Victoria Theatre Association

Patron Edge for Reserved Seating Gives Victoria Theatre Association Greater Control and More Flexibility

Victoria Theatre Association, located in downtown Dayton, is one of Dayton's premier not-for-profit arts organizations. The Association presents more than 300 performances for all ages each year, as well as operates and maintains three vital arts facilities for the benefit of the community and the arts organizations that use them: The Victoria Theatre, the Benjamin & Marian Schuster Performing Arts Center, and the Metropolitan Arts Center, home to the Loft Theatre.

The vision of Victoria Theatre Association is to enrich the lives, learning, and leisure of the community through the performing arts. Its mission is to strengthen the artistic and economic vitality of our community and arts partners through presenting quality and diverse arts experiences and through stewardship of our community’s state-of-the-art performance venues.

The Challenge:

• As the central box office for five arts groups and four venues, the Victoria Theatre Association needed the ability to build different venue charts online.
• The Association’s previous ticketing vendor was cumbersome and did not provide the flexibility and customization it needed to deliver the functionality and usability requested by patrons and needed by staff.
• The Association was constantly working to customize its previous system to address its needs. 
• Victoria Theatre wasn’t getting support from its previous vendor and didn’t get any upgrades to the software.
• Additionally, the Association wanted to create a better online ticket purchasing for its patrons.
• Patrons of Victoria Theatre Association wanted to be able to pick their seat, so it was imperative that the Association have a ticketing system that enables reserved seating.
• Finally, the Association was growing and could no longer afford to hassle with the limitations of its previous ticketing vendor, Tytix.

The Solution:

• Victoria Theatre Association selected Blackbaud’s Patron Edge to address these challenges.
• Patron Edge enables the Association to easily manage multiple venues, including reserved and general admission seating using the hall configuration tool and drag and drop ticket design.
• Additionally, Patron Edge allows the Association to quickly make changes, such as rescaling the house or quickly changing the cost of tickets to address demand.

The Results:

• With Patron Edge, the Victoria Theatre Association has been able to better control its expenses.
• Reserved seating functionality has enabled the Association to reduce the number of staff necessary to manage seating requirements.
• The Association has significantly reduced manual data entry with online reserved seating and the integration between Patron Edge and its world-class fundraising software, The Raiser’s Edge.
• It has also experienced an increase in web site traffic and received positive feedback from patrons on the ability to pick seats and easily purchase online.