Ticket buyers and sellers, get ready to be dazzled

MAARTEN HOLL/The Dominion Post

SHINY, SHINY: Nick Schembri, left, and Christopher Smith plan to take their online ticketing platform to the world market.

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Wellington firm Dazzle Tickets is still a baby in the business world but the start-up has already scored star status.

The company's online platform takes the hassle out of organising and ticketing events, letting promoters set up events, create tickets and sell them online through one portal.

Founders, managing directors and Victoria University mates Christopher Smith and Nick Schembri created the platform to promote and ticket university events, but now use it to market film festivals, dance parties, concerts, university orientation events and transport for Toast Martinborough.

Dazzle Tickets won the Telecommunications Industry Group's inaugural Launch Pad competition last week, netting up to $70,000 worth of business products and services.

The competition seeks to identify and launch New Zealand's best business start-up and the win will be a real boost for the firm, Mr Smith says.

Since March last year the pair, both in their early 20s, have ticketed more than 130 Wellington events and sold more than 10,000 tickets. The plan is to take the platform to the rest of New Zealand, then go global.

Mr Schembri says the platform was designed to be able to grow.

"The system can run a children's birthday party for 50 people right up to an All Blacks game in Eden Park with 60,000 people."

The company can also arrange entry wristbands for event promoters and provide door staff to check tickets, collect coats and handle door sales.

Promoters can opt to use Dazzle Tickets' reseller network – which includes Real Groovy and the student associations of Victoria and Massey universities – so people can pay for tickets in person.

Event promoters select the services they want and pay a fee. Dazzle Tickets and resellers also charge a booking fee for each ticket, Mr Schembri says. "That fee depends on the ticket price. As an example, if you go on the website and buy an $18 ticket, you'd pay a $2 booking fee on top of that."

The company – which has three casual and five fulltime staff – will launch an improved version of the site in June, which among other things will let resellers feed information about ticket sales into the platform so event promoters can log in for a real-time sales update.

Support from Creative HQ – Grow Wellington's business incubator – in the form of office space and business networks and advice has been invaluable for the fledgling firm, Mr Schembri says.

"They are helping us build the fundamental blocks to build our product and go nationwide."

- © Fairfax NZ News