Holding your nerve: the last-minute ticketing conundrum

Changing trends in ticket sales are no grounds for panic. Experts from the Ticketing Professionals Conference offer advice.
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The last thing any arts organisation or venue wants on the night of a performance is an empty theatre; but with many ticket purchases occurring in the days leading up to a show’s run, predicting audience attendance and final box office numbers is becoming an increasingly difficult task. How does a venue remain calm before the swell of purchases starts in the lead-up to a performance? Are last-minute purchases a growing trend in the industry? Can patrons be corralled into buying their tickets earlier?

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Sarah Ward
About the Author
Sarah Ward is a freelance film critic, arts and culture writer, and film festival organiser. She is the Australia-based critic for Screen International, a film reviewer and writer for ArtsHub, the weekend editor and a senior writer for Concrete Playground, a writer for the Goethe-Institut Australien’s Kino in Oz, and a contributor to SBS, SBS Movies and Flicks Australia. Her work has been published by the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Junkee, FilmInk, Birth.Movies.Death, Lumina, Senses of Cinema, Broadsheet, Televised Revolution, Metro Magazine, Screen Education and the World Film Locations book series. She is also the editor of Trespass Magazine, a film and TV critic for ABC radio Brisbane, Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast, and has worked with the Brisbane International Film Festival, Queensland Film Festival, Sydney Underground Film Festival and Melbourne International Film Festival. Follow her on Twitter: @swardplay