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Venue Management Software is a category of tools or platforms that help live music and entertainment venues, arenas, theaters, arts centers, and other organizations better manage their teams, processes and operations. There are some Venue Management Softwares or systems that are all-in-one and others specialize in particular parts of managing a live entertainment venue. As you evaluate different platforms, consider the venue management definition that best fits your needs. Your venue or team may find it critical to be able to easily create and manage artist offers or they may need a feature like artist discover, whereas other capabilities like staff management or food and beverage inventory tools may not be necessary or robust enough for your operation. As always, striking a balance in your Venue Management System that will give you a rich feature set while still being easy to use and implement will likely determine long term success in utilizing the tool. Some tools or venue management systems will also have supportive features such as open API or integrations with your other systems available. These types of technologies will allow you to help all of the systems you use communicate in a way that is automated and requires less from you as the operator. Opendate provides an end to end experience for venues, promoters, and other teams to optimize and streamline many of their operations. Beginning with integrations with systems like Spotify, Apple Music, Last.fm, and Bandsintown, Opendate gives venues the ability to quickly find the right artist for their stage, utilize templated outreach and offers, and create an event within minutes. The process is made easy all the way through calendar management and settlement. Having the ability to operate and manage your venue all in one platform reduces time spent and errors, helps centralize information, and keeps your team aligned in every step along the way.
It is important when starting a venue booking system project to consider many factors. What processes are in place today? Is there an existing system? Are you using other venue booking software? When planning your venue or event booking system and software, efficiency and accuracy are critical. Having the ability to integrate with other current venue systems or softwares, or better yet, being able to do most or all of it in one place. Your venue booking software should consider the type of room you have, whether it’s a club, theatre, or different event space as well as the type of acts you’ll be bringing in. In venues where there are a variety of acts and even space configurations, your venue booking system project should weigh out what is most important and what may or may not make an impact when applied. Lastly, ease of use should be considered with your booking system as softwares or processes that are difficult to use or implement are unlikely to be used in a way that is valuable in both the long and short term and could lead to greater challenges for a team. Finding the right venue or event booking software will save your team time, effort, and money.
When choosing your venue’s event management software, you’ll want something that is robust and full-featured yet simple enough to use that your team will be able to easily access and utilize. It is important to know whether you are looking for facility rental software or other event venue software as well. Ensuring that the system you use will also work with your online venue booking system will help make sure that your process is streamlined and nothing falls through the cracks. If only looking for facility rental software, other factors like integrations or an online booking system may not play as big of a role. Of course, the type of events that your venue puts on is equally important. A wedding venue will have much different needs than a concert venue, but will also have some overlap in function. Most softwares will not tick every box for every type of venue. A rental facility will need to consider different options or features than a music or concert venue that is promoting and producing shows in house. Many venues co-produce shows as well which could be important during this selection. For music venues, promoters, and many others, Opendate can provide a place for much of this to take place, all in one system.
In some ways, theater/theatre management software can look much the same as any other venue management platform. There are some areas where theaters may need different features and capabilities. For example, most or all theaters likely need the ability to customize ticket sales to their floorplan or available floorplans and layout which can vary by show, performance, or event. As with other clubs or venues, theaters can also often hold more than one event per day and sometimes even multiple events at the same time depending on the size of the event and the type of theater. There are often larger crowds and different processes at a theater than at a club which can impact things like door times, show scheduling, and much more. A good theater management software will allow you to configure your floor-plan, customize your day-of-event schedule, and build your event accordingly. As with the other platforms we’ve discussed here, understanding and taking a thoughtful approach to how this system will work with other systems or softwares that your team uses will help to ensure a successful implementation and ongoing success using the platform that you decide on using.
There are many common venue software types. While we’ve talked a lot about all-in-one venue management systems, the reality is that you will need multiple softwares and systems at your venue or event space. You may have a great online venue booking system or the best venue booking software but you will likely also need a staffing or front of house software. Unless brand new, your venue already has a payment or POS system. While it is beneficial to consolidate systems where possible, it is increasingly uncommon for one software to execute all of these functions at a high, or even truly workable level. For many music venues, there are also systems that will help you produce a show from a sound and lighting perspective - Avid Venue Software for sound management is an example. The size and scale of your venue will also determine the types and number of systems and softwares you may need. For example, an arena is going to require many different softwares, systems, and procedures than a neighborhood coffee shop. These will all be important factors to be considered as you decide on the venue software that is right for you and your space.
Outside of software considerations, there are times, situations, and types of venues that may require a venue management company’s help. There are many global, regional and local venue management companies out there. For some of the largest venue management companies, like ASM Global, venues will likely be stadium or arena sized. That’s not to say that smaller venues like clubs and theater’s don’t need a venue management company. Venues that do a a great deal of, or do rentals exclusively my chose to employ a venue management company in lieu of having an entire staff for their facility. Typically in these scenarios, the venue management company will come along with it’s own tech stack and softwares that they’ve already implemented into their processes or that they use to operate. These can be softwares that have been built in house, or other technologies that are available to any venue. Generally, most spaces don’t utililize a venue management company, however for the right space or venue it could be a huge component to having a successful business.
