Transitioning Back to In-Person Events
-
by
Riley Manning has worked as a travel and entertainment writer for more than 10 years. Today, he writes about unique events and the technology that helps make them happen.
While virtual events are here to stay, streaming a festival on a computer screen will simply never replace the energy and vitality of attending one in-person. Because COVID-19 still pervades every in-person interaction, shifting any virtual events back to in-person will most likely require some additional consideration and care to work around.
Festival software provides a versatile solution to facilitate this transition.
Your city or state may still have various regulations in place to quell the spread of COVID-19. From mask mandates, capacity limits, or vaccination regulations, you may have to accommodate a plethora of rules for your festival or event to remain compliant with state and local decrees.
Even with these additional directives to consider, online festival and event management software helps you safely and easily transition your virtual event to in-person with little hassle.
Table of Contents:
- Prepare with Online Festival and Event Management Software
- Communicate Efficiently with Online Festival and Event Management Software
- Manage Your Event with Minimal Staff
Prepare with Online Festival and Event Management Software
While COVID can be unpredictable, preparing as well as possible and staying up to date on current events will help your event go off successfully. Knowing what kind of regulations, mandates, and laws you are dealing with will establish a good starting point as you begin planning your return to in-person festivals and events.
Be aware of daily developments.
Staying abreast of news and trends locally and nationwide will be a good reference point for your own event. Your local infection, hospitalization, and vaccination rates could affect the possibility of returning in-person. Being informed will help you prepare for any changes as soon as they crop up.
Stay up to date on mandates and regulations.
As vaccination rates trend upward and infection rates trend down, precautions and rules have loosened up; however, not all precautionary measures have been abandoned. Your event may have to contend with capacity limits, masking mandates, or even vaccination documentation.
Capacity limits, either voluntary or mandated, can create a safe and healthy atmosphere to help your guests feel comfortable in a manageable crowd. Online festival and event management software should offer you seating charts customizable to your venue so guests can feel at ease and practice social distancing in their assigned seat.
Consider timed entry.
If you are requiring a vaccination or negative COVID test for entry into your event, the entrance line can be overwhelming as your staff must check each guest’s documentation before scanning their tickets.
Online festival and event management software with timed entry can facilitate manageable crowds and entrance lines. With staggered entry times, you will avoid the massive rush for entry and keep the line moving quickly and efficiently.
Communicate Efficiently with Online Festival and Event Management Software
Transitioning your event from in-person to online means you’ll need guests to fill up the venue. From emails, social media posts, and targeted ads, online festival and event management software allows you to easily get the word out to your potential guests.
Target previous event attendees.
Email campaigns are an incredibly cost-efficient marketing method with a very high ROI. Online festival and event management software saves the contact info for any events you’ve managed through the software, offering you a rich list of contacts to start contacting.
You can even offer promo codes, discounts, or early purchase windows to entice, attract, and show gratitude for loyal return customers.
Share on social media.
Social media remains a reliable method to direct traffic to your event’s ticket page. Once everything is set up, exciting posts create anticipation and hype for returning in-person. With festival software, you can direct your followers to your event page, where they should find not only this event but any others you host. This increases visibility for all events you are throwing.
Stay in touch with your guests.
Should anything change leading up to the event, online festival and event management software can help you easily communicate any last-minute information to your guests. Any FAQs, tips, or maps can be sent to any online ticket purchasers, and your event website can be updated to communicate any necessary information as well.
Thank attendees and look to your next event.
It’s important to show gratitude to your guests. Once your event wraps up, send attendees an email through your online festival and event management software to thank them for patronizing your event. You may even consider conducting a brief survey to hear about what went right and any areas for improvement.
Manage Your Event with Minimal Staff
You may have less access to experienced employees due to the pandemic. Luckily, online event and festival software allows you to run the same quality event with less staff just as efficiently as before.
Scan and go mobile check-ins facilitate quick entry.
Mobile check-ins mean you need less event staff to check people in. Staff can use their own mobile devices to scan each guest’s mobile ticket in seconds, keeping the line moving and check-in simple.
Square allows for quick in-person sales.
Tickets purchased ahead of time means less of a line at the ticket booth. For those who didn’t buy their tickets ahead of time, festival software with Square integration makes in-person purchases no problem.
Cashless transactions have increased in popularity each year and are forecasted to continue gaining popularity, and Square offers myriad methods to pay. With a versatile payment system and contactless payments, guests have multiple payment options to utilize. Plus, without having to handle cash, your staff will be able to complete each transaction in record time.
Allow guests to modify their tickets.
If you host a festival with multiple days, timed entry, or different events within an event, you may offer updates to tickets free of charge. Managing all of these potential updates can create a lot of work for your employees, however.
Online festival and event management software lets guests update their own tickets, rather than having to call the box office and request a change. This will make your guests happier, as they won’t have to wait on hold to make a simple change, and it will also free up your staff to handle other matters.
