Introduction to Event Hub

 If Event Hub isn't part of your operations yet, we'd love to show you how it works - reach out if you would like a demo!

Imagine this: your customers arrive, ready for a fantastic night out, only to find themselves stuck in line, racing against time to grab a drink or snack before the show starts.

Enter Event Hub - a brand-new product from Ticketsolve designed to minimise queues, boost customer satisfaction, and increase your secondary revenue. As an optional add-on, Event Hub works alongside Ticketsolve to give you more flexibility and control over your events.

Why use Event Hub?

Event Hub is all about creating a seamless, stress-free experience for your customers.

A family arriving for a children's show can have their snacks ready and waiting, making for a smoother start. A couple on a night out can be greeted with pre-ordered drinks, enhancing their evening. This level of convenience encourages advance purchases, increasing revenue while keeping front-of-house operations running smoothly.

A small 3% charge applies to all transactions through Event Hub, supporting the service while helping you unlock new revenue opportunities.

More than just ordering ahead, it’s about creating a personalised, effortless event experience that keeps audiences coming back.

What is Event Hub?

Event Hub allows you to sell refreshments, merchandise, and experiences to customers before their event, with all purchases seamlessly linked to the event in Ticketsolve. For customers, this means they can pre-order everything they need in advance, making their visit smoother and more enjoyable.

With flexible settings, you can:

• Set purchase contexts (e.g., pre-show or interval)
• Organise products into categories for easy browsing
• Manage stock and set caps on limited items, like merchandise or pre-show dining, using Ticketsolve’s Inventory Management tool.

How Event Hub enhances the customer journey

• Pre-Event Alert: A link to Event Hub is included in the customer’s Pre-Event Alert Email, giving them access to everything they need in one place - digital tickets, event details, FAQs, venue maps, and pre-ordering. We're currently in Alpha testing with a Pre-Event Alert SMS.
• Box Office Sales: Event Hub add-ons can be sold directly at the Box Office when booking event tickets. Read our guide on Selling Event Hub items at the Box Office for more details.
• Online Checkout: Event Hub add-ons can be sold online whilst customers orders their tickets. This appears as a 'Suggestion' step during the checkout journey.

The Event Hub experience

Event Hub transforms your audience's journey by providing an all-in-one online hub with everything they need in the lead-up to their event. 

The Event Hub experience contains four sections:

My Items

• All tickets and products purchased for that event
• Scannable QR codes
• Option to add tickets to Google/Apple Wallet

Preorder

• All contexts that are available at the time of ordering, such as Pre-Show, Interval, and Post-Show.
• Product categories such as Alcoholic Drinks, Soft Drinks, and Snacks.

Event Information

• Important information about the event, such as venue information, travel instructions, venue opening times, event warnings and FAQs.

Map

• Embedded map with drop pin on venue location.

Share

• Share the link to Event Hub, including tickets and pre-ordering with the other people in the customer's party attending.

How Event Hub works

Before you can get started with Event Hub, it's important to understand how it works to plan your set-up and get the most out of the product.

There are a couple of key elements to Event Hub that we'll now explore:

Event Hub activation: Event Hub is set up at the Account level. Once it's been set up, you can enable or disable Event Hub at every level, from Account level down to individual Event level.

Contexts: Organises ordering opportunities by timing, like Pre-show, Interval, and Post-show, allowing customers to pre-order items for specific times. Every context has a start and end time to determine when it is available to purchase from. Alternatively, you can skip multiple or all contexts for flexible, anytime pick-up.

Product Categories: Group items like drinks, snacks, or merchandise to help customers easily find what they need. Set up within each context, they offer flexibility in managing what's available and when.

Stock: Integrating with the Inventory Management tool on individual products, including tracking stock levels and capping availability of a product at either the Account level or individual Event level.

Contexts

Contexts let you streamline ordering opportunities throughout an event, streamlining the customer journey while helping your team plan for busy periods and ensuring smooth operations.

• Organise by timing or theme:
  • Set contexts like Pre-show, Interval, or Post-show to let customers pre-order products based on when they want to collect and enjoy them.
  • Contexts can also be used to organise add-on experiences, such as Pre-Show Dining options or VIP Lounge passes. 
• Hassle-free pre-orders:
  • Customers selecting a Pre-show context will see all products available at that time (e.g., drinks or snacks).
  • They can purchase in advance and skip the queue, with orders ready for pick-up on arrival.
• Flexible setup:
  • Contexts are set at the Account level but can be added, removed, or edited at the Show or Event level - for example, you can skip the Interval context for events without an intermission.

Product Categories

• Quick customer navigation: Help customers find what they need (Product Categories) when they need (Contexts), whether it's a pre-show snack or a post-show beverage.
• Simple setup & management: Sorting items into categories makes it easy to organise and manage your products within Event Hub.
• Maximum flexibility:
  • Product categories are set up within individual contexts, giving you full control over what's on sale and when.
  • Examples include categories like Alcoholic Drinks, Soft Drinks, Snacks, and Merchandise.
• Tag-based organisation:
  • Each category includes a list of included tags to assign products and excluded tags to filter out specific items.
  • This ensures your products are accurately sorted and displayed within the right category.

Want to start using Event Hub?

Firstly, get in touch to request that Event Hub be added to your account. Once you're ready, you can then follow our article on How to Set Up Event Hub for a walkthrough guide.