Introducing Session-Based Ticketing

What is a Session-Based Event?

A Session-Based Event is split over multiple entry times. If we take, for example, a festive light trail experience and say it takes a customer on average a total of 2 hours to make their way around the venue, you’d likely have entry times staggered  by the hour. For a theatre show, on the other hand, you might only need 2 sessions per day – one for a matinee and one for an evening showing.

In the Promotion Centre, you can set specific entry times for your attendees depending on how long it takes for the guest to complete and for them to leave the venue, creating different capacities for each slot.

Why Would I Use Session-Based Ticketing?

Let’s stick with the example of a festive light trail.

Without Session-Based Ticketing, those with tickets to your event could and probably would arrive at the same time or in large numbers, causing overcrowding, logistical headaches and long queues to get in. The need to manage entry times would be also become a manual task and the capacity of your event would have to be kept to a more manageable number, particularly for health and safety concerns.

Stunting your events potential and frustrating your customers before they’ve even got through the doors or gates to your event is not the aim. The challenge is to create something others want to experience, not to create an angry mob of disgruntled ticket holders with nowhere to park, all posting negative reviews to social media.

Session-Based Ticketing helps to mitigate these issues before they even arise. You’re in control of the time slots, meaning you can set suitable capacities, avoiding the potential for queues and congestion. There is no need for manual timekeeping, either. Your attendees know the time slots they’ve chosen as do you. You know when customers are going to arrive and leave, making the whole operation much more efficient.

Smaller queues also provide your staff with the opportunity to be more attentive. Instead of ushering attendees of an oversold event, they could instead be offering knowledge, answering questions and generally offering a warm welcome. Heck, you might even get some positive reviews posted on social media.

But it’s not just queue control. With Session-Based Ticketing, you can set up quiet hours and concessionary slots, too, helping you to make your event more inclusive. Plus, you can control everything from the Sessions Calendar, which we’ll talk more about in the next section.

How Can The Sessions Calendar Help Me?

The Sessions Calendar is where you’ll control all your sessions. Here, you can create, edit and hide sessions. It’s all in one place, making the feature super easy to use.

Via the Sessions Calendar, you’ll also be able to find a sales breakdown of your sessions. This crucial aspect of the feature allows you to see which timeslots are popular with your attendees. With this information, you can plan your staff accordingly and ensure the event runs as smoothly as possible. You’ll also be able to give attendees a better idea of how busy the event is going to be, improving the customer service experience.

If you find yourself in a situation where you need to make lots of changes, no problem. The Bulk Edit tool will allow you to edit multiple sessions, saving you time so you can focus on other aspects of your event.

This all sounds great! Where can I learn more?

Check out our how-to guide on Session-Based Ticketing below to discover how to make the most of this powerful feature for your events. Or, if you prefer a written guide, why not read through our dedicated Session-Based Ticketing FAQ articles on help.promotioncentre.co.uk.