Reopening events is a lengthy and delicate process during or after a pandemic. All event promoters must comply with certain rules and regulations put in place for the safety of their patrons. But we all have one thing in common. We want to go back to attending live events! VBO Tickets provides solutions that allow promoters of all types to prepare upcoming events with pandemic specific regulations in mind. Here’s a look at 3 ways to help your patrons feel safe and comfortable when they return to your newly opened live events.
Reopening events indoors with social distancing
Opening events indoors again is probably the largest concern among promoters and patrons alike. Doing so requires that certain guidelines be in place and that patrons feel comfortable attending an event inside your venue. An advanced ticketing solution, like VBO Tickets, provides unique social distancing features that apply automatically to your seating maps, as patrons are selecting their seats on your website.
Define the number of empty seats between purchased seats
VBO Tickets let’s you adjust the number of enforced empty seats between those that have already been purchased. As a ticket buyer, when viewing the seating map within the ticket buying interface, patrons can select as many seats next to each other as they like. Once those seats are selected, another ticket buyer, who’s also selecting seats on their own computer or phone, will see non-selectable seats to the left and right of the seats sold. This is a fantastic way to enforce social distancing on assigned seating events. Promoters no longer need to manually hide or disable seats for patrons to purchase away from one another.
Define venue capacity limits
Similar to social distancing limit settings, you can set a total number of seats that your venue will allow for sale. For example, if your venue normally holds 200 seats, you can specify that only 100 seats can be sold. Now, when a patron is selecting seats on your seating map within the ticket buying interface on your website, they will see a message at the top that explains there is a capacity limit of 100, and how many seats are available. Once this limit is reached, no more seats can be sold. This is also a great way to automate reopening events without the need to manually remove seats from your venue’s seating map.
Venue capacity mentioned above map. Socially distanced seats shown as circle outlines between purchased seats.
Sell merchandise ahead of time
One other concern with reopening events after a pandemic is the process of patrons buying food and merchandise at the venue. With improper social distancing at vendor stations, large crowds could easily develop, putting the health and safety of patrons at risk within your venue. To alleviate this big concern, VBO Tickets suggests selling merchandise or even food ahead of time, while patrons are buying tickets online. Once a patrons checks out through the white label VBO Tickets plugin on your website, they’ll have an e-ticket with their seats and any merchandise they purchase. Next, at your venue, your staff can access each patron’s ticket information and deliver to them their merchandise or food, while they remain seated. Alternatively, you could even scan patrons in at the door, and if they did purchase merchandise, you can hand it to them upon entry. Either way, this creates a smoother and safer live event experience when reopening.
Merchandise options are offered during ticket buying process.
Hold outdoor events
If you have the luxury of moving your events outside, this is one of the best ways to provide patrons with a safe and comfortable environment after a pandemic. Essentially any venue with a stage could be a great candidate for an outdoor event. This may become a little more difficult for high capacity venues, but if your seating is moveable and you can construct an outdoor venue, give this a shot! VBO Tickets provides a robust and flexible seat map building tool, primarily used for creating indoor assigned seating venue maps, but can easily be used to build your outdoor venue map as well. Simply create your own outdoor background graphic; depicting the surrounding environment and any important structures, then use the seat map tool to generate and lay down your seating arrangement. Done! Now your indoor venue can be sold as an outdoor event.
Seatmap tools with a very large outdoor venue.
Conclusion
Reopening events after a pandemic is very possible and will become easier with time. VBO Tickets provides specific tools and features that will help you automate the sale of your indoor and outdoor assigned seating events; even during strict or loosening pandemic guidelines. Take advantage of these unique features to help your patrons feel safe and comfortable at your next live event. And ask us to see a demo today!
