At our core we are a technology company. Technology drives everything we do, from the website experience to our enormous template inventory to customer support to our order management system and finally to the actual digital press printing. Given this, it’s critical for us to grow and nurture technology education, specifically, computer science. To this end, we announced today the creation of two new scholarships at Montana State University:
These scholarships are focused on undergraduate computer science students from rural Montana, specifically towns with 5,000 or less in population. As we grow, we hope to expand the scholarship program to several universities around the globe again with a focus, or preference for students from rural areas.
Why the focus on rural? Great question. We believe that rural America is a phenomenal place from which to serve our customers not only across North America but the world. Many of our team members were raised on nearby ranches. A ranch is a family business. Growing up on a ranch, caring for animals, and pulling together as a family forms the values that run our business everyday: teamwork, customer-focused, quality, intensity, growth (individual and company), innovation, and ownership — every full-time employee in our company is a part-owner.
Why just computer science? Although we have many disciplines in our company — graphic design, customer service, online marketing, business strategy, software development, and more — we have focused these scholarships on computer science. Ecommerce software and hardware are the engines that run TicketPrinting.com and TicketRiver.com every day. These engines run on the internet, the most empowering technology and network the world has ever seen. Combining the two into a compelling and competitive business model empowers a small company like us to compete globally. We have ‘exported’ our engines and business model to the UK and Australia with plans to do more expansion in the future.
At the elemental core of all of this is computer science, and that’s why we are so excited to announce these scholarships with Montana State University.
If our last holiday mailer left you hungry for more, we’re offering the answer to your Christmas wish: all the rest of the information you need to plan the best holiday party your group has ever seen. Ready to make your mark this holiday season? These tried and true ideas have been culled from the experts and tested in banquet halls, gymnasiums, and catered venues across the country.
6) Summon Strength in Security:
Real World
Keep gatecrashers out and maintain the integrity of your gathering with an extra investment in event safety.
Digital World
Stay in touch with your guests virtually so you know who to expect in real life, and organize your security efforts online.
Enjoy the safety provided by Event Ticketswith standard security features like sequential numbering, detachable stubs, and scannable barcodes.
Track tickets online, using a site like Ticket River. Record the security numbering of each ticket sold, and the name of the person who purchased it.
Take extra care with Thermal Ticketsfeaturing a magnetic stripe, red numbering, UV printing, and a pressure-sensitive watermark.
Use social networks to collect RSVPs. Ask your guests to check in online, providing you with additional confirmation of attending guests.
Control access to restricted areas with big, easily identified VIP Passes.
Require guests to register online before they receive information and details about the event.
Image uploads make it easy for you to add logos, photos, head shots, or any image from your hard drive to hundreds of print products and ticket templates.
Create a digital badge. Use your logo and some event details to create a visual badge that your supporters can add to their own websites to provide your event with some free publicity.
Custom Ticketsare the smart way to create exactly the promotional product you’ve always envisioned
Event pages, like those on Ticket River, provide an extra space for you to hype your event.
Merchandise your event with T-shirts, coffee mugs, and other high-interest items emblazoned with your logo and design. Sell in advance for extra advertising, and at the event, to make more money.
Take advantage of widgets that will create charity donation badges: appealing visual links, which can be easily reposted, and which take your supporters to a site where they can make secure donations.
8 ) Build a Bigger Bank Account:
Real World
Make more money when you add extra layers of fun and fundraising to the festivities.
Digital World
Start fundraising online, using your event publicity as a channel to discuss your financial needs.
Raffle Tickets spice up the night and let you start making money faster; they’re the perfect complement to any event.
Take control of Raffle Ticket sales using a free app like Raffle Tracker, which lets you visualize sales and view the effectiveness of your sales team.
Tiered Tickets work with big events—charge more money for the best seats or special access to private parties.
Discuss fundraising goals in your email newsletter and on your website. Be specific about where the money will go and what it will do.
VIP Passes help you provide extra attention to your biggest donors.
Create a charity badge for the event so your supporters can help you raise funds while you sleep.
Drink Tickets improve bar sales and help you track the money spent on drinks.
Sell branded merchandise online. T-shirts advertising your event help you sell more Event Tickets.
9) Keep Them Coming Back for More:
Real World:
Provide maximum incentive for maximum return with deals and discounts your guests can take away with them.
Digital World:
Take advantage of the buzz around your event to encourage more traffic to your website and more interest in your upcoming events.
Keep customers coming back to your website or your sponsors’ stores with Coupons offering a special discount for event-goers.
Print the URL of your homepage on all your event collateral, especially Event Tickets and Collectible programs, so everyone can easily find you online.
Offer a little something extra after the gala’s ended with Gift Cards.
Remind guests to follow you on Facebook, Twitter, and other sites for the scoop on upcoming events.
