Join us for yet another thrilling season finale of TicketingPodcast.com, where we welcome back one of our guests from last season – Ticketing Systems Manager Nick Brennan of Warwickshire County Cricket Club – for a run-through from start to finish of all the seven previous episodes.
Nick, a highly deserving finalist for the “Unsung Heroes” award at the 2024 Ticketing Business Awards, guides us through key moments and learnings from our esteemed guests this season: Jean-Marie Tardy, Peter Wynne, Brooke Arthur, Joe Foster, Steven Ferguson, Filippo Scanzano, and Michael Fraser.
At TicketingPodcast.com, we’re dedicated to creating a platform for ticketing professionals to exchange wisdom and for enthusiasts to gain industry-leading insights. This season, we've broadened our horizons with two new formats - Live Specials and Hot Topic Specials - enriching your go-to ticketing knowledge hub.
Join us for this 25-minute recap that distils the essence of our expansive and engaging season. Tune in and get inspired!
TicketingPodcast.com is powered and sponsored by TicketCo and hosted by TicketCo’s CEO, Carl-Erik Michalsen Moberg.
Join us for yet another thrilling season finale of TicketingPodcast.com, where we welcome back one of our guests from last season – Ticketing Systems Manager Nick Brennan of Warwickshire County Cricket Club – for a run-through from start to finish of all the seven previous episodes.
Nick, a highly deserving finalist for the “Unsung Heroes” award at the 2024 Ticketing Business Awards, guides us through key moments and learnings from our esteemed guests this season: Jean-Marie Tardy, Peter Wynne, Brooke Arthur, Joe Foster, Steven Ferguson, Filippo Scanzano, and Michael Fraser.
At TicketingPodcast.com, we’re dedicated to creating a platform for ticketing professionals to exchange wisdom and for enthusiasts to gain industry-leading insights. This season, we've broadened our horizons with two new formats - Live Specials and Hot Topic Specials - enriching your go-to ticketing knowledge hub.
Join us for this 25-minute recap that distils the essence of our expansive and engaging season. Tune in and get inspired!
TicketingPodcast.com is powered and sponsored by TicketCo and hosted by TicketCo’s CEO, Carl-Erik Michalsen Moberg.
Season 3 of TicketingPodcastcom has come to an end and it's time to summarize who's been with us on the show this season and what's been discussed. Stay put and you'll get all the answers. Hello everyone, thank you so much for tuning in to TicketingPodcastcom, where ticketing experts share their stories and insights. My name is Karl-Erik Moberg and with me today in this Season 3 finale of TicketingPodcastcom is Nick Brennan, ticketing Systems Manager at Workshare County Cricket Club. It's great to have you back, nick, and good to see you again.
Speaker 2:Great to see you guys as well. Great to be back.
Speaker 1:Those of you who remember Season 2 of this show will remember Nick as well. I mean, he was one of our great guests back then. How do you think that experience was Nick?
Speaker 2:It was great. I mean I always loved the chance to talk about ticking, as we are ticking nerds. So yeah, I mean real honoured to be on with some amazing other colleagues of mine. So, yeah, really brilliant.
Speaker 1:Great. Did you hear the episode yourself?
Speaker 2:I did, yeah, I quite enjoyed it actually Great.
Speaker 1:Do you agree on everything that's been said? Oh yeah, oh yeah. So, for reference, I think many of you have probably noticed and heard about it, but a few weeks back, it was announced that you're one of the six shortlisted nominees for the Unsung Hero Award at the 2020 Ticketing Business Awards. First of all, congratulations, nick, and what were your thoughts when the message popped into your inbox?
Speaker 2:I was a little bit surprised, to be honest. I wasn't expecting it. My colleague had nominated me. But really just great. To be honest, it's exciting even just to be nominated, you know. Yeah, just nice to be put amongst a really good, strong group, which it is to be put amongst those people. The Unsung Heroes are a nice thing to be in our business because we want to be the quiet people that do the good stuff behind the scenes.
