Connecting the global ticketing ecosystem together

Paul Williamson is a Director of Two Circles, specialising in ticketing and revenues for major sports events.

In the last decade Paul has driven record breaking ticket sales and attendances at the London 2012 Olympics, Rugby World Cups in England and Japan, Cricket World Cups in England and Australia, Athletics World Championships in England and the USA and many other events – Ryder Cup, Commonwealth Games, Euros football and Hockey World Cup.

Thomas has been working with the league from 2012 and is the brain behind the league and clubs digitalisation journey. The league offer a lot of joint products to its member clubs; like mediaplattform with a connected PWA, CRM/FRM, Ticketing system, OTT-Platform, Fantasy, WiFi onboarding and different tagging solution to mention some.

As a true Star Wars-fan Thomas lives by the famous quote from Yoda: – Always pass on what you have learned.

Edwin Suk, chief information officer at Feyenoord (football and stadium). I have studied business economics and have 20 years of experience in general management and IT. I maintain a visionary, strategic and central approach for IT, since it is essential for success, distinctiveness and growth in modern organisations and it is an important driver for inevitable change. My main goal is to transform organisations with my colleagues into profitable, information driven, digitalized, agile and innovative businesses, resilient, flexible, effective and able to grow.

Robin is the driving force for Seat Unique becoming the go-to marketplace for fans to buy official hospitality packages and tickets, and clubs and venues to sell hospitality inventory. With over 15 years experience working in live events, Robin has acquired unparalleled knowledge and founded Seat Unique to champion online hospitality sales, dynamically priced premium ticketing & supporter exchanges.

Sam Shemtob is a director of the Face-value European Alliance for Ticketing (FEAT), launched in 2019 to promote face-value resale and better resale practices across Europe. In 2020 FEAT published its position paper outlining recommendations for the EU’s new Digital Services Act, which could reshape ticket resale across Europe. The paper received widespread backing from industry, parliamentarians and academics. In 2019, FEAT successfully lobbied for a Europe-wide ban on the use of bots to bulk-buy tickets, the EU’s first ever legislation on ticket resale. Sam is also a regular contributor to the UK’s All Party Parliamentary Group on Ticket Abuse.

Delivering innovation, scalable solutions and partnerships is now the key to success for APT SKIDATA and our customers. End-to-end customer experience with one pass / ticket for all access and services is our focus. With access, eticketing, e charging and parking under one roof this is an achievable goal for all venues.

Jeff’s experience bridges WiFi solutions, apps, beacons, locations services and software integration as well a deep understanding of the stadium/venue landscape.

Co- founder and CEO of NewC Sport, a Danish-based technology business company.

It’s NewC Sport’s mission to help football clubs create long-term relationships with fans and sponsors – and to use data intelligently to strengthen clubs commercially. Our digital solutions for ticketing, communication, and access control are fitted to the specific needs of the club and integrated with existing systems. Our starting point is always the club and the people around it. Working in a group where the stakes are high and where we are pushed and inspired to invent and create new ways to success, is my drive and passion in my work.

Cameron Hoy is a highly respected industry leader with three decades of senior level experience across technology, e-commerce, media and entertainment.

Joining Ticketek Australia as Director of Sales and Marketing in 2007, Cameron became Managing Director in 2010.

Cameron now leads a global ticketing business operating across Australia, New Zealand, the Asia Pacific and the United Kingdom. Cameron was instrumental in establishing TEG’s Ovation business which provides Sporting Organisations, Venues, Promoters and Producers, with a single destination for analytics, data science, research, personalisation and advanced digital marketing.

His passion for building high performing teams is reflective of a track record of achieving growth in highly competitive markets and of delivering innovative tech solutions from concept through to market.

Mr. Lasse Rich Henningsen, 45, CEO of Musikkens Hus and Aalborg Symfoniorkester. COB of Nordic Concert Halls, Danish Concert and Culture Halls (DKK) and BM of Political Festival of Europe.

