Our weekly tech round-up from the world of ticketing and associated industries…
NFT ticketing
SeatlabNFT has launched its £1m SeatlabNFT Event Creator Fund to help artists and event organisers with the cost of running live events.
The group said these non-repayable grants are open to applications from events and festivals worldwide. Successful applicants will receive their grants in instalments, becoming a SeatlabNFT sponsored event and official ticketing client in the process.
Ryan Kenny, Director of Seatlab, said: “We’re excited to announce the SeatlabNFT Event Creator Fund, which we hope will provide organisers around the world with the financial injection needed to allow them to try out and embrace our event ticketing technology at their events. We’re looking to work with a wide range of events, so we encourage everybody who will benefit to apply.”
Virtual events
K-pop group Blackpink are to perform a virtual concert within PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) Mobile’s in-game world later this month.
Fans have been encouraged to download the game before July 15 ahead of the release of a concert resource pack the following day.
‘BLACKPINK X PUBG MOBILE 2022 IN-GAME CONCERT: [THE VIRTUAL]’ Coming soon!
North & South America:22nd-23rd and 29th-30th July
Rest of the World: 23rd-24th and 30th-31st July #BLACKPINKxPUBGM #BLACKPINK #PUBGMOBILE #THEVIRTUAL #INGAMECONCERT @BLACKPINK pic.twitter.com/anHLiGioVy— PUBG MOBILE (@PUBGMOBILE) July 12, 2022
Blackpink: The Virtual will run over two weekends, between July 22 and 23 and then again between July 29 and 30 in North and South America. For all other countries, it will run take place between July 23 and 24, and then again from July 30 to 31.
In-person payments
Ticket Tailor, a white-labelled, self-serve ticketing platform, has partnered with its payment provider, Stripe, to offer in-person payments with Stripe Terminal.
The platform said current research shows that up to 20% of event tickets are still sold at the door.
“Terminal lets you handle in-person payments with card readers that are ready to go out of the box, so you can start accepting payments right away,” Ticket Tailor said.
“Not only does this open up a new revenue stream for venues not currently offering in-person payment, but it also makes it easier for event organisers already selling online and on the door. Transferring online and in-person sales to the same platform with Ticket Tailor means you can see all your transactions in one place – allowing for cleaner financial reporting and reconciliation.”
Event safety
Crowdguard, a specialist in the supply of safety systems for events, is to extend its portfolio to semi-permanent solutions following a new partnership with Unafor.
As an accredited and certified Unafor distributor and installer for the UK and the US, Crowdguard can now offer event organisers, venue operators and local authorities a wider range of flexible solutions, providing the appropriate solution to mitigate the assessed threat, whilst considering the operational requirements of each event and location.
Deborah Ainscough, founder and director of Crowdguard, said: “Our temporary HVM and perimeter protection solutions are ideal for a huge range of environments. However, customers sometimes need the flexibility of a solution that can be deployed and then removed quickly, easily and cost-effectively for events and open spaces whereby the event occurs in the same footprint multiple times a year.”
Background image: Ales Nesetril on Unsplash