Speaker 2:Couldn't agree more. Do you know why you're nominated? A bit of an idea. I think it was mainly just the amount of work we went through last year as a team collective, which is, you know, I mentioned in my first chat with you guys how small our team is, but did a lot of work on some new bits last year, including we used a secondary ticketing app as well as our original ticketing app, so we had two working next to each other. It came while we had our busiest and most successful financial year ever, so I think it was sort of a year long effort really, I think in particular, but just a lot of things contributed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, you're a systems manager, right? You know that when you're dealing with technology and there are multiple systems talking together, there is always a risk.
Speaker 2:Exactly, it's a little bit shaky sometimes, you always get a little bit nervous, but it all came off, which is very good.
Speaker 1:Great. I think you need to take a little bit of risk to become the Unsung Hero. It's well worth it in the end, for sure, and good luck in Manchester the 16th of April. Thank you so much. So when we wrapped up season two of this podcast, we did it by inviting one of our guests from season one you probably know him more precisely, paul Williamson of Two Circles where he walked us through the different episodes and he gave us key takeaways from each and every one of them. Super interesting to hear Paul's take. I mean, he's an insider just like yourself. And that's exactly what the plan is today, nick, and we're super grateful that you've accepted the challenge and look forward to hearing your thoughts on the third season. There's no rolling the dice on the season in itself, but hopefully we can get some good takeaways from you, nick. So besides being shortlisted for the Ticketing Business Award touch on that before we go into the episode what's happened in your life since your last visit? You've been on a nice vacation to Miami, you just said.
Speaker 2:But besides that, yeah, a lot of work, as always, just sort of, since last time we had that full crazy season of all the different things going on and the different projects I was on at that point. That took up most of last year. And then my team, aston Villa, decided to go and be good at football again and I've been following those guys around Europe, which has been really exciting. So I've kind of worked and done a little bit of travelling so I can't complain.
Speaker 1:Great to hear Same situation. The local team here as well, decided to play a good season not for once, but it's been a while. So it's great season for sure. But apart from Paul Williams, and as yourself, we agree that the episode with you was great. We had Martin Gossens from Royal Sports Club Analesht, samuel Boyden from England Netball, manal Smith of the 100 and Sail GPT now, as well as Rick Jörkovic from the Rugby Football League visiting us in season 2. I mean, all of those episodes are very different, right worth listening to, but any one of those you would bring forward.
Speaker 2:I actually do enjoy most of them actually, but probably Manal because I do know her. She's a friend, so I really enjoyed listening to her sort of story because I worked quite a bit on that hundred tournament as well, so it was nice to hear her talking on here. But no, they're all really good in their own way. So, yeah, I think they were all good, but yeah, if I had to pick one, I think I'd go with Manal.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I gave an entrepreneurial vibe as well, right, because she's been back and forth different sports, different challenges all the time. Super impressive, I agree with you, super cool episode. However, we had a different lineup in season three, where we kicked off with a big organization. That's super cool to meet Jean-Marie Tadi from FIFA back in October Time flies and back then we discussed how FIFA is ensuring fair and equal access to tickets for spectators all over the world, which is a huge challenge, right? Any thoughts on that one, nick?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, first thing would be I love this one. I just thought Jean-Marie was so engaging to start with. It had just a really good chat, I felt like. But I mean going back to your sort of question, I think it was just fascinating because the size of FIFA they are, this global megastar tournaments and their digitalization is something that always pops out to me because that's something that I'm so invested in. But I think the main thing that popped up to me that I hadn't thought of really was just how there is that many different nations. The quality of resources that they have in terms of the process of claiming these tickets for these tournaments has to be so different. You have to take so many things into consideration. With us, we have pretty much the same audience every year in this country and Europe, and whereas those guys have got to deal with all areas of the world which don't always have the same resources as us. So it's really fascinating to hear how they target with the ballot processes and fan processes for that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree, and I mean we're talking about fair play on the ground a lot right but the big challenge here is fair play and ticketing. How do you do that across the whole world? I mean different technology everywhere, exactly Nucies everything. So, yeah, big, big organization worthwhile listening to. After that we also did our very first live special of the ticketingpolkauscom. Me and Tom traveled down to Vienna beautiful city, by the way, if you haven't been, you check it out in Austria and we traveled with Peter Wynn, great guy, head of tickets and memberships at Wrexham AFC. Quite a lot of attention on him. I mean, he also has a small team at the moment and in that episode we discussed something very relevant to Wrexham. I mean the celebrity ownership that they have, fair pricing, community spirit, as well as Wrexham's long awaited promotion to the EFL. Any key takeaways from that conversation?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean Wrexham's just a crazy story. You know, I've followed football for years and years over here and in my lifetime Wrexham have never been a thing until the last couple of years and now they're probably arguably more recognisable than some of the Premier League teams across America and worldwide. But I think sort of the main takeaway from that was, despite how these guys could probably sell this ground out many times over every game, they've got still those initiatives to keep the community involved. I loved the race course live initiative that Pete had spoke about and the fact that, as I say, they could sell out every week and charge whatever they really wanted, but they still want to give away these hundred tickets a game no questions asked to the local community and get those that perhaps can't make it every week or are struggling a chance, because at the end of the day you know they're probably creating funds for life from the TV show, but if they can create funds for life in the local community, that's really cool.
