Ticketing takes mobile route out of Stone Age

All it takes is a bright idea. Ash Fogelberg believed there was a better way of buying tickets for his favourite concerts.
He thought about an entertainment card and scratched his head over how this could be used as a means for delivering tickets.
Mr Fogelberg - his mother, Jenny Hare, has lived in Tauranga for five years - involved his mates from university and together they established a card-based online ticketing company called 1-Night, the first of its type in the country.
Backed by a strong group of investors, 1-Night issued 50,000 cards in its first 10 months and has ticketed up to 100 events at any one time during the busy summer season.
After signing up online, concert and festival goers are sent a personalised 1-Night card, which can be re-used.
Bookings are made on the website and the ticket is automatically loaded on to the card, with a charge made to the credit card number.
The card is scanned for entry into the event and a back-up ticket is emailed in case the card is lost.
The new ticketing system is simple, efficient and kinder on the environment, said 23-year-old Mr Fogelberg, who lives in Wellington.
"The ticketing industry has been caught in the Stone Age; nothing has changed.
"The agencies print the tickets and send them out by courier - the delivery adds to the financial and environmental costs.
"Waiting for a ticket in the mail is archaic and wasteful. Our system eliminates all that."
The cards can also be used to pay for drinks and merchandise at different shows and festivals.
Wellington-based 1-Night is appealing to the younger more tech-savvy set, aged between 18 and 30.
But as the business becomes more established - it was started in May last year - Mr Fogelberg says it will marketed at a broader group and ticket many of the mainstream concerts and wine and food festivals.
The company ticketed the Holly Smith concert at McLaren Falls near Tauranga in December and last Friday's 42Below Cocktail World Cup in Queenstown.
Keeping with the times, 1-Night has also developed a new bar-coding system and iPhone application.
The iPhone app scans the quick-reference code on a poster, flyer or advert and the ticket is loaded automatically.
The ticket can then be scanned from the iPhone for entry into the show.
"We are at the bleeding edge of what can be done," said Mr Fogelberg.
"The enabling technology has been made available in the last year or two, and the iPhone applications are popular in Korea and China.
"There's great potential for innovation with mobile devices."
Wellington-based web developer SilverStripe helped write 1-Night's software and ticketing database, which includes integration with the Eftpos network and mobile phones.
Mr Fogelberg works with fellow director Tom Taylor, operations manager Josh Dry, designer Lee Corleison, administration manager Joseph Dang and chief technical manager Nick Frandsen, who attended Mount Maunganui College.
They are backed by the Oceanic Group, which supplies handsets to mobile phone network 2degrees, Fiona Campbell, who was an original investor in Trade Me, South Island businessman Trevor Scott and Gary Hannam, producer of the movie World's Fastest Indian.
"They all liked the idea and they are the kind of people who do a thorough due diligence before making an investment," said Mr Fogelberg.
He attended Palmerston North Boys' High School and Mount Aspiring College in Wanaka, and then travelled through the United States and Europe before returning to complete a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in philosophy at the University of Otago.
He left university at the end of 2009 and it wasn't long before he was working seriously on the innovative ticketing company.