Add a personal touch to free gifts when you use personalized Gift Certificates.
Offer big deals using services like Groupon or SocialLiving to drive membership or sales.
10) Get Creative:
Real World:
If you can imagine it, we can print it out for you!
Digital World:
Multimedia puts you on the map!
DYO Tickets allow creative organizers to turn dreams into print reality.
Record a video of your group in action and post it on YouTube for additional exposure.
Custom Tickets provide a little professional support for big ideas.
Create fresh, compelling, new content available only to those who log in to your website.
The sooner you start your preparations, the more organized you’ll find your event, and for most us, that means a real shot at actually enjoying our own get-togethers. We interviewed many of our customers and found that a combination of tangible “real world” and virtual“digital world”activities works best to drive and increase event attendance.
Here are the first five Holiday Event Planning Tips to keep you on top this holiday season.
1) Practice Proper Pre-event Publicity (that’s a mouthful!):
Real World
Start printing promotional props that prod people into paying attention.
Digital World
Get early save-the-date notices posted across the web.
Send invitationsto your mailing list to ensure RSVPs and boost ticket sales.
Update your website on the home page with a save-the-date notice.
Post flyers around town. Flyers are fast, fun, and always fresh.
Post your event on Ticket Riveror another online event site.
Friendly Responses. Send out quick emails to your RSVPs. You can do this from Ticket River.
4) Amp up the Details!
Real World:
Large events need extra organization. Create schedules and directories to post at the venue.
Digital World:
More details make it more interesting. Update your website, Facebook, and Twitter with tantalizing event details.
Event Programsprovide you with a format to pass out all the information your guests might need. Create a guide to your event and clear up the confusion.
Update the news sections of Ticket River (event site) and your organization’s websites: Provide schedule and agenda.
Posterslet you list schedules and activities, display maps, or show off any other information everyone needs to know,
Send Mobile Update of the Event Details. If you have your event attendees’ mobile numbers, send out concise event details on SMS.
5) Secure Sweet Sales Success
Real World:
You’ve posted posters and flyers around the city, and you’ve sent invitations to your lists. Now, be more specific and do a second round of posting.
Digital World:
Put the power of the Internet to work for you! Advertise online, create a page for your event, and start selling tickets any time, day or night.
Event Programs provide you with a format to pass out all the information your guests might need. Create a guide to your event and clear up the confusion.
Online Sales. Ticket Riveris about selling online. So start selling! It’s a 24/7/365 sales channel, always open, always there for you to sell more tickets.
Posters let you list schedules and activities, display maps, or show off any other information everyone needs to know.
Check your actual sales in the Ticket River Event Dashboard. You can check both online sales and also input your offline sales.
Senator Baucus Touts TicketPrinting.com as Example of Bringing Montana Solutions to Global Markets.
Butte, Mont., (September 13th, 2010) — At the Montana Economic Summit today, Senator Max Baucus and TicketPrinting.com, the leader in ticket printing and event design and marketing, announced the opening of a new customer support center in Lewistown, Montana. With global growth in North America, Europe, and Australia, TicketPrinting.com is creating new jobs in rural Montana to meet its rapidly growing base of global customers for event marketing services, ticket printing, and its new online event promotion and online ticket sales service, Ticket River™.
For over twelve years, TicketPrinting.com has been the leader in ticket printing and event design and marketing, helping event promoters, entertainment venues, sports leagues, concert promoters, music bands, schools, non-profit organizations, state fairs, and festivals market and ticket their events. With over 600 ticket templates, design-your-own functionality, several event products, and most importantly, superior customer service, the Montana-based online event and ticketing company has perfected the customer experience, making ticket design, event printing, and online ticket sales as easy as ordering a book online.
“This just goes to show that we can truly build Montana’s economy one business and one employee at a time through our efforts at the Montana Economic Development Summit,” said Baucus, “Folks in Lewistown really know the value of a hard day’s work. The leadership at TicketPrinting.com has the vision to see that the people of Montana are genuine, friendly and hard working, which gives them an edge in the customer service world. TicketPrinting.com and its Ticket River division are paving the way for a successful e-commerce business model that gives the rural Montana workforce a chance to shine.”
“TicketPrinting.com CEO Lance Trebesch said, “We are very proud of the fact that we have more than doubled in size since the last economic summit and were able to grow over 25% last year in the face of the recession while opening up new markets abroad and adding full time employees here at home. We expanded our operations to include the United Kingdom and Australia in 2009 and are now market leaders. Our teams in Harlowton, Bozeman, and soon to be Lewistown have been a huge competitive advantage, helping us expand to these new markets. Our success is driven by our commitment to superior customer service and our 100% customer satisfaction guarantee. You can’t do that without great people. Great people are all over Montana and we intend to keep expanding in Montana.”
