Original article published in Access All Areas (01/03/18)

Three ticketing vendors offer their views on the technology's transition to a paperless format, with Ticket Zone's Wayne Munday doubting a complete switchover will come about. "It's not a matter of whether the paper ticket will disappear, but rather if the ticketing industry is ready, or fully appreciates the potential disruption to the current business model," he says. Munday cites factors that may affect widespread paperless ticket adoption, including opposition by promoters and venues for ticket agents to print e-tickets, a lack of sufficient interconnection between agents' technology platforms to trade in paperless tickets, and the benefits of paper tickets to venues as a controlled and proven media. Skiddle's Ben Sebborn takes the opposite view, lauding paperless ticketing as being "slick, convenient, and hassle-free" while also advancing the crackdown on scalping. However, he stresses paperless ticketing must have more advantages than drawbacks before adoption can proceed. "We need to ensure we don't exclude fans who like using other channels to buy tickets; for example, via their computers," Sebborn says. Meanwhile, Eventbrite's Joel Crouch sees a fully paperless transition being held up by the speed at which consumers embrace new technology. "We have seen that the U.K. is one of the fastest European countries to adopt new technologies, including mobile-only tickets and cashless payments, so if I had to pick a country in Europe that's closest to going for paperless tickets only, I'd say it's the U.K.," Crouch says.

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