What We Learned at Ticketing Australia 2026

Ticketing Australia 2026, on 20–21 October at CommBank Stadium, Parramatta, brings together venues, promoters, platforms and festival teams to talk about how Australians buy tickets, and how that is changing. Our team is spending two days in Sydney listening, asking questions and comparing notes with people across the industry.

Key Sessions from Day 1

If you only have five minutes, here is a summary of day 1 sessions that stood out.

• Reps & Sets: Moving Pricing Philosophy from Mind to Muscle:. Practitioners from theatre, attractions and sport discussed how dynamic pricing works day to day. The session covered who’s truly involved, who owns the decisions, where departmental hand-offs happen and the lessons learned from mistakes. The theatre angle came from Antix Management’s Laura Prunty, who has run ticketing strategy for musicals like The Lion King and Les Misérables. Host Nick Falzon brought nearly twenty years of Broadway pricing experience at Disney Theatrical Group. BridgeClimb’s Ali Cassim added the immersive attractions perspective.
• Regional Venue Round Table: The co-chairs of NAPACA, Patrice Rielly, Karly Mejlak and Kristina Reddaway, led an open discussion on the opportunities and challenges facing regional venues. They represented Glen Street Theatre, Glasshouse Port Macquarie and The Art House. The format was designed as a space to share experiences, celebrate successes and swap practical fixes, rather than a panel presentation.
• Future Ready: Navigating Change at Scale: This executive panel looked at how senior leaders are leading teams through complex change, maintaining engagement during periods of uncertainty, and building future-ready organisations. The theatre voices were strong. Kayely Marriner leads Marriner Group, Australia’s largest commercial theatre company, and helped launch InTown. Sean Free of nLiven has led major change on Broadway, including moving nine Nederlander theatres to a new platform. Antix Management’s Angela Higgins hosted.
• From Grassroots to Growth: What Community and Commercial Events Can Learn from Each Other: This session tackled a shared problem. Council festivals, dance concerts and amateur theatre companies can sell out and still not cover their costs, while premium commercial productions struggle long term without ongoing audience development. Theatre Royal Sydney’s Matilda Dwyer, who also volunteers with a community theatre company, joined AANT Centre CEO John Glenn and Glen Street Theatre’s Patrice Rielly. Together they explored what each side can learn from the other to build audience trust and attendance.

What we are looking forward to on Day 2

We are looking forward to some standout sessions tomorrow.

• Closing Keynote: Australia: Feature, Not a Bug, 3.00pm: InTown’s Nick Falzon, formerly of Disney Theatrical Group, explores how Australia’s unique market conditions create fertile ground for collaboration and audience cultivation across ticketing, live experiences, tourism and technology
• There Is No Silver Bullet (Line-Up), 9.35am: Our COO, Chris Crossley, will be making the case that ticket revenue grows through many small gains across checkout, pricing, upselling and post-purchase communication (more detail below).
• Influencers Are a Media Channel (Anthem), 9.35am: Anthem runs campaigns for Australia’s biggest live entertainment productions. The session covers finding the voices core ticket buyers already trust, building influence in categories well outside the theatre network, and tracking creator-driven sales end to end.
• Wearing Many Hats Without Carrying the Entire Wardrobe, 9.35am: Patrice Rielly (Glen Street Theatre), Karly Mejlak (Glasshouse Port Macquarie) and Dale Perkins (Ticketlink, Cairns Performing Arts Centre) look at how box office teams in regional performing arts centres juggle customer service, front of house, marketing, finance and venue hire.
• What Are You Looking At? The Data Driving Decisions, 11.00am: Melbourne Theatre Company’s Jerry Hodgins joins Cricket Australia and Live Nation, with Antix Management’s Angela Higgins hosting. Jerry’s focus is moving beyond reporting what happened to understanding why it happened, and what to do next.
• Regional Realities: Rethinking Ticketing Beyond the Cities, 11.00am: a panel from performing arts venues: Frankston Arts Centre, Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre, Shoalhaven Entertainment Centre and Ticketlink Cairns. It covers how geography, staffing, technology, customer behaviour and community connection shape regional ticketing.
• Q&A with David Campbell OAM, 2.00pm: The ARIA-winning entertainer has starred in theatre and cabaret, sits on the Sydney Opera House board and co-founded the producers behind the Hayes Theatre Co.
• The Art & Science of an Effective Dynamic Pricing Strategy (Digonex), 2.00pm: Kelly Degenhart covers pricing that adapts to seasonality, weather and consumer behaviour, combining PhD economists with AI to recommend the optimal price for every future date. That’s especially relevant for attractions and timed-entry experiences.