TicketPrinting.com’s customer support center in Lewistown will serve customers throughout North America, and also provide critical global support to TicketPrinting.com’s subsidiaries, UK Ticket Printing and TicketRiver Australia, and to its new online event promotion and tickets sales site, Ticket River™.
TicketPrinting.com has a primary base of operations in Harlowton, employing more than 30 people, full-time and part time in production and customer support positions. The e-commerce business also currently has remote customer support employees working from Livingston, Billings and Lewistown.
“The Montana Economic Development Summit is a fantastic platform and event for our teams to come up with new ways to grow,” said Trebesch. “The breadth and depth of the conference speakers, attendees, and topics provide real opportunities for TicketPrinting.com to explore more ways to expand and close new business, and by doing so, generate new jobs in our Montana operations. I attend several conferences and the Montana Economic Summit beats all of them hands down in terms of directly helping our company grow and in expanding our network. We thank Senator Baucus and his superb staff for hosting and organizing the Summit.”
About TicketPrinting.com
TicketPrinting.com has been the leader in ticket printing and event design and marketing for over twelve years. Founded by Mike Yinger, Chairman and CTO, TicketPrinting.com serves over 80,000 customers in entertainment, sports, nonprofit, education, performing arts, and music across North America, Australia, and the U.K. Lance Trebesch is the CEO of TicketPrinting.com and also serves on the Board of the Better Business Bureau.
In 2009, the BBC broke the news about fraudulent Event Wristbands being created and circulated throughout various venues in the UK, compromising the event experience of folks who paid for the real thing. This isn’t an isolated incident. Globally, counterfeit tickets and admission bracelets can have a huge impact on revenue, crowd control, and customer satisfaction.
When you’re planning your next big event, you’ll want to ensure that folks who pay for admission make it through the gate and those who would like to get something for nothing are turned away at the door.
One step toward a more secure event is designing custom wristbands and choosing the best security options.
Tyvek® Wristbands
The first step toward adequate security and ensuring authenticity at your event is making the choice to use Tyvek® wristbands. Made from a special paper-like material, these event wristbands are waterproof, durable, and difficult to remove by means that won’t render them void. A strong adhesive ensures that they fit securely to the guest’s wrist and can’t be slipped off. Once in place your guests cannot remove the wristband and transfer it to another individual. Tyvek® wristbands are sturdy enough to last the duration of the event and beyond, and should only be removed when they are no longer valid.
Secure Features
While Tyvek® Wristbands ensure the non-transferability, special security wristbands offer additional features to help keep your event secure.
The sequential numbering on these wristbands helps you keep track of your guests. You can reduce the risk of counterfeits by choosing your own range for secure numbering. Fraudulent wristbands are unlikely to fit in your range, so this provides an easy way for you to detect an authentic admission wristband from a counterfeit one.
Security wristbands also feature a holographic foil, which is extremely difficult to duplicate. Gate and special event attendants can check for this foil to make sure that certain guests are supposed to be in the venue or not.
Unique Design
Another advantage of DuPontTyvek® wristbands is that they can come in a variety of colors or be printed with unique designs. Even if your only security measure is to designate specific colors to certain members of your crowd, you’re making a significant step in increasing the security of your event.
You may, however, choose to print your event wristbands with a unique design. Tyvek® is compatible with inject printing, and once in place, the designs will not smear or rub. When you choose a unique design ahead of time and don’t advertise it openly, the chances of fraudulent admission wristbands appearing at your event are much less likely.
This is one place where the practical importance of security and the fun aspects of creativity can come together. Whether you choose a special logo from your sponsor or you plan to carry the branding of your event through to the wristband, you have the opportunity to create something unique and interesting that your guests can enjoy throughout the event and in the days beyond.
Internal Security
Not only do custom made wristbands help you ensure the authenticity of guests coming through the gate, they allow you to manage the crowd once it’s in the venue. If you have any alcohol on the premises, you’ll want to make sure that no underage drinkers get served. Bar wristbands made of Tyvek® make a scenario like this highly unlikely. The tamperproof design makes it nearly impossible for younger guests to exchange with older ones. Designated drivers can also request special event wristbands that let the bartender know not to serve them.
Colored wristbands can help separate guests by age or eligibility to get into certain restricted areas of the venue, and VIP wristbands allow guests who have paid more extra access to special events.
Added Security is Smart, Simple, and Cost Effective
When dealing with large crowds, it’s important to keep safety in mind. It pays to take simple steps to ensure your event is secure, and the admission wristbands you choose can make all the difference. When you print cheap Tyvek® bracelets online, you could be saving yourself big hassles and money in the long run.
