The Doodle Bar & Ferret Comedy Club

The Doodle Bar was first launched as a pop up in 2009, since then it has grown at an exponential rate, playing host to a variety of quirky and interesting events. "The Doodle Bar is a space where people have the freedom to enjoy a good scribble, have a drink and hook up with some fellow doodlers. The bar is set against the backdrop of TESTBED1 - a dramatic and versatile arts and events space for creative innovation, ideas and experimentation"

Recently The Doodle bar have been using the Participant.co.uk system with positive results. The system was first used for The Ferret Comedy Club. Ferret Comedy is a FREE stand up night showcasing London's finest comedians, with occasional payed shows where the profits are donated to charity, and their not just your average comedy night, they also have a house band (ooooh) to sing the acts on stage!! Where else can you get this?! NOWHERE!

The functionality of the system allows organisers to check in attendees with an excel sheet or the Participant mobile app which can be downloaded here.

Jasmin Ford, General Manager of The Doodle Bar had this to say about the system;

"Participant is easy to navigate and the face to face support I receive is also vitally important, it's nice to know there are British based companies offering a cheaper and better alternative to the American ticketing companies that have set up shop here"

As for us, we can certainly recommend that you head down to the Doodle Bar and see The Ferret in it's faboulously furious action. We've popped down to a few events and were lucky enough to see a certain well known special guest comedian throw comedy magic dust onto the crowds, all will be revealed in the picture below.

Russel Howard getting support, from a mic stand

How a festival organiser can sabotage themselves and make it look good

Many businesses and corporations do their best to help their clients, considering the economic hardships we face in Europe not just local communities have stepped into help those most vulnerable. As far as our current research shows, the first festival to lend a shoulder to it's stricken revelers is the Burning Man festival.

The organisers of Burning man have said they to release 4,000 tickets which are heavily discounted to allow those who are struggling financially to attend. Providing adequate documentation is provided, a reveler can walk away with paying $190 for a ticket that costs $390. Excellent work Burning Man, however, the legend of the charitable festival organiser certainly isn't a freak occurrence.

A few years ago, circa 2010 as certain Michael Eavis, (pictured by us here) admitted he once let in thousands of ticketless festival goers. Often an outspoken critic of the festival Eavis has spoken publicly about his frustrations, often promoting the "jump over the wall" tactic that many do not need a second invitation to. The very mind set of festival ticketing has developed a moral compass, however is it wrong to deny people access, turn a blind eye and denounce revelers who paid for tickets. 

It is certainly a divisive question, however Eavis says (paraphrased) that festivals would lose their feel if there weren't people there who had not paid to enjoy the experience, it is very much a classic Michael Eavis, like it or lump it scenario  After all, by his own admission, he's now rich beyond his wildest dreams, after a point, who cares?

Well, the people of Brazil care, by 2016 Brazil would have held the two largest festivals of Sport on the planet, the Olympics in 2016 and the World Cup in 2014. Out of the some 3 million tickets available for the events 10% will be estimated to be sold at a cut price. South Africa did this very tactic also, where 50% of the South African population lives below the poverty line, the organisers and FIFA sold tickets for £13, creating a loss for each ticket sold. Furthermore,  Brazilian organisers have said they do not want discounted tickets, rather, they want to give away free tickets. These free tickets will be given members of society on especially low income, for example, the indigenous population and other disadvantaged demographics. However the buck won't stop there, tickets for foreign travelers will also be extremely cheap compared to that of other world cups as Brazil have identified that in order to stimulate tourism they low cost ticket price will aid in offsetting other travel and accommodation costs.

"You've got mud in your welly, let me get that off for you"

The benefits from E-Ticketing Part 2

A few weeks ago we began discussing just how amazing E-ticketing (ET) actually is, and after discussing it in the office over the past few weeks we've come to realise that at first, as if it was possible, we may have underestimated just how incredibly influential and amazing ET has become.

Firstly! You will never lose your ET. You may lose your telephone, your email address password, even your marbles, however your ticket will be secure for an awfully long time to come. This means that you don't have to reprint, if that is, you've had to print in the first place.

The major factor that we discussed in our last post was just how much the environment benefits from e-ticketing. For example, the International Air Transportation Service says that 50,000 trees would be saved a year.

Apart form the environmental cost, we also see an increase in usability  particularly as the ticket is stored on our ergonomic friends, the smart phone, but we also see a huge reduction in administration, meaning no more printing and sending slips of confirmation to clients and attendees, and most of all, an e-ticket is virtually impossible to copy. Which leads us onto our last point, by introducing e-tickets to your events and courses you are giving your customer more security. Which can never be a bad thing!

Thank you for reading.

Professor Participant.