Speaker 1:And I also think the owners are here for a long term right, they're planning long term. That's why they think like you're saying, because, yeah, in short term they could have probably charged more, as you say, or do things differently. But it's super cool to follow Wrexham, both on Disney and elsewhere. Of course, as well with Pete and after the live podcast, I'm Janna, which was lovely. Fast forward to episode three, where we had the Canadian and Australian ticketing superstar, brooke Arthur. That was a super cool episode, I must say. She paid us a visit and gave us insight into her captivating career travel around the world working in ticketing different organizations. She's done massive events. I mean we're talking two Olympics, two FIFA women World Cups. How would you sum that up?
Speaker 2:Love this chat as well. I thought Brooke's enthusiasm and sort of love for ticketing was really great and engaging. And it was fun because I don't live in a particularly tournament based environment. We have one every few years. So to have Brooke talking about her experience of predominantly just doing tournaments and how she has to take in the fact that she's going to be unemployed at the end of these tournaments but then how perfectly that she's got this community now within our industry that she'll pick up another job so quickly afterwards based on her performance every time. I also just liked that she was honest about. You know things don't always go properly. Everyone knows this in our business. You know you can accidentally leave something running or you can click the wrong thing. It's something that Joe talks about as well from Bodo. I love how honest she was and it's about owning it and saying that this happened but we'll make it right and that's the best thing I thought.
Speaker 1:Agreed, and I mean you're touching on the one with Joe Foster, which was also a live episode. Bodo Glimp have you heard of Bodo Glimp before, by the way?
Speaker 2:I hadn't until, like I said, Aston Villa, my team qualified for the UEFA Conference this year and we could have potentially played them. They lost in the last round. I was quite looking forward to a trip to the Arctic Circle, but we ended up with Ajax instead.
Speaker 1:It can be fun up there right. You can see everything from snow to pretty heavy weather. So, yeah, you would have been in for a treat on that one. So you mentioned some key takeaways from Joe. Any other thoughts from that episode?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean again, it feels like Joe's story was pretty unique and the way he ended up out there and sort of has ended up taking on this team that are on the rise and really just making a name for themselves. I just liked the different support profile. It seems like that they have compared to the general UK and European profile, their family-based culture and, despite all this, football fans are always the same. They're always desperate to have their tickets when they go out for the huge games and the stories they're always the same, regardless of the team or the event. The experiences are always the same, which made me laugh when he was talking about the different experiences that he'd had, with a few troubling on sales. I've been there. I've been there, yeah we've all been there.
Speaker 1:I think in this industry it's fun to talk about afterwards, but not the too fun when it's happening for sure. Yeah, exactly, but we all lead good stories, don't we?
Speaker 2:So it's good to have them with us. It's how we bond. I think, yeah, exactly Crazy enough.
Speaker 1:That's the way it is, I believe. So, after being in the north of Norway actually that episode was on Dublin, but it was with Joe who was in the Arctic Circle we went down to Scotland and we had a different role this time, as you know, normally people and guests who work with ticketing, but we invited a CEO of Ross County just to have some new perspectives. Stephen Ferguson from Ross County in Scotland, a Scottish Premiership Football Club, 6,500 seats in a town of 6,500 people, and Stephen was also awarded the Scottish League CEO of the year last year and he gave us an insight. I mean, in Ross County, how can they compete with massive clubs such as Celtic and Rangers? Did you learn anything from that episode, nick?