Are you ready to try something different when it comes to marketing your theatre? Ready to reward your fans and benefactors with a little token of your esteem? Ready to boost your box office numbers with some stealth marketing or merchandising? If you’re looking for a low-cost, low-effort, and low-maintenance way to raise your visibility in the community, consider selling or distributing custom publicity stickers.
New Life for Old Designs
Most modern theatres have probably already paid someone a fair amount of money to design an eye-catching banner for their website. Well, that banner is the perfect digital file if you want to create the perfect Bumper Sticker. If you like the design, why not give it new life and new mobility, allowing it to move about your city and spread the word for you? Printing a stack of Bumper Stickers is cheaper than renting a billboard, and those stickers go everywhere. While potential customers are stuck in traffic, they could be memorizing the URL to your website, conveniently printed on the car in front of them.
Or, work in a smaller format. Do you use a recognizable logo when you advertise your theatre? This can translate into a sticker, too. Economy Stickers come in all shapes and sizes, and they’re versatile and eminently affordable. Vinyl Stickers are all that and more: they’re weatherproof and UV-resistant, so you can stick them on outdoor surfaces, or in a well-lit window, and they last for years.
New Designs for New Life
If you don’t already have a design in mind, you can get creative. Find one that relates to an upcoming show or season. Or, hold a contest and ask patrons to design a logo for you. It’s a great way to get the community involved, create extra publicity, and generate buzz around your website. Let patrons vote for their favorite design, online or when they visit the theatre.
Printing custom stickers for your theater is not expensive, and small print runs are available. You can create a range of designs and sizes for different spaces and different budgets. Nice stickers may become a collector’s item, and some fans will want to collect the entire run.
Where Are You Going to Stick that Thing?
Depending on how much effort you intend to put into this marketing campaign, there are a few choices concerning what you’ll actually do with your stickers once you receive them. The easiest answer, of course, is sell them, either in your box office, or on your website. Cheaper than T-shirts and more versatile than programs, stickers make cool souvenirs. Some patrons will want them for guitar cases, car windows, dorm walls, or decoration of small items like notebooks or laptop computers. That’s a lot of exposure.
If money is less of an issue than visibility, you can give some of your stickers away. These could be small prizes in a contest or small gifts to thank loyal theatergoers. Or, think bigger: distributing these stickers to a general audience could result in advertising in places you wouldn’t expect. Visit arts festivals and similar events, anywhere you might expect to find lovers of the arts, and pass out a certain number of stickers. Small children have a habit sticking them in the most unusual places. At large events, you can stick them directly on people’s shirts in the morning, and all day long, they’ll share your message.
Stealth marketing takes the most effort, but, properly done, realizes a huge return. Sticker design is essential: you must create something that makes viewers take notice. It’s especially effective if the design elicits questions in the viewers’ minds. If you’ve thought of a phrase or image which will inspire people to want to follow up and learn more and (this part is essential) you’ve included your website on the sticker, you can drive traffic to the website and create new patrons.
This technique is most effective if you can stick your stickers in surprising places. Ask around: you may be able to create a campaign by placing your stickers in unusual spots in bars, art galleries, schools, and other facilities where potential patrons may be found. Bathroom stalls are a good choice, if you have permission, as are bus shelters, and well-traveled footpaths. Use your creativity and imagination. Get them where they’ll be seen, and noticed.
Change Is Good
Marketing your theatre can be trying, especially in an economic downturn, but you can get a big return on a little investment if you’re willing to try something unusual. Where will you hang your publicity?
The year is 2010 and the face of live theater has changed. Around the globe, money is tight, attention spans are short, and approaching-infinite hours of free entertainment are available 24 hours a day in the privacy of the viewer’s home. The new millennium, it might seem, has not been friendly to a venerable tradition that asks patrons to pay for the privilege of turning off their cell phones, sitting in one place for three hours, and listening quietly without offering any opinions beyond appropriately placed applause, laughter, and perhaps an occasional and well-deserved hiss.
Not a friendly environment in which to create a successful new company.
But live theater isn’t dead: far from it. Your company offers an experience that cannot be replicated in front of a computer monitor. It’s hard, sweaty, uphill work, but hot new companies are making their mark, inspired by the bonds of friendship and their passion for acting.
Who are these starry-eyed optimists, and how are they faring?
Trial by Fire, based in Eugene, Oregon, is founder Benjamin Newman’s lifeline in a hostile world. Reborn over and over again from the ashes of projects going back as far as 1999, the group achieved what seems to be a sustainable critical success this year.
Aerial Angels and Stand Up 8, the brainchildren of writer-director-actor Allison Williams, are based out of Kalamazoo, Michigan, but have developed as traveling troupes, presenting their unique brand of circus arts all around the world since 2003.
