VENUESNOW ALL-STARS

Dorothy Abrams

Vice President of Global
Product Marketing

Ticketmaster

By Rob Knapp

Ticketmaster helped bring live events back after the COVID-19 shutdown by quickly developing its SmartEvent Technology Suite, to help both fans and staff feel confident returning to sports and entertainment venues. The toolkit was new, but the tools inside it weren’t.

“SmartEvent was purposefully designed to leverage technology that was familiar to clients and apply it in ways that would help them adapt to the new operating environment,” said Ticketmaster’s Dorothy Abrams, who played a vital role in getting the product into the hands of the company’s customers.

The familiarity of the tech was a big plus, but some education was still required. “We had to encourage our partners to use familiar tools to support unfamiliar processes like enabling contactless and social distancing solutions,” Abrams said.

But the decision to build SmartEvent “directly into TM1, our end-to-end management platform, ultimately aided greater adoption,” she said.

Through the Health Check technology that’s part of SmartEvent, clients can “proactively communicate with fans so they understand event entry policies in advance of purchasing their ticket,” Abrams said.

Abrams arrived at Ticketmaster in 2019 after nearly seven years at American Express, where she said a culture of always putting the client first influenced her philosophy. “That was so important to me in looking for my jump from financial services to entertainment technology — finding a place and role where I could make my work about clients,” she said. “My approach in bringing that mindset to Ticketmaster is to make sure I am always focused on delivering value; it’s not just about launching new products or features, it’s understanding and communicating how those functions work for our clients.”

Just as Ticketmaster jumped into action when the pandemic hit, Abrams said, it is ready to meet the moment in which we find ourselves now. “Everyone across the organization is incredibly passionate about bringing this industry back to full speed,” she said.

“It is a privilege to work alongside our team and partners to help the industry return to live together.”