“TRADE FAIR TICKETING: RIGHT NOW IS THE TIME FOR INNOVATION”

Trade fair companies in Düsseldorf, Munich, Stockholm, Basel, Zurich, Karlsruhe, Nuremberg and many others are already on the reference list. And more will soon follow. The new Vice Chairman of the UFI Digital Working Group Gunnar Heinrich, who is also adventics CEO, talks about ticketing systems for trade fair organisers in an interview. For the consulting firm, these systems are a very special home game …

One can also clearly see a positive side to the current exceptional situation. Because now is precisely the time for innovations. If a trade fair company wants to implement innovations at the moment, it will find optimal conditions. The lack of day-to-day business makes updates of any kind easier – if you don’t have to sell tickets at the moment, it’s easier to rebuild the ticketing system. In addition, exhibitors and visitors have a lot of understanding for change right now. I would even say they are literally expecting it.

[lacht] This can definitely only be answered in the context of the requirements of the respective trade fair company. A “one size fits all” system does not exist. Functions and features depend very much on the respective requirements: How small or large is the trade fair, how internationally oriented, are trade or public fairs primarily organised? Should it also be used to manage the congress business? Should foreign subsidiaries work with the system? There is always a suitable ticket system according to the application. You just have to find the right solution.

A modern ticket system should definitely be capable of integration and interaction for the future. It must also definitely be able to grow with the requirements of a trade fair company. Right now, many want to be able to incorporate new possibilities: Ticket quotaing due to limiting visitor numbers or registrations for hybrid or virtual events are two popular current examples. For those who have the right systems, this is easy. Others can quickly run into problems if partners don’t go along with the conversion, expensive programming becomes necessary or systems simply can’t grow with them.

There is enormous pressure to innovate in the whole field of registration and ticketing systems. Until now it was enough to sell tickets and let people in, now more is rightly demanded. The most important formula has been for a long time: Tickets are given in exchange for data. And registration is still the most important system to get to the basis of the participant data.

There is a lot going on in Europe and Asia at the moment, and there are a lot of interesting new projects. As I mentioned, you always have to look at ticketing systems very much in the respective business context. Nevertheless, I see the main innovative pressure above all in the area of data handling. Invitations and the entire topic of monitoring are crucial here. The generation and management of profiles, data management and data connectors and things that have long been considered solved, such as invitation and guest card management, will keep the industry busy for a long time. Personally, I would not put the implementation of different payment systems, which some consider crucial, at the top of the list.

The second big field for innovation pressure I see is in the integration possibilities for virtual platforms. This is a very important question, especially for hybrid events, when existing events are extended into the digital space.

Some systems are already prepared for this, but are the providers? Some have found it easier in the past when only requirements were implemented and no innovations were brought in from outside. That’s why I would always want to add to the question “Where is the innovation pressure?” “Where is the innovation potential of the systems?” Which then of course also applies to their operators.

Definitely. On the one hand, much more data is available due to regulatory constraints. For example, all public fairs must now be fully registered. A requirement that many used to think was not possible or in any case not necessary. And secondly, through Covid, virtual and hybrid elements will stay in the medium and long term. To do them successfully, you need perfect data. The better the data, the more participants, as well as matching participants.

Covid is accelerating the pressure to innovate. Organisers have to ensure regulatory compliance or need support for virtual events. We are all seeing a strong shift towards additional digital business models. The digital business will remain and be continuously expanded, but it is difficult to operate it successfully without a system basis.

The only drawback is that the budget situation is unfortunately under pressure. Colleagues on short-time work, budget discipline and austerity constraints are hampering the implementation of much-needed updates. Nevertheless, I maintain that now is the ideal time for system change. Now we have fewer events and when they take place they are smaller. 2023 is too late, when business has started up again and the competitors have long since overtaken me.

If we knew that, we would have built it already [lacht]. There are already a number of theses worldwide on the ticketing system of the future, and this is also a topic in the digital working group of the UFI.

The market expects various elements in the ticketing system of the future. On the one hand, there is the controversially discussed face recognition technology, which will eventually completely replace registration and admission control. But even before that, it will be possible to minimise registration issues in advance. The signs are generally pointing to acceleration: Important profile information such as interests can be collected in the course of the visitor journey after entering the trade fair event. Those who are also well positioned in terms of 360-degree visitor management have optimised the admission process in a customer-friendly way and still have the best possible data.

Yes, it really is, and has been since the company was founded in 2006. Our experience with ticketing systems is even in the company name. adventics is made up of the words “adventor”, Latin for visitor, and “tics”, short for tickets. Before we founded adventics, we had all gained experience with different ticketing systems since the early 90s. We then bundled this experience under the company umbrella. We play this game with many renowned partners on the European trade fair market such as ADITUS, dimedis, axess but also many others.

In the course of this long time, we have already been able to implement many European projects, both in terms of consulting, supplier selection and support during the launch. We have also developed our own methodology for ticketing systems. Over the years, a comprehensive catalogue of requirements, use cases and international best practices has emerged from our client enquiries. For our European trade fair clients, who often have public sector shareholders, our expertise with EU tenders is also a reassuring advantage. This has made us the provider with the most comprehensive set of possible building blocks on the market, from which we can then offer the right elements for our customers. The amount of know-how means that we can work faster and more cost-effectively to the point and in the interests of our clients.