And making their mark in film-saturated Los Angeles, California, title3, founded by reunited classmates Lane Allison, Molly Leland, Jane Montosi, and Jiehae Park, has waded into the water with their first production and found it inviting.
The Backstory
So, how does one create a theater company with no money, no space, and no history? Is love of the stage enough to succeed?
Johnny Ormsbee as The Hactor in Trial By Fire's RUBY BY THE RIVER (2006). Photo by Michael Brinkerhoff.
Benjamin Newman would say that, for some, it isn’t even a choice. He recalls the mantra, offered by countless professionals across the country: If you can imagine yourself doing something else, then this is not where you belong. “I have tried,” he says, “but I cannot. Where I have veered from my path, life became confusing and disorienting, a series of challenges which I was unable to face, because I had no support, no grounding, no definition.” If the creative path is an actor’s North Star, dedicated performers, must, like Newman, return again and again, to trod the boards, regardless of the outcome. Or, as Allison Williams says, “truly motivated people don’t fail—they have learning experiences in which money is lost or creative dreams go unrealized, but it’s not failure unless they walk away without being educated by it.”
So the short answer is yes, if your love is strong enough, passion can carry the day. But the long answer, of course, is that love is merely the propeller that moves you forward through each new script, new rehearsal, new production, new season. Love lets you persevere. Today’s artists must also carry with them a new toolbox: the gear if the information age.
The Setting
Aerial Angel Spike (Zay Weaver) performs a free street show at Covent Garden in London England. Photo by Fehmi Comert
The old ways are disappearing, according to Williams. Traditional theater is “extremely boring and pointlessly irrelevant and ridiculously overpriced. Its audience is literally…greying out and dying. Subscription theatre is fading away—nobody under 40 ever wants to see another kitchen sink drama ever again—watching Death of a Salesman once in high school was enough.” The future, it seems, is in finding new ways of telling stories. We may be telling the same stories as those who came before, Newman argues, but we tell them through the lens of our own perceptions, so that each new telling provides a new understanding. Though all the stories may have been told, we still must “let each man and woman have their turn” in telling so that we do “not simply honor one voice, but all voices.”
This philosophy was the nucleus of title3’s origin. The group evolved organically out of a weekly writer’s group, where participants began to focus on women’s experience and the place of the female voice in the arts. While simply complaining got them nowhere, they realized, “we could generate the kind of change we hoped for. Thus, our company mission: dedication to the creation of innovative work with an emphasis on providing opportunities for women in the arts.” And so, another company was born, one working within the parameters of the modern world.
With its focus established, title3 reports that, “doors opened and people aligned in ways we never would have thought possible.” LA, perhaps, needed title3’s perspective as much as title3 needed a forum in which to present it.
It’s not surprising, then, that for their first production, they chose a new play by Constance Congdon, called Paradise Street, one that required an all-female cast. Trial by Fire, in earlier incarnations, performed works written by Newman himself. Although less concerned with modernity, they have created a focus on outsider voices, first making a success of Kiss of theSpider Woman and now opening Alfred Jarry’s surrealist work Ubu Roi.
The Properties
Chip Sherman and Benjamin Newman in TRIAL BY FIRE's Kiss Of The Spider Woman (2010). Photography by Jon Meyers.
In the 21st century, the default setting for multiple voices is, of course, the Internet, and those with stories to tell cannot ignore the power of the web for communicating their message. Successful modern theaters understand the need to harness those channels. Newman exults in the possibilities of a world where “artists who have just begun their career can simply be stumbled upon, and more forms of expression, such as film, music, writing, photography, and painting, are just a click away.”
By this point, even most traditional old theaters have at least begun to make a place for themselves in cyberspace, but the vanguard is completely comfortable there: the Internet is their living room, their office, and their playground. They no longer conduct letter-writing campaigns; they send mass emails. They don’t rely on print media to spread the word; they create their own websites from which to launch publicity drives, drum up support, issue press releases, and spread the word.
For title3, there was no question that web presence went hand-in-hand with a new venture. They began not only with a website, but also with a strong presence on social media channels such as Facebook. To date, they have successfully shared photos on their website and Facebook pages, and they are in the process of developing video content that illustrates their process: recordings of rehearsals and “other interactive offerings.”
In fact, title3 considers itself “a multimedia production company.” They began with theater, because that was what they knew, but ultimately they “also have a goal to use multimedia in our theater work and hopefully expand to other media in future.”
Allison Williams also understands the driving force of Web 2.0 for creating a vibrant community of fans and attracting new patrons. Explaining the power of social networking, she says, “being ‘friends’ rather than an advertiser is powerful and important.” She’s also comfortable posting not only teasers, but also entire acts, on YouTube. The way she sees it, “our enemy is not piracy but obscurity.”
Drew Tydeman as Dopey in Trial By Fire's BALM IN GILEAD (2003). Photo by Jon Meyers.
