As Director of Client Education and Support for ShowClix, Amy Kline is committed to the organizations she serves. Her helpful, encouraging nature reaches far beyond her day-to-day work, too, as Amy raises a wonderful teenage daughter and continues giving back to INTIX in various ways, including recent service on the Board, work with various committees and as a mentor.
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What do you love most about your job?
I like the concept of selling fun, and I love solving problems. Someone said to me a few years ago, “No matter how bad your day is, keep remembering that your job is to sell fun.” You’re not selling software. You’re not even selling tickets. You’re selling memories to people who are coming to an event to have an experience that is different than their day-to-day life. Make it easy, make it fun, keep it light. I don’t necessarily work with end customers anymore, but I work with clients who do work with customers, so I try to remember that they sell fun and that if I can make their jobs as ticketing managers easier, it makes it more fun for them to work with ShowClix and Patron Technology.
I try to make my work fun, too, and provide my team with some moments of levity during hard days. Sometimes they look up and there’s a little bit of defeat. It’s not an easy job. They’re supporting clients all day where everything has a sense of urgency, so some of those days are really hard. If you can just look up, have a laugh, take a breath, take a break and have a snack, it will be OK. We have a ton of snacks here! Then we come back and do it all again.
Amy in SWAT gear, which is related to her yearly conference session about venue security and preparing for an active shooter scenario. This photo is from the Dallas conference, when the Dallas SWAT team brought gear to try on.
What do you love most about our industry?
I’ve been in this industry for 20 years now. I have had several jobs, and it all goes back to people. The people who work in events and ticketing are unique. They care about each other like family, they share in the same rich experiences (the fun), they are all here for similar reasons and they stay for similar reasons: the people. When I think back to all the jobs I’ve had, it’s the people I remember, not the work. That’s what keeps me here.
Who or what is the greatest love of your life?
My daughter, Allison, who will be 14 in March. She’s funny, kind and empathetic. She was recently at a dance that she really wanted to go to, and this kid asked a girl he had a crush on to dance with him. The girl danced with him. Then, afterwards, the girl came back to Allison’s friend group and was talking crap about the guy, who is my daughter’s good friend. Allison stood up to this girl and said, “You’re so wrong. I can’t believe you would do that to him — that you would spend that time with him and then come back here and just be so mean.” I think that’s admirable because it’s so hard to do.
Amy and her daughter, Allison.
What brings you the most joy or the greatest meaning in life?
That’s easy. Spending time with my daughter and watching her grow — not just grow up but grow emotionally — and watching her interact with people. She’s an actor, so I love watching that talent grow, as well.
Allison with the family dog, Dutch, who "as usual looks thrilled," Amy says.
Who do you admire most and why?
The people I most admire take on big challenges, make themselves uncomfortable, are courageous and, despite doing all those things, are successful. These are the types of people I look for in my life.
Amy and her squad, the "Boi Zone," made up of friends Sam, Matt and Brandon. Here, they are standing in front of a huge sinkhole that a Pittsburgh city bus fell into in October 2019.
What qualities do you most like in a person?
Honesty and being forthright. I also like people who make me laugh. At work, I like colleagues who are curious. I do a lot of training here at ShowClix and teach people how to use our product. I find that those who are most successful are the ones who ask the most questions and aren’t afraid to just go break something because they’re curious about how it works. That’s kind of being courageous as well.
What’s your most memorable career moment?
When I was working at the Pittsburgh Playhouse 20 years ago, it was my first job out of college, some little kid came up and asked for my autograph because he was asking for all the cast members’ autographs. They were sitting in the lobby, so because I was in the lobby working in the box office, he came and asked for mine, too. It’s sort of a silly career moment, but it does stand out.
What’s your favorite venue and why?
Ohio Theatre in Columbus. It’s beautiful. It’s opulent. When I was pregnant with my daughter, I was the Group Sales and Subscriptions Sales Manager, and my office was under the venue. I would go into the upper balcony and nap. Basically, it’s this beautiful venue full of crystal chandeliers and gold leaf, and I was eight months pregnant taking a nap. It was great. Not everyone gets such an opportunity.