Line-Up's session at Ticketing Australia 2026

There is No Silver Bullet: The Marginal Gains That Drive Ticket Revenue

Speaker: Chris Crossley, COO, Line-Up
When: Wednesday 21 October, 9.35–10.30am AEDT
Where: CommBank Stadium, Parramatta
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There's no single fix that sells more tickets. Real results come from finding the small improvements across the whole ticketing journey, then stacking them up. Chris will be walking delegates through the BASICS of better ticketing: the fundamentals that shape conversion, revenue and the customer experience.
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Chris will be holding a practical session drawn from more than a decade of designing and building ticketing technology, with real examples from across live entertainment.

• Checkout friction: where buyers drop out, and how to make finishing a purchase effortless.
• Pricing and inventory: how to get more from the seats and slots you already have.
• Upselling: raising spend per customer without getting in the way of the sale.
• Post-purchase engagement: turning a one-off buyer into a returning audience member.
• Automation and technology: what to automate, and where technology's role is heading.

The principles apply whether ticketing is run in-house or through a provider. You'll leave with a simple approach you can use straight away: map the customer journey, find the points where a small change matters, test it, and keep improving.

What these takeaways mean for event organisers

Fans want fairness and simplicity, and the organisers who deliver both are the ones winning loyalty. Here are the five things we took away, and what we think they mean for anyone selling tickets in Australia and beyond.

1. Fans expect to see the real price upfront
   Nothing frustrates a buyer more than a price that climbs at checkout. Booking fees, card surcharges and delivery charges added at the last step were one of the most discussed topics, especially with the ACCC continuing to scrutinise drip pricing. The consensus is clear: show the all-in price from the first screen. Organisers who have made the switch reported fewer abandoned carts and fewer complaints, even when the total price stayed the same.
2. Resale is shifting from a problem to a feature Scalping still gets the headlines, and several states already cap resale prices above face value. But the conversation has moved on from simply blocking resale. Organisers are now building official, price-capped resale into their own platforms. The benefit is twofold. Fans who can't attend get their money back safely, and organisers keep control of who ends up in the venue. It also gives you visibility of demand you would otherwise lose to secondary sites.
3. Owning your fan data matters more than ever
   If your ticketing partner owns the customer relationship, you are renting your audience. Many speakers argued that first-party data (who bought, what they bought, how often they come back) is now an organiser's most valuable asset. With privacy reform raising the bar on how that data is collected and used, the advice was to ask for consent clearly, collect only what you need, and actually use it to give fans something better: earlier access, relevant offers, fewer irrelevant emails.
4. The ticket is now part of the experience
   Mobile tickets are standard, but the bar has risen. Fans expect tickets in their phone wallet, easy transfers to friends, and entry that works even when venue reception drops out. The smartest teams are treating the ticket as a channel, not just a barcode. Pre-event reminders, transport tips, food and drink pre-orders and post-show surveys all start from the ticket. Small touches here were linked to better reviews and more repeat purchases.
5. Smaller and regional events face the toughest squeeze
   While stadium tours keep selling out, mid-sized and regional events are under real pressure. Rising costs, late buying and festival cancellations came up again and again. The practical ideas we heard: price early-bird tiers to reward commitment, offer payment plans, partner with local businesses to share audiences, and use sales data to make go/no-go decisions earlier. Late buying isn't going away, so planning around it beats hoping for a rush.

