How Can The Internet Benefit Your Facility?

Based on the survey, this industry has definitely embraced the Internet. Of the 207 respondents, 98.9 percent have a web site and 87.4 percent have high-speed Internet access.

Overall, venues spent an average of $21,000 developing their web sites, and spend roughly $3,800 per year on Internet services. There was quite a range within these numbers (some venues spend as little as $500, some as much as $100,000), but the fact is, people are spending money in this medium.
When asked what value they received from the Internet for their venue, the overwhelming responses were positive. An interesting trend showed that those venues that spent more money on the Internet, and whose web sites had more features, marked a higher value.

The most common use of the Internet is letting people know what is going on at the venue. Most venue web sites not only have a calendar of upcoming events, but also directions to the venue, where to buy tickets and pictures of seating charts. Why is this so useful? One of the survey respondents said it best: “We average 20 percent ticket sales on the Internet. Our web site answers many questions which used to tie up our operators.”

Tips:
■ Keep your web site calendar updated
First, check with your booking calendar software provider to see if they offer a web plug-in that can automatically update your web site’s calendar. Many of the more popular programs such as FASTbook, ConCentRICs and Scheduler Plus offer this plug-in. If you are not using a program that offers the plug-in, there are several web based software programs that offer online calendars, such as www.webevent.com and www.ebpublic.com.

The table below shows the three primary ways you can
choose to develop and maintain your web site.

	Static Webpages	Database Webpages	Contract Company
How it works	Staff member trained in HTML must manually make changes, and copy to host server.	Anyone on staff can log in to a special page and make changes.	Someone from your staff must send any changes to the company, which then updates your web site.
PROS	- Low cost to implement - Products such as FrontPage and Dreamweaver make it easier to build and maintain pages.	- Changes happen immediately. No need to copy files to server. -Changes can be made from virtually anywhere one has access to the internet.	- Turn-key, single-source for updating your web site.
CONS	- If staff leaves, would need to train new employees. - Information is static. For example, past events are not automatically removed from the home page.	- Costly to implement, unless you use an ASP company with a pre-existing structure. -Time consuming to develop. Database-driven web sites can involve months of time (unless you use an ASP company).	- responsiveness varies. Could be hours or days before information is changed. _ Maintenance fees for changes can be high, and in some cases they charge by the hour.

■ Collect addresses and send promotional e-mails
Bill Owen, president of the Lexington Center Corporation, said that, “The net provides the biggest benefit when used to initiate contact with the customer, rather than to just let the customer visit you.” No other medium of event promotion is as inexpensive or targeted as e-mail. If you are manually collecting e-mail addresses and putting them in Excel or Outlook, you are probably working too hard. There are a number of companies that offer integrated solutions for collecting, sorting, and sending e-mails. Some of them are: www.ebfanclub.com, www.constantcontact.com, and www.lyris.com.

■ Research how people use your site
Your web hosting company should be able to provide you with statistics such as which pages are the most popular. This knowledge can help you judge the value of each page as you plan for enhancements and additions to your site.

Phone tag is out; Internet efficiency is in. Almost 20 percent of the venues responding say they offer online booking tools on their web site. Based on the survey, many convention centers are already doing this and are very pleased with the feedback they are receiving from their event planners. Other industry sites can give your venue more “face time” as well.

Tips:
■ List your venue in online directories
PollstarOnline, PlanSoft and StarCite are a few of the more popular web sites that list venues. Make sure your web site address (URL) is part of the listing and up-to-date. Also, look for web sites that offer added-value services. For example, in PollstarOnline, industry professionals can check the real-time availability of many venues.

■ Make it easy to book your facility
Have a section on your web site that is relevant to promoters, event planners and other potential clients.

The new CAJUNDOME Convention Center web site (www.cajundome.com) allows an event planner to create a room layout online, including table types, number of people, and seating layouts.

Once a room is chosen, the event planner can then check the availability of that room and send a booking request.

The Internet can also be very beneficial as a tool for saving your staff time and money in running the venue. As the Internet continues to become faster, more reliable and more accessible, these productivity tools will become even more popular.

Tips:
■ Try a database-driven web site
Although web sites based on databases can be costly to implement, they often save time and money in the long run. Using an “Application Service Provider (ASP)” can help defray the high up-front costs. These companies offer pre-existing database packages, which can be obtained much cheaper than the cost of developing one from the ground up. They also have tech support departments to help with any problems.

■ ASP booking software solutions
If you are using Excel, Calendar Creator, or a paper book, it might be time to move up to a more sophisticated method for managing your event calendar. ASP (Application Service Provider) solutions are the most painless way. In a matter of a few hours you can have your entire staff up and running with million-dollar software. For general details about ASPs, go to www.asp.com. Here are some benefits for using an ASP:

■ The ASP will be responsible for upkeep of the service provided. Therefore, you save the money spent on administration, support, maintenance, upgrades and deployment without forfeiting functionality and business return.

■ The service is web-based, so you and your employees will have access to the software at all times.

■ The risk of a bad technology investment will be reduced as ASP solutions do not require large cash outlays.

4 - Generate Revenue Streams
35 percent of the respondents said they generate revenues from their web site. The vast majority of those revenues were from ticket sales, though banner ads and sponsorships were also listed.

Tips:
■ Sell tickets online
Almost everyone who said they generate revenues from their web site does so via the sale of tickets. Most ticketing systems offer some way to sell tickets online. If yours does not, you should consider some of the new web-based solutions that can have you selling tickets online in a matter of days, such as www.ticketweb.com, www.etix.com, and www.musictoday.com

■ Sell merchandise
There are a number of web-based solutions that make selling merchandise online very simple. To find a listing of such companies, go to: http://makeashorterlink.com/?X2EA525F

■ Sell banner advertising
Many venues already have sponsors involved in their facility. A number of venues have extended the value they offer those sponsors by giving them visibility and links from the venue’s web site. Additionally, venues can create and sell banner ads in rotation on their site. There are some agencies that offer this solution as a turnkey service, such as www.doubleclick.com.

When you have directors of marketing such as Lex Poppen of the Ruth Eckerd Hall saying they have doubled Internet revenues for the past three years; and executives like Richard Krezwick of the Fleet Center saying that it is their venue’s top priority, it is safe to assume that the Internet is much more than just e-mail. Dig in. Explore. Discover new benefits for your venue.

John Platillero is president/CEO of EventBooking, a Knoxville, Tennessee-based ASP that offers custom web-site development, e-mail marketing tools, calendar scheduling software, community calendars, and more. For more information, visit www.eventbooking.com.