SimpleTix has offered an affordable, premium event ticketing platform that outperforms Eventbrite and similar apps for over 12 years. Compared to the competition, SimpleTix offers better options at a better price point. To learn more, call us at +1 (855) 550-3670 or email us at support@simpletix.com.
Latest News
Related Articles
How to Connect Square to SimpleTix and Start Selling Tickets
-
by
How to Connect Square to SimpleTix and Start Selling Tickets If you need square ticketing that works for online sales and the box office, you do not need a messy setup. You need a way to connect Square to SimpleTix and manage online and onsite ticket sales in one workflow. Square can make sense for organizers who already use Square hardware or want to accept gift cards and catalog upsells. Meanwhile, SimpleTix gives you the ticketing layer: timed entry, season passes, reserved seating, check-in tools, and simple pricing at $0.79 + 2% per ticket, with no contracts or subscriptions. Why use square ticketing with SimpleTix The main reason is simple. You get Square for payments and POS tools, plus SimpleTix for event ticketing. That matters if you sell more than basic admission. For example, you might need season tickets, timed entry, Flex Passes, or onsite scanning. You may also want online checkout and in-person sales to work together instead of feeling patched together. Common use cases include: Farms and agritourism spots selling timed admissions and add-ons Attractions that need re-entry or multi-use passes Venues that sell online, at the door, and through staff devices Festivals handling rushes at gates and box office windows Organizations already using Square hardware for in-person sales If that sounds familiar, this is the kind of square ticketing workflow worth setting up. What you can do after you connect Square Once connected, you can use Square with SimpleTix for POS, gift cards, and catalog upsells. On the SimpleTix side, you also get tools built for ticketing, including: General admission with timed entry and capacity management Reserved seating with interactive seat maps Season tickets for GA and reserved events Flex Pass with attendee photo verification Promo codes, BOGO offers, and quantity discounts Waitlists and abandoned cart recovery...
Get Paid to Share SimpleTix: Introducing the Ambassador Referral Program
-
by
Get Paid to Share SimpleTix: How the Ambassador Referral Program Works We just launched the SimpleTix Ambassador Referral Program. If you already use SimpleTix and tell other event organizers about it, you can now earn $100 for every qualified referral. No application. No waiting. If you've sold 100 or more paid tickets on SimpleTix, you're already in. How it works The program is built around a unique referral link tied to your account. Here's the step-by-step: 1. Grab your referral link If eligible, log into your Manager Portal. Scroll to the footer and look for Refer & Earn $100. That's where your unique link lives. 2. Share it with other event organizers Trade shows, industry groups, LinkedIn, local organizer communities, group chats — anywhere you talk shop with people who run events. The key detail: referrals only get credited when someone signs up through your link. Word-of-mouth is great, but the link is what gets you paid. 3. Earn $100 when they qualify When a referred organizer sells 50 or more paid tickets through SimpleTix, they're qualified. Our team will reach out to you directly to arrange your $100 payout. There's no cap on how many referrals you can make. Who qualifies You're automatically enrolled if you've sold 100+ paid tickets on SimpleTix. No application form, no approval process. If you're eligible, your referral link is live right now in your Manager Portal. Track your referrals in real time Every click and signup from your link is tracked in your dashboard. You can watch each referral move through three stages: Signed Up — they created an account through your link Event Published — they set up their first event Qualified — they've sold 50+ paid tickets, and you've earned your payout Full transparency, no black box. Why we built this...
How Vala’s Pumpkin Patch Scaled to 100K+ Visitors with SimpleTix
-
by
How Vala’s Pumpkin Patch Scaled to 100K+ Visitors with SimpleTix If you run a busy fall attraction, you already know the pressure: ticketing has to keep up when demand spikes, guests arrive in waves, and lines move fast. That is exactly what Vala’s Pumpkin Patch faced as it grew into Nebraska’s premier fall destination with more than 100,000 visitors each season. Founded in 1984, Vala’s Pumpkin Patch now draws huge crowds across 50+ attractions and multiple food stands. However, growth exposed weak spots in its old setup. Peak-morning surges strained the system, one technical admin became a bottleneck, and layered tools made operations harder than they needed to be. For Vala’s, the move to SimpleTix was about getting one reliable system for admissions, season passes, bookings, and on-site sales. Why Vala’s needed better farm ticketing software Dan McDonald, MS, PMP, IT Manager at Vala’s Pumpkin Patch, put it plainly: “We originally used a ticketing platform that served us well in our early years, but as our guest volume grew, it could no longer scale to meet demand.” That issue showed up in a few clear ways. First, the system struggled during peak-morning ticket surges. In other words, the exact time the platform mattered most was the time it became risky. Second, operations depended too heavily on one technical administrator. As a result, routine changes and troubleshooting could pile up around one person. Third, the team had to work across multiple layered applications. That created extra steps, more training, and more chances for something to break during the busiest weeks of the season. Finally, outdoor hardware added another challenge. Farm attractions do not run in perfect indoor conditions, so tools need to work in real weather and real crowds. The bottlenecks were operational, not just technical Vala’s wasn’t just trying to...