Key themes at Ticketing Australia 2026

Across the keynotes, panels and corridor conversations, the same themes are coming up, whether the speaker runs a stadium, a regional theatre or a ticketing platform.

1. Dynamic pricing has moved from theory to practice. Tennis Australia, BridgeClimb and Digonex are focusing on running dynamic pricing day to day: who owns the decisions, how teams hand off, and how to balance revenue with attendance and affordability.
2. Reach is up, frequency is the challenge. Spektrix’s look at the audiences of 2030 points one way, and Tessitura’s benchmarking is expected to show the same: more people are buying, but each comes less often. The opportunity is knowing who your customers are and giving them a reason to return.
3. Data only matters if it drives decisions. Cricket Australia, Melbourne Theatre Company and Live Nation will share the metrics they actually rely on, and how they move from reporting what happened to acting on why.
4. AI is getting practical. From Adam Spencer's opening keynote to the "AI, Actually" panel with Microsoft, Ticketmaster and KPMG, the focus was on real uses, safe habits and keeping a human in the loop.
5. Compliance is front of mind. The ACCC will be walking through the Australian Consumer Law, new unfair trading practice rules and transaction fee disclosure. If your pricing display or fee structure hasn't been reviewed lately, now is the time.
6. Regional venues need their own playbook. Three sessions are dedicated to regional venues, covering stretched teams, geography and community connection.
7. Accessibility is an operational discipline. The MCG's Eras Tour case study showed how planning for access from the start, rather than as an add-on, leads to better outcomes for everyone.

What Ticketing Australia 2026 means for 2027

If one idea ties the event together, it's that small, deliberate improvements add up: clearer pricing, smarter use of data, an easier path to purchase and a smoother day at the gate. None of it is a silver bullet, but together it's how you turn a one-off buyer into a regular.

Line-Up is growing in Australia. Our first Australian client goes on sale later this year, and we've made our first local hire, Cam Tegg, who joins as Client Success Manager.

Whether you're reviewing your ticketing platform, planning an on-sale or just want to swap notes, come and say hello at Stand 12. Or book a time in advance so we can give you our full attention.

Thanks to the Ticketing Australia team and every speaker who shared openly.

What is Ticketing Australia 2026?

Ticketing Australia is the yearly gathering for people who sell tickets to live experiences across Australia, New Zealand and Asia Pacific. This year it runs over two full days at CommBank Stadium in Parramatta, opening with welcome drinks the evening before.

Who attends

The room is made up of the people who run ticketing day to day, and the people who set its strategy. You'll meet them across every corner of live experiences:

• Sport: ticketing, membership and fan-growth leads from codes, leagues and clubs, including the AFL, NRL, Cricket Australia and Tennis Australia.
• Live music and touring: promoters and ticketing operations teams behind stadium tours and festivals.
• Theatre and performing arts: box office managers, ticketing consultants and CRM leads from commercial theatres and major companies.
• Regional venues: small, multi-skilled teams running ticketing for performing arts centres outside the capitals.
• Attractions, museums and galleries: commercial and pricing leads for visitor experiences and membership programmes.
• Venues and stadiums: venue operators who manage on-sales, access control and event-day delivery.
• Ticketing platforms and technology providers: the companies that power all of the above, Line-Up among them.

Why they attend

Delegates come because the problems are shared, even when the events look nothing alike. A football club and a regional theatre both wrestle with checkout drop-off, pricing and getting people to come back.

• Practical ideas to take home: Sessions are built around real campaigns and real numbers, from dynamic pricing at the Australian Open to accessibility at the MCG.
• Peers who get it: Two days with people who have run the same on-sales and fielded the same complaints.
• What's changing: Updates on AI, audience trends and the Australian Consumer Law, including new rules on unfair trading and transaction fees.
• Technology, side by side: The exhibition floor is the easiest place to compare ticketing platforms in one visit.
• Lessons that travel across sectors: Ideas from sport often work in the arts, and the other way round.