GILBERTSVILLE, Pa. — Gateway Ticketing Systems wants to help unite the attractions industry and help venues continue to deliver their very best Guest Experience, despite the coronavirus crisis. Accordingly, the world-leader in ticketing, admission control and revenue generating solutions for the attractions industry created a webinar series, Webinar Wednesdays, to help industry professionals do just that. 

“It started with a small idea: to create a new tool to help just our customers update pass or membership validity and extend the expiration date, in bulk. And then show them how to use it in a webinar,” says Randy Josselyn, Principal of Wildlife and Conservation at Gateway, and a co-host of the series. “That one was so popular that we knew we needed to hold more webinars to continue to support our customers.”

Gateway has also held a webinar about best practices for using their Galaxy ticketing and admission control software for key operational and technological functions in high demand during the pandemic.

“We showed our customers how to update the messaging on their web store, how to change the on/off sales date for online products, how to manage order reservations, and demonstrated other useful tips for addressing issues that were impacting them at that exact moment,” comments Randy.

“The feedback was so overwhelmingly positive, that we knew we had to develop a whole series of webinars with a broader focus and open them up to a wider industry audience,” says Peter Wolf, Director of Sales and Marketing at Gateway. “We’re an industry leader. We’ve been around for 32 years. We work with attractions big and small, across the world, and we have many employees who have worked on the operator side. We all need to unite during this terrible crisis, Gateway customer or not, and we have the connections and expertise to make that happen.”

This past Wednesday, Gateway held a webinar addressing Operational Strategies for Now and the Next Normal. Over 250 attraction industry professionals from zoos, aquariums, museums, theme parks, water parks, botanical gardens, ferries and other venues tuned in to hear three panelists talk about how they are planning today for the changes ahead in their business.

They discussed leveraging and expanding communication tools like CRM, alternative revenue streams, dealing with furloughs and layoffs, preparing to reopen with limitations, and much more. Then the forum was opened for anyone to share how they have been dealing with the crisis. At times, the forum even got emotional as they discussed the impact this crisis has had on their businesses and their lives. And everyone left with a stronger sense of community, and a sense that they will get through this, TOGETHER.

You can access the recording of the webinar right here on Gateway’s site.

“We just want to help,” concludes Michael Andre, President and CEO at Gateway. “We are all feeling the negative effects of coronavirus closures and disruption to business, and we all stand to benefit by helping each other navigate these obstacles. Even if you’re not a Gateway customer – in fact, even if you will never be a Gateway customer – join us for Webinar Wednesdays. Us and our community need to hear from you. We all need to learn from your best practices and success tactics for making it through these challenging times. We’ll all be better for it in the end.”

Gateway’s next webinar will be held on April 8 at 2:00 PM EST. Professionals from multiple attractions will be addressing the considerations and preparations you should be making right now to adjust your end-to-end Guest Experience in anticipation of reopening. Nothing will be off limits: from how you handle the exchange of money or credits cards, to how you sanitize rides, attractions and exhibits… even to how the automatic sinks may work in the bathrooms… they’ll be cautiously diving head first into the light at the end of the tunnel. If you would like to register, just click on the button below.

Gateway is helping to unite the community, and their webinars have prompted these responses.

“This is so isolating at times (especially for those of us working in empty buildings), but knowing this community is here for everyone is such a big help 🙂 Stay safe! Hope we can get back to our ‘new normal’ soon!­”

“Thank you for the great Webinars. I have been sharing some or all of the information with my teams.”

“I just want to say how awesome that webinar was… Kelly you brought a tear to my eye – your stuff about taking care of yourself and the team was absolutely spot on.

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