COMPANY

Dublin Irish Festival http://dublinirishfestival.org/

TYPE OF EVENTS

Dublin Irish Festival is the largest 3-day event celebrating Irish culture in the world with over 100,000 attendees, 500 performances and seven stages.

SUMMARY

Dublin Irish Festival set out to find a ticketing solution that offered in-depth reporting. In Vendini, they found a team that not only gave them access to the reports they needed, but a partner that works with them to sell more tickets, shorten lines and get more data than ever.

A partner that works for you, with you As with any high volume event, the needs of the festival outgrew the services that they were receiving with their previous provider, Eventbrite.

“We weren’t getting the reporting we

needed,” said LeRoy. “We got the feeling that they weren’t willing to improve the system to make changes we need to successfully run our festival. Today, with Vendini, we have a great product and a team of people that care about making the system

CASE STUDY

Dublin Irish Festival Gains In-depth Data, On-site Expertise and Boosts Ticket Sales with VendiniLike many great events, Dublin Irish Festival came from humble beginnings. Now the largest 3-day Irish festival in the world, the gathering began as an after-party to the local Feis — an Irish dance competition that boasts 1,400 registrants. Today, 27 years later, the after-party has grown into the main event, with over 100,000 festival attendees.

Festival Director Alison LeRoy attributes part of the boom to the Riverdance phenomenon in the 90’s, but also admits that they run a top notch festival.

“We have a great track record of bringing people back year after year,” says LeRoy. “It definitely speaks to the quality of the festival.” And after 17 years with the festival, the last six of which she spent as Festival Director, Alison has seen the festival grow into what it is today — an event that brings in $8.3 million to Central Ohio.

work for us.”

Dublin Irish Festival originally set out in search of a provider with an in-depth reporting system. With Vendini, the festival got just that — and more.

More advance sales & shorter linesAs a festival that does the majority of ticket sales on-site, Dublin Irish Festival hadn’t focused much on online sales until teaming up with Vendini. “Since partnering with Vendini our online ticket sales have more than tripled,” said LeRoy. “The system is just easier — we’re able to push posts to social media right from Vendini and target specific groups with their marketing tools.” Not to mention, Vendini’s mobile optimized buying process allows ticket buyers to purchase tickets in advance from a phone or tablet, helping them avoid lines the day of the festival. “People coming in on the shuttle buy tickets on their phone while they’re riding over, no standing in line. It’s convenient for ticket buyers and cuts down on lines.”

Tracking purchases for powerful insightWith over 20 ticket types available, Vendini gave Dublin Irish Festival the flexibility to not only track their sales in one system but also to process credit cards. “Selling with credit cards gives us a quick turnaround, but also allows

us to quickly and easily record any purchase made,” said LeRoy. “So when we’re planning out next year’s festival, especially staffing, we can see what the high-traffic times were, when we were slow, what ticket types sold the most… it gives us real data we can use.”

In-depth data to optimize for next yearTracking purchases isn’t the only way to help plan for next year’s event. Dublin Irish Festival implemented Vendini’s technology to scan every ticket buyer that came through the gates. “Scanning helps control ticket fraud and gives us insight into peak entrance times and gates,” said Alison. At any point during the event, Dublin was able to access this data to allow them to make adjustments in real time and to plan for next year. “Vendini’s reports give us a clear picture of our event — which gates were most popular, and which weren’t — so we can adjust our staffing for next year and take the guesswork out of the equation.”

“We have a great product and a team of people that care about making the system work for us.”

“Vendini’s reports give us a clear picture of our event

— which gates were most popular, and which weren’t

— so we can adjust our staffing for next year and take the guesswork out of

the equation.”

Product flexibility & ingenuityA big contributing factor of Dublin Irish Festival choosing Vendini was the ability to be flexible, and innovate the product to meet their needs. “Other vendors couldn’t handle our beverage tokens on-site, which was a dealbreaker,” said Alison. “A lot of vendors said ‘yeah, that’s not what we do.’ Vendini’s willingness to understand our festival and work with us to explore options to make us successful set them apart.” This token functionality was not only something that Vendini built for Dublin Irish Festival, but it is now offered as a feature for all festivals. On-site support that looks forwardOn top of smooth ticket sales, Vendini also provided on-site support that let the festival team focus on what was important: running an an exceptional festival.

“On-site Vendini staff support made a huge difference,” said LeRoy. “They trained our staff and volunteers and were able to offer recommendations and jump in at any moment during the event. They didn’t wait for problems to happen, they were proactively troubleshooting with us the course of the festival.”

“Vendini is constantly updating and improving their product,” said LeRoy.

“And we’re happy with that... that’s the way we run our business too. This partnership was a no brainer, and we’re looking forward to the future.”

“Vendini’s willingness to understand our festival and work with us to explore options to make us successful set them apart.”

Founded in 2001, Vendini makes the business of live events simple. Offering a full suite of solutions built for the performing arts, live music, music festival and live event spaces, Vendini is helping thousands of venues increase revenue, collect valuable data and make running an event simple. In a world of endless single-use vendors, Vendini is the first company to offer one comprehensive solution for multiple aspects of live events including ticketing, marketing, fundraising, logistics and more. Vendini is based in San Francisco, CA, with offices in Boston, MA, New York, NY, Knoxville, TN, Petaluma, CA,

Santa Monica, CA and Vancouver, BC. To learn more about Vendini, please visit http://www.vendini.com

“They didn’t wait for problems to happen, they were proactively

troubleshooting with us the course of the festival.”