Speaker 2:I thought it was just interesting how he really acknowledged how important his ticketing system and team were. It's refreshing to have someone who sort of embraces the importance of that ticketing team at the core of what they're trying to do as a whole club. He mentioned how they'd brought everything into one system and got somebody to really just be in that detail at all times, and so I thought that was really great. And again, another sort of small team, but someone sort of battling above their weight, and yeah, I think it was just nice to see that he recognized how important we are in this ticket inside. You know, ultimately without us there's nobody in the ground and those are the most important people, so I've got to get it right for them. He engaged really well with the supporters and he was just very transparent. I thought about how they deal with everything, so I thought it was pretty nice yeah super cool and also great guys.
Speaker 1:Well, shout out to ticketing manager after the episode on LinkedIn.
Speaker 1:That was the true hero of the club shows, I think, integrity in many ways, and definitely I couldn't agree more with what you're saying on ticketing manager and CEO, and I mean my personal view is that every ticketing manager should have a seat at the decision table when the big decisions are made, because they have so much data, they are closer to the fans. Doesn't make sense to have a strategic discussion without the ticketing manager in the room, absolutely so after the episode with Steven, we tried something new. We had to try something new every once in a while. It's not a huge risk in this podcast. However, our listeners are hopefully loyal on the ticketing podcast. However, we ended season three with two hot topic specials and that is, as mentioned, a new concept to the ticketing podcastcom, and here we're discussing more ticketing related topics, things that's on people's minds, things we hear about in the ticketing space. I mean, what do you think about going a little bit outside the ticketing manager manuscript which we've developed, and discussing other things systems, tools, whatnot?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I enjoyed it. I think it's good because, as great as we enjoy listening to our sort of fellow ticketing professional stories, it's nice to sometimes hear people on the periphery who don't necessarily specialize in our ticketing ops but specialize in products that are going to contribute to that. So you know, we're a dynamic industry these days and we need to stay at the front of the technology space. So it was sort of a good opportunity for you guys and for us listening to get some insights and help decide whether we need what these people are bringing to the table.
Speaker 1:I thought yeah, I think the goal here is not to create some sort of marketing channel for these companies. It's more of an opportunity to talk about topics. That is interesting, and one of the first hot topic specials we had was with Filippo Scanzano from the German startup SmartPricer, about a very hot topic across the ticketing world, and I think that's been there for a long time. People have been talking about dynamic pricing for a long time, but now we have AI coming and I mean there's a lot of things that's happening in this space. What's your thoughts on that topic dynamic pricing?
Speaker 2:I'm a little bit on the fence. I get it's needed in the right situation, I think, but sometimes I think it's pushed a little bit too far and it gets taken out of control. That's how I mean we've. Dynamic pricing has got a little bit of a bad reputation sometimes, especially some of the big US companies and stuff like that and events that have taken it perhaps a little bit too far and just price changing when you hit the basket from when you've added it to the basket.
Speaker 2:I'm not sure I agree with that, particularly because once you add that to your basket, that's really what it should be and nothing should change there. But I think we do use it on a small scale. We don't use to lies any sort of automated software yet, but we sort of have a pricing map in mind that we follow as the stadium gets fuller and we sell more, but it's not usually instantaneous, it's more over a longer space of time with just windows of sale rather than an automatic one based on people adding those tickets to the basket. I think it's just essential that we stay in control at the moment and monitor the sort of trends of people and what they're saying to us, rather than AI is a pretty powerful thing, but with our customer base still, I like the idea of us being in control of that pricing.
Speaker 1:I tend to agree with you there and always open for new opportunities, looking at things from new angles, etc. I think you should let AI go haywire. You should at least have the opportunity to accept or not accept the suggestion, I believe but that might be another discussion for next time. And also I mean a nice segue into AI. We try to find out, I mean, what's AI doing in terms of ticketing. Are ticketing managers embracing AI? I mean, you have to talk about AI. These days, you don't have a choice. So we had to have that as a topic and I think we found the right man for the job Michael Fraser from Toronto. He had his own consultancy called Action Insight. Have you started implementing AI, nick?
