At Shedd, I’m part of the team working on an institution-wide initiative on Event Management and as part of it we are reaching out to other institutions to get a better understanding of what software is being used within the industry. If anyone on this forum is currently using Event Management software (or using Tessitura in a creative way to manage event booking and execution), I'd love to connect with you and learn more.
I appreciate any insights or knowledge you might be able to share with us!
All the best,
Heather McLaren
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Director, Guest Relations
John G. Shedd Aquarium
p 312.692.2702
www.sheddaquarium.org
H Heather -
Can you clarify for me what you mean by Event Management and the capabilities that you are looking at? We're in early development phase with zKipster and SocialTables (no ETA on a release yet) and I was wondering if that was what you were looking at or if it was, perhaps, another definition of event rather than a seated event usually with a fundraising or paid piece.
Cheers,
Heather
Hi Heather,
Thanks so much for your reply! A few of the events we book are fundraising events, but the majority are ticketed events or venue rentals (corporate events, weddings, etc.). We're happy with how Tessitura works for the ticketing and fundraising piece, but there are other elements of event planning that Tessitura doesn't currently help with.
Shedd is a pretty complex facility. Different areas of the building have different capacities, and because we have live animals, there are rules specific to individual exhibits, like what time lights go out; how many staff members we need; and whether food and drink are allowed in the area. About a dozen different departments have action items during the planning and execution phases of the event. We currently manage this all manually on Outlook calendars and spreadsheets. With multiple departments booking events, it's tough to know who held the date first, who's on the wait list (and in what order), and when it's feasible for two events to share the space. We also want a better way to *completely* black out event booking on our peak general public dates. Managing this manually leads to user error, overbooking, forgetting to release holds and having a date that another department might have booked go to waste, etc. So we're looking for a software that will allow us to collaborate better across departments and maximize use of the space.
We're at the stage of the process where we'll be requesting demos from 10-12 vendors. Based on what you know of zKipster and SocialTables at this early stage of development, do you think they're worth putting on our shortlist?
Thanks,Heather
We have been using a program called ArtsVision for the past season. It’s pretty robust and does a lot of what you’re talking about. I’m sure someone who worked on the installation and training would be happy to chat with you about it too!
http://site.artsvision.net/
We use it for all our spaces, not just the theaters.
Thanks Gabriela! We'll check out ArtsVision if it's not already on the shortlist.
I'd also encourage you to take a look at our other ecosystem partners in the Venue, Facility, & Artist Management category. https://www.tessituranetwork.com/en/Services/Partnerships/Venue-Management Artifax's E4 platform is integrated to Tessitura and EventBooking and Ungerboeck are in the process of developing integrations as well. Contact information for each of these partners in included at the link above or please feel free to reach out to me directly if you have other questions. kdegenhart@tessituranetwork.com
Thanks,
Kelly D