Julia Hartz, Eventbrite's (EB) CEO, is squarely focused on offering a product that is easy, intuitive, and seamless for folks on either end of the transaction. In this case, someone purchasing a ticket on Eventbrite and the talent, agency, band, or countless others potentially acting as sellers.
Hartz has been at the helm since 2016 and was recently appointed to the executive chair position on the board. In her own words, though, “there’s not a ton of change there from a day-to-day perspective.”
Instead, the focus is on creating a meaningful experience for the buyer and the seller of events on the platform.
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Eventbrite isn’t the only ticketing platform out there, and most major musical acts still opt for Live Nation’s Ticketmaster. Hartz described Eventbrite as living in “the fatty middle place where it’s anything that could be ticketed” and, more succinctly, it’s “what fills your calendar on a regular basis”— that is what’s found on Eventbrite, and she believes there is a lot of room to grow.
Furthermore, Hartz is focused on Eventbrite's “transitioning from a ticketing platform into a two-sided marketplace,” which is constantly evolving with features and enhancements for both parties. During COVID, with a pause in live events, Eventbrite focused on building the best product experience possible, and we’re seeing some fruits of that labor now.
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For folks hosting events, Eventbrite offers a “Get Started AI,” which eliminates the number of fields one needs to fill out to host an event. Simply enter a few keywords and potentially a name, and Eventbrite offers “everything from imagery to event description to event tags to make it more discoverable.” An event host can also opt to pair it with marketing tools and have a targeted audience created to serve display ads or suggested events, too.
The data is where the performance lies, though — Hartz noted that creators using these AI-infused tools are “selling about 63% more tickets for their event” and getting up to a three-times return on advertising spend. Hartz believes this is a big win for smaller creators, small businesses, and even ‘solopreneurs’ on the platform, as they can better use their time and get more out of it.
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There are still experiments and tests beyond this AI feature — Hartz shared that on the attendee side, Eventbrite is testing “conversational AI for people who can’t find their ticket or who need help [with an event].”
That is currently being used within “curated collections.” Hartz notes that AI “captures the content that we want to put in front of people” and creates collections designed for a specific user.
Most recently, Eventbrite dropped a “cowboy core” collection, inspired by Beyoncè, that was built using this — it’s not yet a proper conversational AI for discovery, but it’s trending in that direction.
In that same vein, Hartz believes that “accidental discovery is on its last dying breath,” noting that it’s inherently different from discovery around products, as events are ephemeral.
It ties back to making a difference and a true enhancement for someone looking for an event. The last thing Eventbrite wants is to recommend an event that is a perfect match but has passed or doesn’t have the capacity, so it’s about finding a sweet spot between identifying the right event and then serving it up.
Summing it up, Hartz is focused on “make[ing] a difference in the eventgoer’s life” and on the creator side, Eventbrite is already moving in that direction. Majorly with the “Get Started AI” functionality available and with more quality-of-life centric features like getting payment for tickets to creators faster in partnership with Stripe.
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