Event ticketing made easy by Roojai's BigFish Events System

Roojai Event and Ticket Scanning System

Angels for Children asked us if it was possible to upgrade our events systems to enable the generation of tickets that could be scanned at the entrance. Even better if the system could be paperless!

Of course, we said YES! We are always up for the challenge of creating better systems for both our clients and their website users.

We extended our event system with the following features:

• Different ticket types easily created for each event, eg, frontrow or backrow.
• Buyers can easily purchase multiple tickets for their family and friends.
• Buyers can use the inbuilt system to send on tickets to their family and friends.
• Tickets would come with links to generate PDF's that are scannable without printing.
• Easy for admin to check and update tickets through a user-friendly backend interface.
• Each ticket has a buyer name, a unique owner name and a unique QR code.
• Tickets can be scanned with a standard smartphone without any specific apps.
• The number of scanners working the entrance is unlimited, to maximise entry flow.
• One-click manual check-in from a master list as a backup in case of scanning problems (or as it a supplementary method).
• Full event ticket listing is exportable in excel as a secondary backup.
• Scanning of tickets can be monitored by remote admin on any laptop so they can see in an instant who has arrived.
• Full details of the ticket are provided to the scanner at the entrance, this includes the validity, buyer name and ticket name and purchase date.
• If a ticket is invalid, details will be provided to the scanner as to the buyer, the owner, and also when that ticket was redeemed.

Big Success!!

With well over 400 tickets sold, the event went ahead on schedule last weekend and the ticket scanning system worked perfectly! The Angels had 4 or 5 people with smartphones at the door, ready to scan tickets, and they said, and I quote, 

"It's awesome, we cleared the queue within 10 minutes"

This wasn't the first time the Roojai Events system had been used with scannable tickets, but we are super pleased that it went so well with a pretty decent sized attendance, and even more pleased that the Angels loved it so much.

What are the advantages of using inhouse systems vs other major ticket platforms?

Angels for Children had used these third party event platforms in the past so we asked them why they preferred an inhouse option and they said:

"The process of posting a new event or changes to an existing required a certain amount of lead time. So this caused some delays as many of our past events were last minute or needed immediate changes. By bringing the ticket system in-house, we now have complete control and can post/edit on the fly"

To close up, we should highlight there are some cost implications, although the difference here is pretty minor. Our system uses Snipcart as the e-commerce solution, and Stripe and the payment gateway, and the pricing for Angels for Children for both of these together is around 5% of the ticket price. 

Eventbrite charges 5.99% for the same functionality whereas ticketflap costs 7%. So only 1-2% difference here but even a small saving is still a saving.