We’ve constructed a more efficient and transparent checkout flow. In other words, we’re “putting it all out there.” Checkout is now in a single page layout, so the buyer knows exactly what’s standing in between themselves and their tickets. (Click to enlarge).

Fees are now displayed on the event page, so the buyer knows how much the total ticket cost will be before heading to checkout. If the buyer spends too long on another webpage and the order “times out,” the buyer will be redirected back to the event page instead of the organization page.

Lower Pricing

In case you missed it, we made the big announcement last week.

Awesome Team Page

Get to know us by face and learn some fun facts in the process. Isn’t it pretty?

This is a big one for us.

Our New Pricing
We’re lowering our fees. Our new ticketing fee for online sales is 2% + $1, our new ticketing fee for onsite sales is $0, and we’re dropping our credit card processing fee from 4.99% to 3%. Big changes that will make a big impact. On a $20 ticket sold using our credit card processing, our total fees will drop from $3 to $2.

No Surprises
We’re now showing our credit card processing fee on our pricing page, which was previously only shown during event setup. It wasn’t our intent for this to be confusing, but your feedback was pretty clear that it was. Also, our fees will now be shown on the event page, before the buyer selects quantities to purchase. No surprises.

PayPal Users
This pricing change results in a higher fee for a small slice of tickets, specifically those sold online for greater than $50 and processed using PayPal or Authorize.net. The prices for these tickets remain competitive with the industry. We hope that customers use this as an opportunity to switch to TicketLeap’s own credit card processing option, which provides a better purchasing experience for ticket buyers. Contact us at help@ticketleap.com to learn more.

No Ticketing Fee Onsite
We’re especially excited about dropping the onsite ticketing fee entirely. Moving forward, tickets that you sell at your event will incur the 3% credit card processing fee only. Many of our customers were using TicketLeap to sell tickets online, but using a credit card terminal such as Square, or one directly from their bank, to process payments onsite. It’s a better experience for our customers to process all of their sales using one system, and we’re glad that this change will enable more of them to do so.

Our Mission
This is a critical step towards our mission of enabling people to create great events. Many more steps to come.

A comic convention. (Wizard World)

A wine tasting. (Boordy Vinyards)

A county fair. (The Devon Horse Show)

Anywhere but here. (Look around for something awesome)

We often feel that experiences > things. There’s more value to them. Sure, they may not be tangible, but memories of an amazing day at a fantastic event will last a heck of a lot longer than a bouquet of Gerber daisies. Trust us, your siblings will be jealous that they didn’t think of it first.

What makes United By Blue different than other charity organizations?

United By Blue isn’t actually a charity organization. UBB is an apparel and accessories brand with an environmental mission to remove a pound of trash from oceans and waterways for every product sold. We use the profits from the sales of our organic t-shirts, waxed canvas bags, and artisan jewelry to organize and host cleanups around the country.

Each cleanup is 100% United By Blue: our cleanup team does everything from picking a location to picking up trash alongside our volunteers. Our cleanups go beyond just a service day; we aim to make each cleanup an educational community gathering by serving local foods for volunteers, hosting unique cleanup competitions, and giving away UBB prizes.

How do you use TicketLeap to make registering for cleanups easier? 

Ticketleap offers anything I could ever want in an event registration service. A volunteer can sign up, share a cleanup on Facebook or Twitter, and receive a confirmation email within a matter of minutes of arriving at a cleanup listing. My events are well-organized thanks to TicketLeap: alphabetical attendee lists are sent directly to my inbox, I can view traffic sources and attendee data that helps me recruit for future cleanups, and TicketLeap makes it easy to mass email any updates to my volunteers. Not to mention, if there is anything that isn’t already listed on their thorough help pages, their friendly support team always gives a quick response.

What are the best ways you see Philadelphia “going green” for the planet?

Every time I turn around another Philadelphia institution is becoming a pioneer for sustainability. From improving our city’s waterways through green infrastructure to growing the Philadelphia bike community, from the Lincoln Financial Field becoming one of the nation’s greenest stadiums to  local foods becoming a standard, not exception, on menus, Philadelphia is well on its way to achieving Mayor Nutter’s goal to be the greenest city in the US.

Which cleanup has made the biggest impact so far? Do you have a favorite? Why?

Hands down, the first cleanup we held with our partner, Subaru of America, was our biggest and my favorite cleanup to date in Pennsauken, NJ last May. Groups of volunteers just kept filing in and we ended up with over 130 volunteers—our largest volunteer gathering to date. We weigh every piece of trash that we pick up, so it was pretty incredible watching bags and bags of trash pile up.

