LETTER FROM LINDA — WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES

As I watched Rich DiGiacomo and Rob Knapp present the VenuesNow Ticketing Stars awards during the INTIX 2019 opening luncheon, I was pleased to see the tradition continues.

I had instituted the award in partnership with INTIX (The International Ticketing Association) when I was publisher of Venues Today because ticketing professionals literally make this industry tick. Live entertainment requires an entertainer and a fan and the two are aligned by nothing more than a ticket, a mini-contract to see and be seen between two individuals fulfilled by an army of passionately involved people in ticketing.

The realization that ticketers are worthy was drummed into my psyche by Pat Spira, the feisty woman who founded INTIX, then known as BOMI (Box Office Managers International) in the early 80s when I worked for Amusement Business.

I had already begun learning the venue business and made innumerable friends and contacts every year attending what was then the International Association of Auditorium Managers (IAAM). That was my first big convention as an AB reporter in 1976 and I remember asking Tom Powell, AB Editor and my boss, what “power” the association had. He didn’t exactly answer me.

But I learned on my own that the “power” was relationships, shared experiences and a big pool of knowledge that made everyone swimming there better at their respective jobs.

Publisher When Pat pitched coverage of BOMI in AB and invited me to the convention, which I believe was in Las Vegas that year, I had to do some fast talking to convince Tom and Howard Lander that it was worthy of the travel expense, that I would and could return with stories that were relevant to our readership of venue managers and content providers.

Obvious to me, ticketing was a sweet spot. All of our readers, whether they worked for an arena or an amusement park, a carnival or a fair had tickets in common. That was our mantra – we covered issues of importance to all types of live entertainment purveyors, from operations to booking to marketing. Ticketing is a little of all of that and deserves its own category.

That first convention, I was scrambling for relevant stories in an industry I frankly did not understand. I gathered Dave Lowenstein with UCLA, Angus Watson with the Ravinia Festival and Jane Kleinberger with Paciolan together for a roundtable discussion on the future of ticketing. Technology was the future, and the immediate manifestation (at that long ago time) was the impact print-at-home tickets would have on moving inventory. Revolutionary.

Decades later, I was at the INTIX luncheon enjoying the recognition of Ticketing Stars by the premier industry trade magazine and, honestly, thinking how nice it was to be watching rather than doing the awarding. I’m living a rather pressure-free existence these days. This blog is my joy, not my job. I ate lunch, including the teeth-sticking, smile-marring spinach and had not ingested any fear-of-public-speaking drugs. No worries.

So when Segrestrom Center’s Kay Burnham, INTIX chair, concluded the luncheon with an announcement there was one more award to give, a newly-minted one, the inaugural INTIX Impact Award, my heart started pounding. Honestly, I hoped it wasn’t me.

Lessons learned: Pack light because you might have a heavy award to transport home. Don’t eat the spinach, even if you don’t have a known role on stage at an awards luncheon. Have a thank you speech prepared just in case. Know it could be you; you are all fantastic professionals, like Linda Forlini, Tickets Philadelphia, this year’s Pat Spira Lifetime Achievement Award winner; Gail Anderson, Minnesota State Fair, INTIX Spirit Award winner; Duncan Moss, Ravinia Festival, FutureTix Young Ticketing Professional of the Year; John Harig, Cincinnati Arts Association, Outstanding Ticketing Professional; and the team at Tobin Center for the Arts, Outstanding Ticket Office.

And most of all, remember the “power” of industry associations — it is the people. It is you. And I thank you all for letting me inside the circle even though I’ve never sold a ticket or booked a show, and on top of it all, awarding me for doing it.

I am passionate about telling your stories. That’s my thank you speech. — Based on a true story that happened to Linda Deckard