Lasse graduated from Business Law School in 2003 and has been in management positions for 25 years. In 2018 he was awarded Leader of the Year – the most prestigious leadership award in Denmark.

Lasse is an experienced CEO with a history of working successfully and internationally in all areas of the music industry and in parts of the tv/film/gaming industry. He is an experienced business lawyer, mindsetter and fundraiser.

Swiss Vapour Parc is a miniature park operating 1/4-scale real steam locomotives in Switzerland. It is a major local attraction for Swiss, French and international visitors.

Damien has been Director for more than 6 years. Before that he was working in a major water parc in the same area.With a passion fo travels, with a strong tie to Japan, and the leisure industry, Damien has an important role in the Swiss-French speaking leisure industry.

He introduced dynamic pricing to this visitor attraction with success and is now a an advocate of dynamic pricing

Dawn is a commercial consultant working with pioneering producers, promoters and organisations around the world. She specialises in securing contracts with ambitious businesses across theatre, cinema, immersive experiences, children’s theatre, circus and arena events.

As a leader, speaker and commercial marketing specialist Dawn has an enviable reputation planning, building and delivering high profile revenue focused work.  As a recognised industry expert and leader, Dawn has won leadership and marketing awards, is often called upon to speak and share her knowledge and to write about her refreshing and unique sensibility of the sectors.

To find out more visit www.DawnFarrow.com

Rebecca leads the Commercial Business at Swansea City Football Club. She is responsible for the media, marketing, partnerships, sponsorships, hospitality, ticketing, conference and events and catering sides to the club. She also built the new digital platforms introduced at the club three years ago, including a new official website and two mobile apps. Rebecca has over 18 years’ digital experience working with some of the world’s largest brands such as Amazon and Yell. She introduced in-app ticketing to the club and more recently in-app season tickets, which were both firsts for UK football. She also built a separate app focusing on athlete welfare for the players and backroom staff. The club was recently shortlisted for five awards which include the Global Sports Technology Awards for ‘Best Technology in Fan Engagement’ and ‘Best Technology in Athlete Welfare’.

Mike has over 25 years innovating and shaping music tourism fusing his passion for music, sport and travel into a successful, disruptive business model that helps event organisers, venues and ticket agents monetise the events they sell through an innovative hotel and ticket packaging model.

Sound Travel’s proven partnership model is a data play that captures hotel market pricing pre an event announcement and predicts the increase in price of a hotel room based on previous demand driven data. This uplift is then built into the package and is available to share with event partners.

Carolyn’s experience in marketing events, brands and products ranges from theatre, live music and opera and across her roles as Marketing Director at Ticketmaster, Group Marketing Director at Time Out and Marketing Director at ENO and the London Coliseum. Delivering successful strategies for growth for over 2 decades (and possibly more) she is known not only for her expertise and passion for great marketing but for her effective leadership and some would say wit and humour. She now runs her own marketing & communications consulting business.

Alexandre is the CEO & Co-Founder of Smeetz, the #1 data-driven ticketing and dynamic pricing SaaS for attractions and cultural venues. The Swiss-based scale-up helps customers through Europe to automate pricing strategies, optimise occupancy and sell on multiple distribution channels.

Alexandre is a frequent speaker in various tech and startup conferences. His broad knowledge of different industries, as well as  his entrepreneurial / tech-driven mindset, have helped him and his team shape unique solutions to re-thinking ticketing and visitor journey post-pandemic.

He says: “We are the FUTURE of a unified, data-driven and dynamic pricing-oriented commerce for attractions and cultural venues. We help our customers scale up sales, reach and efficiency. Entrepreneurial / Tech-driven / Startup founder with expertise in product development, financing, marketing, sales, and growth strategy. I love putting all my problem-solving skills and creativity to improve the day-to-day of our customers, teammates, and partners.”