After four hours, we filled two dumpsters, double the amount we expected, and pulled a whopping 7,248 pound of trash from the Cooper River. At every cleanup, we host a contest calling for the weirdest piece of trash and my weirdest piece of trash to date was found in Pennsauken-a voodoo doll. By the end of the day, everyone was completely exhausted, but beaming with pride from the impact of the day.

United By Blue is looking for volunteers for the following cleanups:

Tuesday, May 14th, 5:30 to 7:30 pm, Bartram’s Garden, Philadelphia

Saturday, May 18th, 10 am to 2 pm, Farnham Park, Pennsauken, NJ

Tuesday, June 4th, 5:30 to 7:30 pm, Penn Treaty Park, Philadelphia

What’s your favorite part about the graphic design process?

I think that it’s hard to choose one part of the process because from start to finish, each project is the evolution of an idea. Most of my work is done by the time I sit down at my computer; at that point I’ve already spent hours researching, diagramming, planning and sketching. Each step is equally important, and plays an important role in the outcome of the project.

What will you teach the TicketLeap team or bring to the TicketLeap table? What do you hope to learn in return?

I believe in a brand-first approach to design. Brands live mostly in public perception, and as communicators, we only get few chances to tell our story. There’s a huge difference between designing something that’s just visually appealing, and designing something that is effective. Great design exists where those overlap. I’m here to help TicketLeap make lasting impressions and learn to better communicate with our customers.

What kind of music do you listen to while you work?

What I’m listening to tends to have a huge impact on the pace of my work. That being said, when I’m concepting and planning I listen to a lot of Wilco and Elliott Smith with some Dylan thrown in for good measure. When in the execution phase of the design, I like to pick up the pace a little bit and switch on something a little faster like Arctic Monkeys or Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

Tell us a little bit about your food truck/restaurant and how it came to be. Describe the food there in 140 characters or less.

Our restaurant, U Got Munchies, actually started as a late-night online snack food delivery service for my college campus. Thanks to some moderate success, and little bit of luck, six months later we opened a food truck to help bring our full concept of serving home-style fast food to reality. Within a year we had outgrown the truck and opened a small brick and mortar location on Broad Street to proudly serve the late night crowds.

In 144 characters: Slightly ridiculous home-style fast food; what mom would make if she had the munchies.

We’re getting hungry…

Clockwise from left: KAWS art installation at 30th Street Station; pizza at Barbuzzo; the view from our company seats at the Phillies’ Opening Day; Independence Hall.

Check out Visit Philly and TicketLeap on Instagram.

The team at TicketLeap is pumped to tell you about the launch of The Loop , a weekly newsletter for event creators by event creators.

What is it?
The Loop is a community of event creators. People like you. Each week, one member is picked at random to write an email that is anonymously sent to the rest of the list.
It’s your chance to learn from and be inspired by other people running events.

Our commitment.
The Loop is a service from TicketLeap, but it is 100% yours. TicketLeap will never email the list for the purposes of marketing. It’s your playground. And of course, you can unsubscribe at any time.

Intrigued? You should be. Get in The Loop now.

You never know, you might inspire someone.

Meet our latest hires: Dan Girgenti and Koba Khitalishvili.

What do you study at Drexel? What’s your favorite part about being a Drexel student?

DG: I’m on my way to a BS in Software Engineering, and I’ll be graduating with minors in Computer Science, Biology, and Philosophy. Drexel’s co-op program is by far the best part of being a student there. Not many other schools offer the opportunity to graduate with 18 months of real, full-time work experience in a field you love.

KK: I am a transfer student from Russia, and currently I am majoring in Economics with math concentration at Drexel’s Lebow College of Business. My favourite parts about Drexel are the quarter system, co-op program, and culturally diverse student body. Quarter system works really well for me because it keeps me always focused and involved in academics. The co-op program provides me with a unique opportunity to gain at least six months of work experience by the time I graduate. And, finally, diverse student body prepares me for entering the world of global business where I will have to interact with individuals from different cultures and backgrounds.

DG: I’m one of those half-dreamer, half-thinker types, and I’m no codemonkey. I believe anyone along the course of a product should have say in its realization. I have a thing for consistent, aesthetically pleasing, and user-friendly software. Working on something I myself wouldn’t enjoy using irks me. TicketLeap fits my taste pretty well. I’m excited to learn how product-based teams work differently than agency teams.

