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.

Benefits of e-ticketing - Part 1

Today we discuss one of the benefits of e-ticketing or 'ET'. We will focus on a variety of different industries that use ET and how they each lay claim to heralding a new era of technology. However how easy is it to send and scan e-tickets and what benefits do they bring?

The Airline Industry, the multifaceted face of travel would unceremoniously like us all to believe that they have paved the way for e-tickets. The past week alone has seen an incredible amount of marketing jargon coming form more airline companies in a thinly veiled attempt at diverting attention from their inherent carbon unfriendliness.

The companies in this over burdened sector have found a new way to make their customers forget they are actually riding in expensive, fuel guzzling crafts of metal and fiberglass. But it's OK, they do e-ticketing, so its financially and morally OK to be burning fossil fuels with seemingly no return on investment.

In reality, Airline companies were arguably the pioneers of ET, however much like Apple, they may have invented the 'app' but open source engineered them to be what they are today. Open source is simply a pragmatic view that software should be distributed for FREE! The link in "FREE!" is our app. Which obviously costs nothing.

The other ET

So to answer the question of; "Just how easy is it to distribute and scan your own e-tickets?" Well, it's very easy, with our simple set up you can create an event site to distribute your tickets within minutes! Then download our app to start scanning in your attendees. Simple. If you don't believe us call on 020 88973 2591 and we'll talk you through it.

We have been championing the e-ticket/carbon friendly cause for nearly 5 years, and we're still finding ways of allowing our customers to have the ability to send and scan without having to buy or rent all of the unnecessary and over priced hardware. Our scanning app is approximately £300 cheaper and equally as secure as a hand held USB scanner, and it lives in your phone! YAY

Gone are the days of additional rental charges for scanners! Gone are the days of long wires connected to laptops and scanning terminals, join us on our journey to easy event management and embrace the technology.

Regards,

Professor Participant

Tech Bosses Who Lost It. Part 3

With little introduction, here is John McAfee. Pioneer of antivirus protection, wanted criminal and disgustingly eligible for this, the third part of our series.

When we say pioneer, we mean pioneer, he is arguably one of the first to trade in ecommerce, driving to computer owners in need of anti virus help in the 1980's which eventually sold to Intel for just under $8 Billion Dollars. Nothing to be sniffed at.

With an insatiable appetite for, it seems everything, McAfee has ventured into many interesting ventures. And here we present the top three not so venerable ventures that McAfee unsucssefully ventured in. Straight in at number three we have...





3. Aerotrekking

Aerotrekking a sport which involves a hang glider, a human, and a small rear facing propellor as demonstrated in the link. It is a sport, of sorts, created by the man who brought us instant messaging (yes he did that also). McAfee, short on adrenaline has named this winged engine "Icarus", perhaps symbolic of McAfee's own spectacular fall from grace.

Why is this a failed venture? Well, in 2006 it was reported that one of McAfee's engine strapped to a glider things had possibly malfunctioned and caused the death of a highly experienced pilot. An ex American Air Force pilot no less, no facing a $5-6 million lawsuit, this is McAfee's inaugural entry into the top three "Not so venerable ventures that McAfee unsuccessfuly ventured in".



2. Pharmaceutical Company

In at number two is McAfee's Medicine company, allegedly started with a 17 year old girlfriend, was designed to develop a anti viral made from naturally occurring substances and alkaloids. We suggest you glance at the linked article which is interesting to say the least. Unfortunately for McAfee the local authorities in Belize (where McAfee decided to move to as he was done to his last $4 million) thought that this was actually a cover for a meth lab, hardly surprising considering McAfee's past.

5 months after the raid on his house and lab McAfee was implicated to be the prime suspect in the murder of his next door neighbor. These claims are denied by the dotcom king who maintains that the President of Belize and police officials made an assassination attempt on McAfee but misidentified the house and killed his neighbor instead...sounds legit.


1. Every investment he ever made
Straight in at number 1 has to be every investment McAfee has ever made. He was, or rather is entrepreneurial however, successful serial investor, he is not. Serial investor, he certainly is. Unfortunately McAfee is all but broke, with latest news clearly indicating that he is looking towards Hollywood for a revival, having sold his story and film rights, the world has not heard the end of John McAfee. Prof P's prediction; another train wreck awaits.

Tech Bosses who lost it. part 2

Masayoshi Son, serial investor, serial looser?

Masatoshi Son is a man of two halves, for those eagle eyed readers among us, yes his name is part Korean, part Japanese, and it becomes more interesting.

Many people in the west have not heard of Masatoshi Son before, and it may come as a surprise that he is infact the second richest person in Japan, dubbed the East's answer to Bill Gates. Not because he can jump over a chair without a run up, but because he is, infact a serial investor with a extensive track record of what on the face of it looks like wild gambling that often reaches disgustingly lucky heights. But is it luck or the intuitive mind that has allowed Masayoshi Son to attain lofty billionairdom, 

Early Life 

Son was sent to the United States as a teen to learn English and study, it is reported he spent the vast majority of his time making money opposed to more conventional classroom learning. His first business was to import and lees pacman machines to bars and cafe's in California. Son began to rise when he struck up a deal with Forrest Mozer who invented the first ever rudimentary speech synthesizer in the early 1970's.

