You’ve heard the age-old question. “What’s in a name?” Well, for some, a lot! In the 1980s, there were action movie heroes like Stallone, Van Damme and Schwarzenegger. You didn’t mess with those names. In the corporate world, there have been great titans of industry like Amazon, General Motors and International Business Machines. How could companies with those names not have succeeded?
The same goes for the ticketing and live events space. Ticketmaster? Huge success. Eventbrite? Anything but a dark future. Ludus? Uh … well … that name is going to take a little explaining.
Several of INTIX’s wonderful members have names that sound great and memorable, but their meanings may not be well known unless you ask someone who worked for any of these organizations. We’ve all heard the names and my curiosity was piqued, so, I asked. And the response was so good that we’re splitting this article into two parts.
Let’s start with Ludus and its CEO, Zachary Collins. He says, “When naming Ludus, we wanted to avoid names containing ‘Tix’ or ‘Tickets,’ because our vision was always bigger than ticketing. We aimed to represent the business and financial backbone of the performing arts industry without limiting ourselves by a name. After exploring countless Latin words, we landed on Ludus. Ironically, it has no connection to the performing arts. It was the name for the training schools of Roman gladiators. We liked the sound of it, and the name stuck.”
The Languages of Success
Ludus is not the only INTIX member-company to draw on another language for its name. Vatic founder Sean Kelly was inspired by one of the oldest languages on Earth. “Vatic is Latin,” he says. “One of the definitions of which is ‘to see into the future.’ Vatic uses an arts organization’s historical sales to create a kind of road map for achieving its revenue and capacity goals. So, similar to how a mapping system on your phone estimates you’ll arrive in 28 minutes, Vatic’s system helps you estimate value or what a ticket is worth to a particular performance.”
Then, there is Vozzi. Mylee Brown, the company’s Head of Revenue, remarks, “Vozzi comes from 'voz,' which means ‘voice’ in Spanish. We put a tech spin on it, but the meaning stuck: we're giving brands a way to give their fans a voice, and just as importantly, giving fans a direct line back to the brands they love. That's really the whole thesis behind what we built: turning one-way broadcast communication into a real two-way channel between teams, venues, and the fans who show up for them.”
Paciolan doesn’t hail from a foreign language. But it is named after Luca Pacioli, the 15th-century Italian friar and mathematician widely known as the ‘Father of Accounting,’ since he was the first to publish a formal description of double-entry bookkeeping in 1494. Dusty Kurtz, Vice President of Arts and Arenas, says, “When Paciolan was founded in 1980 by Jane Kleinberger and her partners, there was a strong focus on the accounting and financial reporting processes of ticketing, which created a natural tie to Pacioli.”
Company Names That Are Perfect … When You Think About ‘Em
Some INTIX member-companies have names that invite educated guesses, and once they’re broken down, they make perfect sense. Digonex is a prime example. Chief Revenue Officer Harry Tomasides notes, “Prior to Digonex, the company was known at Music Rebellion — an early version of selling downloadable music — and needed a new name for the expanding products offered. So, the general product ‘Digital Online Exchange’ was combined into … Digonex!”
Naming his company, Spektrix CEO Michael Nabarro drew on his earlier years of studying computer science and working as a lighting designer for various theatres. “After seeing firsthand how far behind the technology was,” he recalls, “I started building a solution in my spare time. It quickly became clear that building software for the arts was a far more exciting path for me.”
He and his co-founder were driving to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and tossing name ideas back and forth, and landed on “Spektrix.” Nabarro explains, “'Spek' from spectators, 'trix' from tickets, and a 'k' simply because Spectrix.com had already been taken. It was only ever meant to be a placeholder, but somehow it stuck.”
“Looking back,” he adds, “I'm glad it did. Because the name was so abstract, it never boxed us into a particular product or direction — it gave us room to grow into our own identity. Today, it feels like it reflects us perfectly. At its heart, Spektrix is about spectators and the experiences they have with the organizations we serve. Ticketing is where we started, and it's still central to what we do. But our mission has always been much bigger: helping arts and cultural organizations build stronger relationships with their audiences through technology that gets out of the way."
Another prime example is Leap Event Technology. Allison Niedermeier Lee, SVP, Strategy — Head of Attractions, believes the right name helps shape an organization’s identity. “Ours is no different,” she remarks. “The name ‘Leap’ not only serves as a reference to our self-service ticketing solution, TicketLeap, but also promises an elevation from the expected technology and services that pack the events industry. It represents how our ever-evolving suite of tools, services and data insights helps fuel the passion and excitement of event goers all over the world.”
A Jewel of a Name
Finally, there are those companies whose names are so specific to the company’s founders and founding executives that you really do need to pull up a chair and be told a story. One gem of a tale is Saffire’s.
Jeremy Emerson, Partner/Chief Creative Officer, recalls, “Seventeen years ago, founding partners Kendra Wright, Aaron Pederson, and Jeremy Emerson had already been in business together for a decade as ‘Wright Strategies.’ In these early years, the partners would convene on a back porch and celebrate new projects and successful project launches. More often than not, a ‘Cheers!’ would be had over a specific gin and tonic. This spawned an early tradition, where “The Sapphire Award” was jokingly presented to the top sales performer in the company … and it always went to Kendra, the team’s only salesperson.”
He continues, “Then, when the time came to name their ticketing and website software platform and company, memories of the award and that beautiful blue bottle of Bombay Sapphire Gin came to mind. And the company, its logo, and the iconic blue gem color were introduced to the live events market as … Saffire!”
As it turns out, there's a lot in a name after all. Stay tuned for Part 2, where we'll uncover even more of the stories behind some of the ticketing industry's most recognizable brands.
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