KK: I definitely think I can bring a lot to TicketLeap. Firstly, my enthusiasm and eagerness to succeed in a new workplace. Fresh blood so to say. Secondly, a different perspective which comes from my cultural background. I always try to keep it real. Lastly, a lot of fun. Co-op is also about learning how to have a good time at work. In return I expect to receive work experience which is relevant to my field of study, but more importantly feedback from my co-workers. In order to become a better professional and employee I will need feedback and criticism that will point out areas in which I shall improve.

You both have cool backgrounds. Dan, you’ve been working in tech since you were 15. Koba, you’re from Russia! How did you both end up here?

DG: Back in 2001 I was in 4th grade, helping teachers make nice-looking powerpoints and advocating against the use of Comic Sans. I wrote HTML for the first time in 7th grade. At 15, I was a Tech Intern at Electronic Ink, with Tim Crowe as my mentor. In 2010, I placed 1st in PA and 7th nationally in a high school programming competition, which helped me realize I probably had a place as a professional developer. 5 years after teaching me most of the basic stuff I now do without thinking, Tim asked me to join the team at TicketLeap, and here I am.

KK: I never planned on coming to the US, and working for one of the coolest companies like TicketLeap. Long story short, my father encouraged me to come to the US to study, I chose Drexel among the schools that accepted me because of the co-op program, and here I am.

What’s your favorite place to eat in Philadelphia and why?

DG: I’d eat at Butcher & Singer every day if money wasn’t in short supply. The food, service, and atmosphere are great, and they don’t say anything when I show up in shorts and flip flops. Calamari, Filet Mignon, and Green Beans Almondine all day! Second to that, and an order of magnitude cheaper, is Lorenzo’s pizza (RIP South St Lorenzo’s).

KK: Philadelphia is a unique city in that it is one of the most culturally diverse. As a result, people have a humongous choice of different foods. My favourite place to eat in Philly is…quite frankly it is hard to choose one. I will go with Chima because it has two features that I value the most: all you can eat and good quality food. Chima is pricey, nevertheless, it is the best place for gorging yourself…ehhh I meant getting a chance to taste high quality Brazilian food. Other places at which I like to gorge…I mean, eat, are Chinatown, Indian buffets, and IHOP.

Dan, you’re in luck- Lorenzo’s is reopening April 29. 

Philly Tech Week is upon us! Kicking off on April 20, PTW will showcase dozens of events in the Philadelphia region. See the full list of events here.

TicketLeap President and COO Tim Raybould will be presenting at “Mobile, Marketing and Ecommerce” on Friday, April 26. Tim will give a lightning talk on how the TicketLeap platform is taking advantage of mobile tracks. The event, hosted at Urban Outfitters HQ, will focus on innovative business trends happening across the web and in Philadelphia. Admission is free!

1. Hold your scanning or mobile device at an arm’s length while scanning a ticket QR code. It’s also important to make sure you’re scanning in a space with good lighting.

2. If you’re using the mobile box office method, know that you can only have one scanning device plugged into your computer at a time.

3. Any tickets purchased after you download your attendee list won’t appear on said list. If you’re okay with this, there’s no need to stop sales. If you want to have a complete list of all ticket sales, then you should stop sales on your event before you print out the list.

4. If you’re selling tickets at the door, keep your ticket sales and check-in lines separate. Less confusion = more efficiency.

5. Encourage attendees to have their tickets out while they wait in line. You’d be surprised at how much time this saves!

6. If your event requires wristbands, partner up with a friend and “scan and band” through the line. This will save time and prevent confusion, as two people sets of hands are faster than one.

7. Set up large, readable signs that point to check-in so people know where to line up without having to ask around. You want your attendees to be frustration-free at your event from start to finish.

8. Take a minute to train whoever’s manning check-in! Make sure they know how to use the app and what an E-Ticket looks like.

9. Keep your mobile app updated. You don’t wanna miss out on any exciting changes the TicketLeap team has made to make your life easier.

10. Take advantage of having so many of your customers in one place! Engage with attendees, collect feedback for the future, and get them hyped for your event.

There are three ways to check in your attendees at your event:

• Mobile check-in via the TicketLeap iOS or Android app

• Mobile box office check-in via TicketLeap.com

• Pen and paper check-in via your downloadable attendee list

If you’re going mobile, there are two rules you must always remember:

• Make sure you have a strong wireless or 3G connection at your event location.

• Charge and test your devices. Every. single. time. Hear me? E.v.e.r.y t.i.m.e!