Amy and Allison.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
A lot of things I do in my spare time are very quiet — things like yoga and listening to music. I am kind of noisy with a big personality, so those quiet things are a good counter to that. I like to read, too. My favorite novelist is Colum McCann. His books are really challenging and memorable stories about people with rich histories, and the stories have a lot of twists and turns.
Where would you most like to live?
I’ve lived in a couple of different places and I’m pretty comfortable anywhere, but basically wherever my daughter is, that’s where I want to be.
What’s your most treasured possession?
I was given a ceramic pitcher by Bill Strickland, who’s the founder and Executive Director of Manchester Bidwell Corporation. This is the very quick summary of Bill’s story, but he developed the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild and Bidwell Training Center, which offers youth arts programming as well as adult education to underemployed and unemployed people. The origin story with Bill is that there was racial divide in Pittsburgh in 1968; Bill was working in a house in Manchester throwing pottery, listening to jazz and bringing kids in off the street to teach them and give them something to do that was safe and out of a dangerous environment. He was just pulling kids off the street to protect them from what was happening. I used to run the box office over there for his jazz program called MCG Jazz. He came up one night and said, “I just want you to know you’re doing a really good job.” Then he just walked away but came back a few minutes later with a ceramic pitcher that he’d made. He brought it out of the ceramics studio and gave it to me. I treasure it, my time at MCG and my entire jazz family.
Why are you a member of INTIX?
I’ve found that having this group of people around me, that truly understands the work that we’re doing every day, is like nothing else in my life. I wish every aspect of my life had one of these things. They get it, they understand your vocabulary and every move you make.
Amy in Estes Park with INTIX members Peter Monks, April Moon and Shawn Herndon ahead of the INTIX 2015 conference in Denver.
What do you get from INTIX?
Just that, community. I meet people who are doing the same type of work or work that is similar to what my clients do, and I feel it’s a good give-and-take relationship. We talk about INTIX in this “venues and vendors” kind of way. Do you work in a theater, ticket office or at a festival, or are you a vendor like I am? I work for a ticketing software provider, so that give and take, that helpful learning what a venue wants and just commiserating about, “Oh, is that why that client asked for that? Now I understand how they might feel that way.” That’s valuable for me in my daily role, and it’s also valuable for ShowClix, to be able to take that back.
How do you use INTIX?
It really does keep going back to the people in the community. I know that if I reach out to an INTIX member, even one I don’t know, and I say I’m an INTIX member, they’re going to respond because of that common bond. Sometimes it’s mentorship or just to ask a question. We use the forums, which are message boards on the INTIX website, to ask questions like, “Somebody needs to do this thing, how can it be achieved?” There’s great movement of information throughout the industry, and it seems to be very open and generous whether you are a venue or a vendor. There’s a good flow of information in between INTIX members. We’re just trying to help you.
What does INTIX give you that’s different from everything else that you’re doing?
It’s given me good leadership development. I’ve been on the Board for six years. I’m coming off the Board, and January [2020] will be my last meeting. I came up through some committee volunteer work, then chairing committees and working as a mentor in the mentor program. Those opportunities to volunteer, then lead, then be seen for your leadership at that level and move into Board leadership, it has exposed me to other great leaders and given me an opportunity to learn.
What’s your most memorable INTIX moment?
I won the first-ever INTIX Young Ticketing Professional award in 2012. That was the first year they gave the award, and I’m so proud of it. I feel a connection to the other people who have won it. We take a group picture together every year at conference. I am very proud of that, and it meant a lot to me.
Amy accepting the Young Ticketing Professional Award from Roger Tomlinson, a Patricia G. Spira Lifetime Achievement Award recipient.
If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself?
Recently a yoga teacher told the class, “You are the architect of your experience.” I tried to find the origin of this quote and only found on the internet a bunch of attributions to this that were not at all right. It’s just a great point of reference when you’re making difficult changes to know that whatever the decision is, you’re in charge of it. I’ve also been telling myself whatever decision you make is the best one for you.
Amy in an assisted handstand in her "Acrobatics for Completely Unskilled Adults" class.