Speaker 2:He was interesting listening to this, actually because I like the idea of AI. It is a little bit scary, I think, for people, which I understand. I do like it because we do have it on a small, small scale. It's often, to be honest, used for helping us with customer inquiries and speeding that process up. We don't implement it directly into our ticketing system just yet. I'm not sure where that space is going to lead. I'm interested to see where it goes. It's kind of the real hot topic at the moment. You can't avoid it all over LinkedIn or even all over social media or anything like that. So it's powerful and there is movement. I think there's maybe movement sooner with the ops side of things maybe access control and security ingress measures. I'd quite like to see where it can be used there. Yes, that's kind of what intrigues me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree, and I think we also see some of our organizers. I mean, from a ticky-coop perspective, we're using AI, but it's mostly repeatable tasks or repeatable questions. That's super easy to answer looking up in knowledge databases and stuff like that. Right, and I think that's a nice way to start because you can't really go wrong. However, it's good to sit on the fence sometimes and see what happens. We've now touched on multiple podcast episodes here, and there's a lot to digest several hours of listening. If you were to name one that stood out from the crowd, which one would that be? Any episode you recommend?
Speaker 2:I think I was torn between two. Really. Jean Marie was brilliant and I really engaged with that because you know we share the same software and app as FIFA, so I could kind of engage with what he was saying and it was just interesting because I love football so having that FIFA side really intrigued me. But I also just loved Brooke's episode for her enthusiasm and love for the sort of community of Ticket Insight. I didn't know what to expect with that episode and I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 1:I think one thing we can conclude on is that even though we're talking about the same topics and we're talking to people in the same roles, it's completely different stories. I mean completely different inputs, different organizations. So I guess it depends on what kind of role you have and also what kind of events you're working with. On what episode you should choose. Are you an guru on AI? Maybe choose the one with AI. There's something for everyone. So, speaking of hot topics, Nick, anything else we should have an eye on in the podcast.
Speaker 2:Well, I think it's hard to just in my eyes, to look past how we can just keep digitalizing. Things change so quickly. I mean, you couldn't move last year for the idea of the digital assets and that sort of thing, whereas that's now kind of quietened down a little bit. I wouldn't want to second guess where it's going to go next. So, yeah, I think we're trying to utilize that AI side and look at chatbots and that sort of thing. It's the customer experience side. So that's what I'd keep close on for us, but I have no idea where it's going to go next.
Speaker 1:I think we get a real one thing, nick, and that is we need to keep our eyes open, absolutely. We can't keep most of them, and someone else will take advantage of it. I think we should really stay on top and be on our toes. Things are happening faster now than ever and, yeah, ai is one thing, but dynamic pricing is similar another thing. But, yeah, we'll keep our eyes open and look for hot topics. If any of our listeners have an idea, by the way, or if you do, nick, feel free to drop me a LinkedIn message. Same goes with cool guests to interview, right, because you never know where there's an unsung hero in ticketing, that's for sure. Finally, nick, have you started your acceptance speech for the ticketing business awards yet?
Speaker 2:No, I haven't. He's fantastic to be nominated, but, like I said before, there's some really, really cool people that are nominated as well. So I think, if I'm lucky enough to actually win, I'll probably be freestyling on the stage.
Speaker 1:Sounds like a plan. Sounds like a plan. There was the Oscars last night, but they also did a little bit of freestyling, as far as I could tell. Yeah, some crazy ones. So thank you so much for a great season three run through. Nick, again, it's been a pleasure to have you back on the show. Really cool to be talking to you again. Great to hear that Things are going well in your end. Best of luck in Manchester in April, nick. Thank you, it's going to be exciting. We'll be following you from the podcast and then we might have to do another episode. Nick, I'm going to be at your house, definitely. If people want to reach out to you, nick, you might have mentioned this before as well, but how do they reach out?
Speaker 2:Yeah, of course you can hit me up on LinkedIn, give me a shout on there or, if you want to drop me an email, that's great, and if you're in Manchester at the Forum, let's have a coffee.
Speaker 1:Coffee is always a good plan, for sure. Thank you so much, nick. It's been great to having you on the ticketingpodcastcom, where today's guest has been Nicholas Brennan, ticketing systems manager at Warwickshire County Cricket Club and again one of the six finalists of the Unsung Hero Awards at this year's ticketing business awards. Thank you for listening and thank you to our sponsor, ticketgo, for powering this thing.