Patron Edge 3.310 patch 10 is now available

Happy integration patch day! Patch 10 for Patron Edge 3.310 is now available for download at http://downloads.blackbaud.com and includes fixes for the following reported issues:

BB350540 - Error synchronizing membership for : Field is read only: Type
BB353804 - Memberships do not sync properly for specific records
BB403754 - Error synchronizing membership for : Expires on required if not a Lifetime Membership
BB417248 - Error: Error synchronizing membership for [XXXXX] Membership type [XX] is inactive in the Patron Edge
BB437126 - Spousal relationships do not sync properly
BB461306 - PE email addresses not synchronizing into RE
BB469214 - Error: 'Error merging from PE: Merges are not allowed outside of the Blackbaud merge application'
BB516866 - Incorrect number of transactions appear on Ticket Sales Commissions report detailed by event

Make sure you have a patch plan and can handle the downtime it takes to apply a patch, and don't forget to see Knowledgebase solution BB346664 to make sure any products you integrate with are compatible.

Biscuits and Blogging

I subscribe to the Ticket Biscuit blog, and they recently did a great series called Selling Tickets in a Tough Economy. While their audience is primarily made up of promoters of pop music, boxing and mixed martial arts, their content frequently applies to nonprofit venues as well.

The first article in the series is about using tech to work for you, to spread your reach and connect better with your audience. Josh Gair of Impact Entertainment Services in Orlando uses Twitter and other free, online tools to spread the word about new events and encourages his network of friends to then push it to their friends. From the article:

Gair is a poster representative of a movement that is rapidly gaining steam amongst live event promoters – acknowledging the importance of internet-based networking tools and using them to find audiences. Gair argues that it’s pretty much a necessity in today’s game. “I think that those who aren’t leveraging these tools are just too busy doing the business to slow down and realize the potential,” he states.

Gair also expressed the importance of constantly putting out fresh content to keep people involved and excited, and I couldn't agree more. Just sending an email announcement and running some advertising isn't enough nowadays. While those are great tools to let people know, they are not ways to make people care. Use a blog or weekly newsletter to keep the content coming. Write stuff that people want to read about. Here are just a few ideas:

• Get buy-in from your creative director and stage manager to post "behind the scenes" articles or clips of rehearsal videos.
• Have a curator write about interesting or new pieces in your museum's collection.
• Post weekly interviews with musicians in the orchestra, including the current top 10 songs in their music players.

Write often and be consistent. Use a best-of-breed blog tool with a low learning curve like Wordpress or Movable Type. Like all great tools, these stay out of your way and let you do your thing rather than becoming another system to learn. I highly recommend Wordpress and use it for my own nonprofit. It's free and open source, and you can download and install it yourself or use their free hosted blog service (with your own domain name!).

What tech tools are used at your organization to keep your audience engaged and increase your reach to new people? Leave a success (or disaster) story in the comments.

Even More Potential

I got some feedback on the Potential Revenue Report I put up last month and have made some improvements. Some folks told me that promoters who are used to working with Ticketsmasher (ack!) always ask for reports on free seats totaled by price level. One client told me she manually counts every unsold seat on the sales map for every price level in an event, does the math and then sends the information to the promoter in a spreadsheet. With that in mind and to make your lives easier, there are now two reports. The first breaks down by area within the event and the second breaks down by price level.

To install:

1. Download this set of files: Potential Revenue Report.zip
2. Add the stored procedure to your PE database
3. Add the report into Patron Edge per Knowledgebase solution BB142029

If you're using the report, leave a comment and let me know how it's working and if you have any feedback about it.

As with any stuff I give out on The Spotlight, this isn't a core piece of the product; it's custom so that means it is unsupported. My analysts cannot help with the report or take questions on it. If you have any problems with it, please leave a comment, hit the forums, or send me an email.

Blogging the INTIX Conference

So I'll be honest. INTIX was a little more somber this year, and definitely had fewer attendees. The sessions at INTIX Chicago last year had a lot more depth. Most of the ones I attended this time around were so high level that, while there were a few ideas for new side projects, there wasn't a lot of applied knowledge to bring back and share with you directly. The vendor booth was great though. I got to see some longtime clients and talk about how things are going (and brought one along for some dive-bar karaoke again this year). The Hale Centre Theatre was gracious to give my colleagues and me the full tour where we got to see all of the fun bits backstage, or around- and under-stage really since it's a theatre in the round. They also showed us amazing clips from past productions that highlight some of the incredible things they've been able to pull off technically. If you're ever in Salt Lake City, miss whatever you have to in order to make it to one of their shows.

This year's conference reminded me of something I'd kind of forgotten, having been off the frontline as a phone support rep the last couple of years. I enjoy hearing what's going on with you all. Of course I love hearing about what is going well. But I also like hearing what kind of back office management, patron services, and even development and finance issues are going on. It's often those conversations that lead to new insights, features, and customizations that allow you to focus more on your passion and worry less about your software. You can post a blog comment or start a thread on the forums to get input from other readers (I check them 2-3 times a week for new posts), or you can shoot me an email to talk about what's going on or just to vent a little. If I see a way to help I will, and I love a challenge; just ask around if you don't believe me.