For modern theaters, there can be no conflict between these two modes, and offering up some content in public forums can only lead to positive publicity. Williams explains, “The experience of seeing it live is fundamentally different than a YouTube experience,” and, she even goes so far as to say, “live theatre has an edge over movies.” In the twenty-first century, offering a few tantalizing tastes—or even an entire serving—only whets the viewers’ appetites for the real experience: live theater, performed by real human beings in front of real human beings. On demand content is wonderful, but it is no substitute for an event that cannot be paused, that has a life independent of the viewer’s decision to hit the play button.
While title3 calls the Internet “a primary driver of both publicity and ticket sales,” and, through tracking, learned “that Facebook and email were effective in mobilizing people to attend our performances,” Williams’ traveling show reports that only a small percentage of their ticket sales take place online, with the majority purchased at the door. However, they’ve used other modern tactics to boost sales, such as Street Crew. According to Williams, “it’s personal contact that sells a lot of tickets.” Sending supporters out to stump for the show, offering deals such as free admission if you bring 3 friends or hang 10 posters, helped them boost attendance and create new fans. Newman agrees: in his mind, the Internet is a great boon for communication, up to a point, but, he says, “there is simply no substitute for human contact.”
The lesson here is that you can’t ignore either end: you’ve got to utilize all the technological tools in your arsenal, and you must continue making direct contact with patrons. You may simply need to get creative on both sides.
The Backers
Allison Williams eats fire in a free street show in Budva, Montenegro. Photo by Dragan
Trial by Fire has recently filed for nonprofit status and begun to apply for grants and search out new sponsors in anticipation of running a full season in 2010/2011. Newman himself has sunk a great deal of his own capital into getting shows produced in the past, and, like many producers, watched the dual evolution of a critical success alongside a fiscal failure. Now, it looks as if Trial by Fire is finally poised to achieve solid financial ground.
While Trial by Fire’s evolution was long and convoluted, inextricably tied to Newman’s emotional state and his own determination to try again, title3’s first production came together in a more surprising way. Just as the group had begun discussing a production, they were offered a space “on very appealing terms.” The only catch was that the slot was only 2 months in the future, “an insanely short period of time to rehearse and put up a show, much less choose the show, do preproduction, and set up a company.”
But, the group was dedicated to following through. How did they get funding in such a short period of time? They made direct appeals, sending letters to everyone they knew: family, friends, former professors. Rather than simply asking for money, they explained their mission statement and helped donors understand how their contributions would further that cause. They also filed for fiscal sponsorship through Fractured Atlas so they could receive tax-deductible donations. The next step for title3 will be to increase their fundraising efforts, and to begin applying for government grants.
Benjamin Newman and Tara Wibrew in TRIAL BY FIRE's Beirut (2008). Photography by Michael Brinkerhoff.
Stand Up 8 took a different, and very modern approach, to finding funding. Conceived as a for-profit venture, the group originally hoped to find 80 donors willing to contribute $1000 apiece. Williams says, “I thought we’d start with our parents and move outward from there, but then a friend told me about the Canadian reality TV show Dragons’ Den.” They auditioned, got on, and hit big, attracting investor W. Brett Wilson, now a half-owner of Stand Up 8.
For the Aerial Angels group, Williams keeps the overhead low. The Angels usually perform at street festivals and similar outdoor events. They often book gigs that are paid in advance,
Allison Williams and M.A. Harrison perform acrobatics on a grand piano in Stand Up Eight. Photo by Dan Lines
but just as often they conclude their shows with a hat pass. Williams explains, “We get paid by doing an amazing show that connects with people on a personal level, by touching their hearts and their funny bones to get to their wallets.” She can easily see that the more joy she brings to her audience, the more money she makes. “We offer a 30 minute escape with awe and wonder and comedy, and we ask for the price of a cup of fancy coffee, and the people who can afford to pay subsidize the people who can’t.”
For Williams, nonprofit status wasn’t worth the effort. She found “the level of hassle and paperwork is so tedious it wasn’t worth the piddling grants,” and feels that receiving adequate grants requires employing full-time grant writers. “Frankly,” she says, “I’d rather just go out and make the money without the strings.” Williams, who has written, directed, and starred in dozens of stage productions, makes good use of her experience and consummate can-do attitude to really make live theater pay off. Her belief is that, if you are selling a desirable product, people will buy it, and you can feel good about encouraging them to do so. If it’s not good enough to sell, she says, “start over with a better product.”
She attributes some of her ease at selling performance as a product to “being a non-fourth-wall performer,” who constantly connects with the audience. Selling herself onstage is the same as selling herself before the show. At the same time, she acknowledges, “I’ve done my fair share of Shakespeare, and marketing that is the same process, so maybe more serious theatre people should be thinking like circus artists.”