Einar is VP of Product & Engineering at Tix. Einar has been with Tix since earlier this year. Even though he does not have a long experience in ticketing he has a long experience in product management and is an experienced speaker. He has also experience in expansion as he has previously worked as VP of product management for both Bókun (now Tripadvisor) and Meniga.

Following a successful freelance career in children’s publishing, Leon started working for Aberdeen Performing Arts in September 2005. Leon moved up through the box office to become Head of Business Transformation in 2016, leading on the company’s IT strategy and policy development, managing the operations team and embedding environmental sustainability initiatives throughout the organisation. In August 2020, Leon took up a new role as Head of Ticketing and CRM at Edinburgh International Festival, where acts as the strategic lead for ticketing services.

Over the years, Leon has successfully delivered three ticketing/CRM system migrations, most recently in his current role, where he managed the transition from AudienceView to Spektrix – all done completely remotely due to the coronavirus pandemic! Edinburgh International Festival went live with Spektrix in April 2021.

Neil Jones has worked in live entertainment for over 25 years in a variety of roles across theatres, live venues and festivals including senior roles. Having started off in hist first job as a Box Office Assistant at the North Wales Theatre his career took him to various UK theatres, via Cheltenham Festivals and on to Operations Director for the Cambridge Corn Exchange and Cambridge Folk Festival.

In his current role of Head of Ticketing at the Royal Opera House he oversees the management and development of world-famous theatre’s Ticketing and Customer Support sections with the challenge of transforming the departments to better meet the demands of the modern digital age. Outside of the day job he has presented rock radio shows for 25 years. Whatever you do….don’t get him talking about Iron Maiden unless you have some time to kill!

Shah-Zeib comes from a tourism and hospitality background after successfully running a number of successful businesses in Austria.
An exchange term abroad during his business undergraduate course in Vienna quickly resulted in Shah-Zeib finding his new home – in Manchester.
From there the journey only got better, where in the iconic Maracanã during the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil, Shah-Zeib fell in love with the world of ticketing.

What followed on from there:
·        MBA Football Industries, University of Liverpool, 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia, FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup France 2018, FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019 and many more

Having gathered global ticketing experiences as a service provider and rightsholder, Shah-Zeib’s journey has taken him to a different shaped ball game to the Rugby League World Cup 2021.
At RLWC2021, he is the Head of Ticketing, tasked with the delivery of the most inclusive edition of the tournament staging the men’s, women’s and wheelchair tournaments across several iconic venues in England.
With the postponement of the tournament now confirmed Shah will also take on the role of dealing with the refunds process as a whole while still building towards the biggest and best RLWC ever in 2022.

James is Product Leader and Co-Founder at Tixserve, a Business-to-Business, Software-as-a-Service, white-label, digital ticket delivery platform for rights owners/ticket sellers in the global entertainment and sports sectors. With a background in delivering ground-breaking solutions in the payments and mobile airtime distribution sectors, James and co-founder Patrick saw an opportunity to add value to the ticketing industry with a market-led, next-generation, ‘last mile’ digital solution. The Tixserve mobile-based, patented technology enables effective personalised security, public health protocol compliance and access control to events, preventing unauthorised ticket exchange/resale and fraud while greatly enhancing the customer experience and supporting the development of new data-driven digital marketing and commerce partnerships.

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, that revolutionized Interactive Digital Venue Management for 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.

Tim Chambers is a Mentor, Advisor and Consultant. He currently works with a number of organisations seeking to enter, redefine or expand their operations within the live entertainment and ticketing sectors, advising on corporate development strategies and directing transactions. Tim also has a number of advisory posts including NED roles with various start-ups and emerging companies.

Ian is the Owner and Founder of TheTicketingBusiness Forum and its news channel TheTicketingBusiness.com – both presented by his Xperiology events and marketing agency. His working life began in sports 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 B2B publications and meetings, 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 – including Stadia magazine, TheStadiumBusiness.com and TheStadiumBusiness Summit. In his downtime from family and worklife, he takes his dogs on the Downs, rides his (motor)bikes and treks up the occasional mountain.