A little bit more on selling tickets

It's been a busy couple of weeks at Managing Arts. Last week ArtsHub published my article on Predicting your Ticket Sales, which is an expansion on my blog post a little while back called Can I really sell that many tickets? The ArtsHub article provides tools and techniques for forecasting sales which will be useful for anyone looking for some tips on ticket sales.

I've also just started working on a new TV project with the great bunch at Renegade Films who make the fantastic music TV show RocKwiz. I had the pleasure of working with them on RocKwiz Salutes the Bowl in 2009, so very excited to be working with them again on this new venture.

In the meantime, I am still in the midst of thinking about what Audience Development means in terms of programming, and hoping to get something written in the next couple of weeks!

Can I really sell that many tickets?

Following my post last week on budgeting I’ve been thinking about the concept of forecasting ticket sales, and how you can realistically project ticketing revenue for performances.  And that means not setting the target low so you can achieve it easily, or setting high revenue targets so they look good on paper (but are really unrealistic).

The notion of forecasting sales is common across all businesses, but in the performing arts there can be a large number of variables which make forecasting ticket sales a complex area. These can include (but certainly not limited to):