We are pleased to announce new Arts and Cultural events across the UK. Registration will open shortly, but make sure you save the date.
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Northern Ireland - Tuesday 23rd June at Strule Arts Centre, Omagh
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North - Thursday 25th June at West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds
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South - Thursday 2nd July at Blackbaud Europe, London
The forums are a great opportunity for Box Office Managers to share ideas, enhance product knowledge and talk tickets.
Ticket Talk 0.0.1 discussed the space around your online ticketing.
Do you have any comments or considerations? If you would like to share experience, discuss challenges or simply talk tickets - please add your thoughts to the Ticket Talk blog. 
Welcome to today's Ticket Talk.
One of the positive attributes of an online presence is that it effectively levels the playing field for every venue. You can have capacity for 50 people, but have a website akin to a venue for 5000.
There are a wide variety of small scale sttractions, venues and festivals - often where an audience can discover fantastic niche events - the internet offers an opportunity for these venues to acquire new visitors and extend word of mouth. Whether it be Thomas The Tank Engive, The National Teapot Museum or Canal Cafe Theatre - size need not matter when it comes to your online offering.
There are a number of options for non-ticketing information you can offer online, which can reinforce your position as an organisation.
How many of the following do you have on your website?
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Downloadable Press Releases
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Uploaded Press Coverage
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External Hire Information
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Local Listings (E.g. Local attractions or restaurants)
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Education and / or Community Information
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Links to External Websites (E.g. Visitng Companies)
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Links to Local Transport
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Visitor / Audience Testimonials
If you can increase the amount of information available online, you may increase the average time spent browsing your site, which can benefit your organisation in several ways:
a) Advertising Real Estate: Remember that browse time is a key metric for potential advertisers, who need to maximise the exposure of their brand. Providing you offer quality information online, you can offer quality exposure online, which can drive the value of your advertising.
b) External Relations: Recipricol links both from and to your website can drive transactions on your website and exhance your relationship with those organisations that you link to.
c) Up-Sell and Cross-Sell: Additional online information, creates additional online opportunities to promote your own tickets, merchandise and memberships - so if your organisation is not involved in advertising - you can drive transactions through your website.
There are three key points to consider when increasing information content:
1) Keep it Clean - Informative Content should be kept up to date.
2) Keep it Narrative - Rationalise the navigation - how is a potential bisitor likely to navigate your site?
3) Keep on Brand - Maintain the user experience throughout the site.
Thank you for checking out today's Ticket Talk. If you would like to share your experience or raise questions, you are wlecome to contribute to Ticket Talk - simple click: Comments.
We are pleased to announce new format Patron Edge training, available at our London office classroom. These are a good opportunity to make the most of your ticketing.
If you would like to find out more, please contact Eddie Lee. eddie.lee@blackbaud.co.uk
The Patron Edge and the Box Office Manager (1 day) - Tuesday 23rd June
This course is great for: Box Office Management
Facing Your Audience with The Patron Edge Online Beginners (1 day) - Tuesday 11th August
This course is great for: Box Office Management, Marketing - anyone responsible for putting events onsale online.
Facing Your Audience with The Patron Edge Online Intermediate (1 day) - Tuesday 18th August
This course is great for: Marketing, Designers, System and IT Managers or Box Office Managers