Leadership / 06.29.23
Women in Ticketing 2023 Mid-Year Recap: Take Their Advice
Teddy Durgin
We have reached the halfway point of 2023, which means we’ve also reached the halfway point of our series of Women in Ticketing articles. Looking back, the half-dozen interviewees turned out to be very different in their backgrounds and accomplishments. But one thing proved similar as the series progressed — all six were eager to help out the next generation of female ticketing and live event professionals with some sage wisdom they had picked up along the way.
For the first feature in January, we spoke with INTIX 2023 Conference Chair Jacque Holowaty. When not handling association duties and responsibilities, she is Vice President of Employee & Guest Experience at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, home of the NHL’s Seattle Kraken. She stated, “I think the most important thing women, or really anyone trying to find their place in their career, can do is be patient. There is a saying I heard often early in my career that has stuck with me, and it is, ‘Be where your feet are.’ For me, that means to be present in the moment, soak up what is around you, and find the joy in your current role.”
For February’s Women in Ticketing article, we sat down with Jo-Ann Chiam, Vice President of Client Engagement at Toronto-based AudienceView. She had some very good things to tell young women just starting out in the ticketing and live events field: “My advice to those new to it is to engage in the community and find your support people. This is such a supportive community. You can find your coaches, your mentors, your advocates who will make a real difference in your career. Your advocates are especially important. They are not only going to coach you and mentor you. They’re going to speak about you and promote you when you are not in the room. They’re the ones who are going to shine a light on you.”
Chiam added, “Beyond the community in ticketing and live events, I would encourage young women to keep a pulse on how rapid technology is changing all around us. I see it because I follow it. It’s very important to find ways to bring ‘new tech’ to our industry.”
March’s installment shone a spotlight on Katherine Tran, Senior Director, Premium, Membership Services & Event Hospitality for the Columbus Crew professional soccer club in Ohio. She took the time to praise Major League Soccer and the Crew for improving the hiring and career support of women in recent years.
“It all starts with recruiting and breaking away from the ‘norms’ when searching for talent,” she said. “I believe over the last few years, hiring has become a proactive and full-time job to seek out the best talent. We don’t just talk the talk, we walk the walk. Organizational culture is of the utmost importance, and we invest in our staff with a true focus on diversity. By showing other women that there are endless opportunities for growth in our organization, we continue to strengthen our staff and retain top talent.”
One month later, Audrey Arseneau was our featured interviewee. Based in Ontario, Canada, Arseneau is Director of Ticketing for Oak View Group (OVG). Arseneau likes the fact that she is now considered an “industry veteran.” She especially enjoys those moments when she gets to pass on wisdom to the younger generation of ticket office personnel, especially women.
“If you can be around people who have 10-plus years in the industry, be around them,” she said. “Ask questions and soak it all up. To try and explain to people what we do is really hard. But observing people like me and seeing how and why we do the things we do … there’s just no substitute. There are things I do, and if someone were to ask, ‘Why are you doing that?’ I really would have to stop, step back and think, ‘Yeah, why am I?’ because I’ve just been doing it for so long. It’s almost like muscle memory.”
In May, Amy Pelzl spoke to us from her office at Saffire, a software company that specializes in providing events, venues and destinations with a simple, interactive platform for websites and ticketing. Pelzl serves as its Ticketing Team Lead. Her interview advice was simple and direct: “One of the things that I say a lot and pass on to people younger than me is, ‘No lives will be lost. It’s just ticketing. Just take a breath, and make it happen.’ What we do is important. But it’s not brain surgery. The people will come regardless.”
Which brings us to our latest interviewee, Bethany Nothstein, Sector Strategy and Community Manager, U.S. and Canada, for Spektrix. She was all too happy to give some wise counsel to female professionals new to ticketing: “Build yourself a network! The support I received from my earliest days in the industry to today has made this a memorable journey for which I am endlessly grateful. It can be intimidating at times to ask for help or to make an introduction, but I can promise you that walking up to a group of individuals you do not know at an event can lead you to find some of the best friends and support systems that will be by your side for years to come.”
Check out the full Women in Ticketing series on Access.
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Tags: Leadership , Women in Ticketing