Curtain Calls
Emmy Walker, Jun Ogura, Julianna Zarzycki, Tara Wibrew, and Harry John Shephard in TRIAL BY FIRE's Angels In The Architecture (2008). Photography by Bing Putney.
Live theater, Williams believes, is ready for a revival. Audiences “do still want to see stories and connect with humans and be a part of an experience they can’t have with their TV, they just don’t always know they want it and they’re unwilling to pay more than their phone bill to find out.” The women of title3 agree that one of the greatest challenges to modern theater is that younger generations have less exposure to theatre and arts in general. For one thing, “school arts programs are disappearing,” so “children won’t have theater as a frame of reference.” As technology captures a greater share of entertainment, young adults “may choose to spend their entertainment dollars on other mediums simply due to the fact that they don’t really know what theater is or means.”
But companies like Stand Up 8, title3, and Trial by Fire are committed to combating those attitudes. The world needs live theater, and the modern world needs a modern theater. Modern theaters must make their own way and recreate the ancient art. Newman reminds us that our dearest dreams are not presented to us “in a nice little package all wrapped up with a bow on top. You have to fight for them, you have to travel long distances to find them, and most importantly, you have to make them for yourself.”
When your guests are ready for a fun day or night out, they dress the part. A reggae festival brings with it comfortable ensembles, bright colors and dance ready wear. For a fair or carnival, good shoes for walking and a T-shirt you don’t mind getting a little grease from an elephant ear on are more appropriate. A symphony concert might command something more refined, a tie or an elegant gown. And, the accessory that goes with all of them? A custom DuPontTyvek® wristband!
You Don’t Have to Leave Fashion Behind
When planning your opus event, you don’t have to leave fashion behind! Event Wristbands can be customized to fit any occasion and any audience. Whether your guests walk in straight from the streets or all dressed up as haute elites, you can design and print custom paper bracelets to fit their style and serve your purpose.
For your reggae crowd, go bright with festival wristbands in a variety of colors. Red, yellow, and green wrist bands are the perfect way to show off a little Rasta pride and allow you to manage your crowd effectively, while staying in the groove of the event.
Fairs and carnivals can benefit, too. Manage admission to special events and rides with festive carnival wristbands and make it easier than ever to keep your event secure without sacrificing any of the fun.
You can keep it understated for your fashion forward crowd. Custom wristbands in complementary colors, ensure their outfits won’t clash with the collateral and help you maintain an orderly and dignified event.
Make Art of Wristbands
Of course, you can choose to print Event Wristbands in just one color or you can add your own design, making them one of a kind and even more coveted by your fashionistas! There is room for your own unique image. Imagine your stylish logo or event branding gracing the wrists of hundreds or thousands of guests!
Green is the New Black
If your guests are style conscious, they’ll appreciate the fact that Tyvek® is recyclable. Green is definitely in this season, so show off your commitment to environmental sustainability by giving your guests the option to reduce waste and recycle when they depart the venue.
Function and Form
Tyvek® wristbands for events aren’t just the sought after ornament of your fashion forward guests. They also serve a number of important functions during your big occasion. From security to crowd control, they help your event run smoothly from start to finish.
Not only do they help you to identify who should be at the venue, they allow you to make sure the right guests are in the right places. A coveted backstage visit or special event can be managed quickly and easily, simply by checking the color of your guests’ admission wristbands. If you’re serving drinks, bar wristbands help to make sure that younger guests are not able to imbibe. For added security, you can include sequential numbering or a holographic design in order ensuring authenticity.
Style on a Dime
You don’t have to break the bank in order to print custom wristbands for your event. Inexpensive Tyvek® wristbands can be designed and printed online. Order them in bulk and you may qualify for an added discount. You’ll have revenue left over to buy that fancy outfit you were planning to wear to your successful event!
If you’ve ever attended a big event, chances are you’ve were outfitted with a DuPontTyvek® wristband at the gate. And, chances are, everyone around you had one firmly secured around his or her wrist as well. Admission wristbands have become ubiquitous at festivals and other occasions where they serve many purposes.
Admission, Crowd Control, and Re-entry
Event Wristbands, at their most basic, get guests quickly and safely into the venue. Once inside the event, they provide guests more freedom of movement and provide attendants and security with an easy way to determine whether they should be there. Rather than fumbling for ticket stubs or showing off an entry stamp that might be easily smeared or washed off, guests can simply flash their paper bracelets for identification. If for some reason a guest needs to leave the venue and return, the event wristband makes it simple. Securely fastened in place, Tyvek® wristbands are durable and last the length of the event.
