What exactly is an Event?

What exactly is an event?

An event is a show that takes place at a specific venue at a specific time.

That seems quite simple, but there's a lot of complexity hidden behind this definition.

An event will be of a specific genre – music, theater, comedy, dance etc.

An event will include one or many performances. A performance may be of a specific piece, or may be improvised on the spot.

Each performance will involve a number of artists, each taking on one or many roles.

The event may repeat over a series of days - in which case it's part of a run. All the events in a run usually happen in the same venue. If the event changes venue then it's a tour. 

Each event in a run may be slightly different. The actors in a play may change, or the supporting band at a gig may be different each night.

Festivals adds another element of complexity. A festival will be a collection of events, all happening in a collection of venues around a single location over a short time period.

Welcome to Amovada

Welcome to Amovada

Amovada is a UK based start up which is building a data platform for the live entertainment industry. The idea is to create a crowdsourced database of all live events - the ultimate listings site.

What's the big idea?

Amovada is building an e-commerce platform for the live entertainment industry, a database of all live events – across all genres - crowdsourced from promoters, artists and fans.
It will allow users to find events, interact with other members and write reviews and comments. Using their history it will build up a picture of a their preferences and suggest events they would enjoy.
It will allow promoters to advertise their events to targeted users with individually tailored offers. Artists can build their profiles and performance histories, and connect with other artists and promoters.
Sponsors will be able to use the platform to develop relationships with prospects and customers, sponsoring individual tickets and delivering targeted promotions to selected users.

What’s the context?

The live entertainment industry is a complex network of promoters, artists, audiences and sponsors.
It is information-sparse: there is no full catalogue of live events. Search is hit and miss. Audiences are not being connected with events they might enjoy, promoters are not finding the best talent, sponsors are unable to finely target their support.
Today there is little motivation to build and maintain that catalogue. Information is transient; some niches are already well-served; major commercial events are already well-promoted.

What’s the opportunity?

There are three immediate commercial opportunities:

• Selling more tickets – by allowing users to discover events more easily, to sell additional tickets – and taking a percentage of the ticket value. 
• Advertising platform – allowing promoters/venues to advertise to selected users based on detailed user preferences and attendance history – and charging an advertising fee. 
• Sponsorship platform – allowing sponsors to offer sponsored tickets to selected users based on detailed user preferences and attendance history – and charging a percentage of the ticket value. 

How will it be used?

From one angle it’s the ultimate listings database – all shows, everywhere, since the year dot.
So it’s the IMDB of live performances.

From another angle it’s the CV of every performer – a complete catalogue of their career and future engagements.
So it’s the LinkedIn for performers.

From yet another angle it’s the place I can go to log shows I’ve seen, write comments for myself and reviews for others to read.
So it’s the TripAdvisor for live events and festivals.

Who will use it?

People who go to see live shows. For them:

• it’ll be the ultimate listings app and will make it easy to find shows 
• it will let them save searches, then alert them when something they want to see comes up 
• it will be the record of all the shows they've seen. They can rate the shows and individual performances. They can write detailed reviews. They can discuss the shows with other people 
• based on their history it will suggest shows they wouldn't have thought of seeing 

Who else will use it? 

People who perform in live shows.
For them:

• it’ll be their online CV – the list of all the roles they've performed, links to videos of their performances, links to reviews they figure in 
• they can personalise their page – it will be their fan site. They won’t have to pay their brother-in-law £500 to build a website that is instantly out of date 
• they can see what’s being planned and make sure they audition

Anyone else?

Everyone who promotes live shows: it’ll be the most effective way of connecting to a potential audience.

Everyone who schedules live shows: it’ll be the simplest way of finding performers.