Fast forward to present day, Son's multiple investments have seen him bamboozle market analylists the world over. He is zealous, eager and above all visionary in his procurement and buying power. However, recently, Son has been setting in the land of the rising sun.

     

Masayoshi Son before he purchased spec savers

Present Day


After his acquisition of Softbank, of which Masayoshi is CEO he introduced with the iPhone to Japan, no mean feat, he also purchased Vodafone, a mean feat. It seems Masayoshi knows full well the cycle of investment. Take for example Softbank's acquisition of Sprint last year. Sprint's share price rose by a smug 14% whereas SoftBank's share dropped to a staggering 17% in a single day. Horrific news indeed, considering that Groupon's CEO just committed economical harikiri for a 77% share drop, Masayoshi should have at least removed a digit or two, no? Well, infact no.
SoftBank eventually recovered, however their bounceback-ability is henceforth limited. MAsayoshi's purchase of Vodafone has sent the company reeling into a spiral which it has not fully recovered from. Although there are signs that Masayoshi has no plans in losing further. Rather, it seems Son's dream of SoftBank dominating the market place are receiving much attention. In 2010 Son furthered his plan for world dominance, all be it posthumously.


"A Person's life is over in 50 - 100 years, but a company lives on through the people it is composed of and SoftBank group has to survive even after I'm gone."


Strong words for a man who lost $70 billion, it seems Masayoshi is indeed the CEO that everyone would like to have, shrewd and modest, ethical and honest.
As a demonstration of Son's humanitarian spirit he has agreed to cover the living costs of a few residents of Tamura, which is one of the cities hardest hit by the Japanese Tsunami. By a few residents we mean 1,200 residents, he also pledge to give those left orphaned by the Tsunami a free phone with all bills paid for until the age of 18.

Indeed it has never been so true that one man's loss is another's gained.

Thank you for reading and we hope you enjoy the weekend.

Regards,

Professor Participant

Tech Bosses who have lost it!

Happy Friday and welcome to Prof Particpant's blog, your favorite online membership, ticket and registration software, even if you don't know it yet.

Today we begin our latest series "Tech Bosses who have lost it". A self explanatory title with frankly horrific content. Not has horrific as this website (see what happens when developers and designers aren't paid on time)

Our inaugural subject is Mr Jim Balsillie, 52 year old Canadian and co-chief executive of Blackberry. Estimated to have been worth roughly $800 million in 2011, Basillie today sold his entire share for a meager $434 million (roughly). Yep, that's right, a staggering loss of half his estimated worth within 18 months, or in relative terms it might be easier to stomach; that's a loss of $24 million per month for 18 months, no, actually that's not easy to stomach at all.

We're not sure how BB will recover, with further share prices set to fall after this very embarrassing and very public vote of no confidence by Basillie. 

It may be too early to start engraving tombstones for Blackberry or "Research In Motion" as they are now officially called, but what is certain, that RIM jobs will be at risk over the next coming months, with retailers already shunning the new blackberry device for the iPhone and windows phone, the future certainly holds bleak things for RIM. We look forward to seeing you here next week.

Prof Participant.

                                                       

A Brief History of Transactions. Part 2. As told by Prof Participant.

Hello all! Last week on our ticket management and online registration blog we were talking about the death of the cheque. And how our old friend is now looking increasingly frail and decidedly worn out. So, introducing part two of two; A brief History of Transactions. As told by Prof Participant from www.particpant.co.uk the online leaders of event management systems.

Continued from last week....

The final nail in the coffin for our friend, the cheque, was the introduction of the big banks vendetta against the cheque. Vendetta may be a strong word, infact, very possibly used in entirely the wrong context, unless you read the Daily Mail in the UK. Surprisingly enough The DM has refrained from calling the cheque "The last true British institution" or something else equally as sensational, however, their beleaguered defence is of interest.
"Many big stores, such as Tesco and Marks & Spencer, refuse to accept them, and most utility firms impose a penalty on those paying by cheque" Reference

Unfortunately this statement isn't exactly reliable, however it does highlight how some high street companies are beginning to phase out paper for pin. But does anyone actually mind? Cheques are inherently fallible in terms of security, so are there people clinging on to the hope  that we will never see a demise of the cheque?

"We need to give people a choice. I want cheques to be kept. I am sure if you go out and talk to people, they will say they want cheques." Reference

So that's exactly what we at Participant did, out of the few people we asked, not one of them agreed with the above statement. We received opinions that cheques can easily be forged and therefor were untrustworthy  others believed strongly that technology had already taken over, one young person even admitted they had never written a cheque, therefor why should they begin now?

In conclusion, it is apparent that cheques are already obsolete to the younger generation. However! There may well unexpected savior for the cheque, infact, the very nemesis in which the cheque is embroiled in battle with, yes, that's right, technology may well come to the rescue of the cheque. With the rate of advancement of technology it is highly plausible to hypothesize that through new technologies the cheque may find itself being brought back from the brink, although we doubt it.

Thank you for reading, happy eventing!

Prof.