins the #TTF17 ‘New Faces & Disruptors’ panel in Dublin.

• 

  Brian Message

  Founder, ATC Management, UK

  Brian Message is a partner in Courtyard Management, the organisation that manages Radiohead. He is also a co-founder of ATC, the management and live booking agency business. ATC represents over 200 artists, and Brian personally works with Nick Cave, PJ Harvey and a number of up and coming artists.

  Brian is a director and former chairman of the MMF, an organisation that represents over 500 front line artist managers and works closely with the Featured Artist Coalition the artist body whose co-chairs are Ed O’Brien (Radiohead), Nick Mason (Pink Floyd) and Sandie Shaw.

  Through his work with both organisations, he promotes the benefits of transparency and the opportunities provided by technological change, both for artists, their partners and the music industry as a whole.  He has been a big supporter of the introduction of streaming to the music eco-system and is a founding member of the FanFair Alliance, the campaign to mitigate industrial-scale online ticket touting.

• 

  Sarah Whittaker

  Head of Ticketing and Marketing, Multiplay, UK

  A confident, commercially astute and visionary leader with over 20 year’s experience in sales environments, also holding a professional diploma in marketing (CIM). Highly motivated and possessing excellent people management skills I am passionate about delivering exceptional results. I can gain commitment from a team by applying my understanding of people to build trust and motivate them to achieve their full potential and deliver results for the business. I set the framework ensuring I and my team understand the goal for success and work through the plan to ensure this is executed in the most effective way possible.

  Multiplay (now GameDigital) have two decades of experience delivering world class gaming events, enterprise game hosting and an established reputation in Esports.

  Their vision is to be the most recognised and trusted game services company in the industry. Delivering a premium service to consumers and clients worldwide, both on and offline. Their mission is to bring people together through unique experiences that can’t be achieved anywhere else, with a view to expand beyond their gaming heritage.

• 

  Nikolas Schriefer

  Co-Founder & CEO, Stagelink, Germany

  Nikolas is the founder and CEO of Stagelink.com – the tour promoter of the 21st century, enabling artists to efficiently market their shows with the help of their fans. Before starting his own company, Nikolas studied jazz composition, piano and business administration in Cologne and New York City and toured the world as pianist, manager and producer of several groups.

  Today, Stagelink serves more than 150 creators who have collected 200,000 fan requests and sold tickets for more than $1,500,000 on the platform. Stagelink graduated from Techstars Berlin 2015.

• 

  Duong Phan

  Managing Director, Pims, France

• 

  Laurent Thibault

  Managing Director, Oscar Productions, France

• 

  Bruce Mckenzie

  Sales Director, Townsend Music, UK

Who will be there

• 2017 Sponsors
• 2017 Partners
• 2017 Attendees

What are people saying?

The best networking place I've been to. I was able to get very high level leads and meet relevant partners. You did a great great job to gather such high level and exhaustive people!

Chloé Julien Founder & CEO, BandSquare, France

CIOs, CTO,s Chief Execs... all those people turn up at this event. it’s a fantastic opportunity to engage with them

Rick Jurkiewicz Head of Ticketing, The Rugby Football League, UK

This is the focal point of the ticketing industry in Europe, where the decision makers meet and exchange ideas

Niels Henrik Sodemann Managing Partner/CEO, Queue-it, Denmark

At the Forum we made concrete progress with regards to selecting a new ticketing provider. I would be happy to recommend the Forum to other venues in the future.

Martin O'Donoghue Business Development Manager, Cork Opera House, Ireland

If you’re curious about the future, if you want to see how things are developing, if you wanna get to know your peers... you need to be at the Forum.

James Charrington CEO, Dewynters, UK