Security
Event Wristbands help to ensure a secure environment while the event is taking place. They can be printed in a variety of colors or printed with a variety of images to make identification even simpler. From managing who has access to alcoholic beverages, to who is allowed backstage, to which guests are allowed into restricted events, security bracelets make it much easier for you to maintain the safety of your event and help to ensure everyone has a great time.
Event Branding and Sponsor Advertising
Custom made wristbands can be designed with branding, sponsorship, and advertising in mind. Guests have to pay attention to the message because, for the duration of the event, it is a part of them. Tyvek® is printable, so they can be designed to carry the overall branding of the event. If your organization has a logo or a theme for its annual affair, it can be included.
The space can also be used to pay homage to event sponsors. They’ve graciously donated money and time to see your event become a success. Why not donate space so they can promote their message?
Promotional Coupons
Event Wristbands can also play double duty as promotional coupons. Sponsors or advertisers can choose to offer special discounts for guests wearing your wristbands at the time of sale. In this way, these devices provide a usefulness that extends far beyond the venue of your festival or carnival.
Raffles and Door Prizes
Tyvek® wristbands can be individually numbered and printed with a holographic strip that keeps them secure, making them are ideal for managing raffles and door prizes at bigger events. Organizers can run the event much like a traditional raffle, drawing from a pool of number printed on the admission wristbands. Guests need not worry about losing their ticket stub over the course of the day when they can wear their entry into a raffle or door prize competition around their wrists!
Keepsakes
When guests attend an event that they enjoy, they want to take something with them that will help them to remember. Many individuals collect custom wristbands from events they’ve attended, so they can relive the memories later on.
The best art events are whirlwinds of color and greyscale, cacophony and music, insiders and outsiders. There’s the wine and cheese set, hosting events in galleries with clean lines and clean floors. There’s the bohemian aesthetic of an art event that takes place in a crumbling factory or foreboding alley. There are impoverished students seeking a little culture and wealthy benefactors searching for their next big investment. There are curators, critics, artists, dealers, and appreciators of art from the general public. How are you, the event promoter, to discern among them at a glance? Consider the humble Event Wristband, a mere slip of Tyvek that provides broad exposure and keeps your event efficient and organized. If you could tag everyone who walked through the door according to type, wouldn’t that help all these disparate elements communicate more effectively?
An array of colorful Event Wristbands, provided at the door of a large art event, along with a key to help attendees understand what each color means, is a smart way to organize your guests.
Purpose in Design: It’s an art event: start with your design decisions and let form follow function. What purpose do you hope your wristbands to accomplish? Consider points of access for your varied guests. Critics may require different access than casual guests, and the wristband can act as a kind of press pass. Dealers in art may need a wristband that provides instant access to auctions and private showings by artists and auction houses. Different color wristbands can denote different functions, and you can further delineate with the addition of an image or logo that might denote a certain portion of the event. For added prestige, you could add a title for the wearer: “Critic,” “Dealer,” “Artist.” Color-coding the bands to instantly show points of access gives you a leg up in organizing. In addition, this can automatically turn an Event Wristband into a status symbol. If artists wear red wristbands that say “Artist”, dealers, curators, and critics instantly know who they need to talk to about accessing shows or an artist’s work. Even a mere “Art Lover” will enjoy having her status identified with pride.
Who’s Who: Niche crowds like those interested in the arts possess a natural hierarchy. Using custom, quality wristbands can highlight and incentivize these inherent hierarchies. First of all, wristbands provide natural exposure to your event, particularly if it takes place over several days, or is a long event where participants may leave and reenter the venue. That bright red “Artist” wristband attracts attention and instigates questions about what’s going on in that gallery across the street. Second, these various levels of wristbands create a “who’s who” status symbols for your visitors. Artists and dealers can find one another with ease, and no one will inadvertently insult a critic or a journalist. (On the other hand, this system can make it easier to deliberately insult a critic or a journalist.) Everyone knows instantly to whom they need to speak to during the duration of the event (and also who to avoid). Everyone can show off their accomplishments without overtly bragging.
Annuals, Biennials, Triennials: Large art events such as annuals, biennials, and triennials are attended by many people from a variety of diverse backgrounds in the industry. People from all over the world with diverse industry backgrounds also attend these events. Consider incorporating the wearer’s language into the wristband design for added organization and prestige. For example, the Whitney Biennial in New York City will have a lot of Americans in attendance, many of whom will be bilingual. The color-coded system may prove really helpful. A wristband that alerts others that one speaks Spanish and Italian will be a welcome sight to international visitors. The status of the polyglot, proudly donning 12 different colored wristbands, cannot be overlooked in this scenario. Her popularity among the international crowd will be assured.
Using quality custom Event Wristbands is a masterstroke in creating memorable, organized success, especially if your event will be large, diverse, and cater to a niche crowd where networking is a necessity.
