International event meeting leads to iTICKET contract for Waterview Tunnel opening

The ticketing of the recent public opening of Auckland’s Waterview Tunnel by New Zealand firm iTICKET was secured as a result of a partnership agreed 17,000 kilometres away at TheTicketingBusiness Forum.

When Well-Connected Alliance, the organisation behind the new Waterview Connection Project, were looking for how to handle the thousands of visitors keen to walk and bike through the brand new Waterview tunnel before it opened to cars, they were faced with the challenge of organising a complex ticketing process for 67,500 free tickets, with a top secret go-live date and huge media interest.

iTICKET was selected over other multinationals to ticket the event thanks to an innovative solution developed with Danish technology firm Queue-it.

The two first became acquainted at last year’s Ticketing Technology Forum in Ireland’s capital of Dublin (now rebranded as TheTicketingBusiness Forum).

iTICKET Chief Executive Reece Preston told the NZ Business website that the demands of the project were unusual and complex, stating “we anticipated big numbers, and knew that our lead time to get this right could potentially be very short.

“I attended a ticketing conference last year in Ireland where I connected with some innovators in our industry. One of the people I met was the head of Queue-it, a company in Denmark who are doing great things with queuing software.”

iTICKET implemented Queue-it’s technology into their booking system as a safety net to manage web traffic for the tunnel opening events.

Preston explained that the queuing software “streamlined bookings during extreme traffic peaks”.

iTICKET created a separate website for the Waterview events to enable a customised one-page booking experience.

Queue-it Chief Executive Niels Henrik Sodemann explained to NZ Business “we were excited to partner with iTICKET to expand our service to New Zealand and provide purchasers there with the smoothest experience possible when so many are seeking tickets.

“By applying our online queue system to the release of the tunnel tickets, iTICKET ensured a fair and informed experience for those pursuing tickets, and of course kept their systems online so that all of the tickets could be claimed without complication in less than a day.”

The Waterview Tunnel opening events were attended by almost 70,000 people.

The next TheTicketingBusiness Forum is being held in Manchester, England in April 2018. Click here for information in the Australasian Leisure Management industry Calendar.

Main image: Waterview Tunnel opening, courtesy of NZ Transport Agency - Auckland & Northland.

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