Beth Aplin
Beth has spent the last 13 years as an arts consultant, specalising in ticketing system selection, optimisation and exploitation. She has undertaken small and large scale feasibilty studies, managed and supported change and system selection and installation projects and supported many arts organisations through short term specific problems with technology and people.
Her deep knowledge of ticketing system customer data - from its first arrival in the UK in 1989 has enabled her to train extensively about the use and exploitation of audience data throughout the UK, Europe and Australia. She has also been part of a wide range of innovative collaborative data projects starting with MAPEAST with Heather Maitland in 1992, the UK's first ever cross venue data analysis project, via the first city wide Data Crunch project with Arts About Manchester in 2002.
In 2003 she co-authored "the Thirst for Knowledge" report funded by Arts Council England, Scottish Arts Council and Arts Council Wales - to review and make recommendations about the whole way audience data was exploited and used throughout the UK - ADUK was established as a direct result of the recommendations in the repoprt.
Recently Beth has researched Box Office management, procedures and best practice in projects covering all Scotland and 5 states of Australia. She has also been helping many organisations to take advantage of the changes which a high level of internet ticketing brings about. This can involve a re-assessment of the staffing levels and skill sets required within the team and a deeper integration with the rest of the organisation.
She has worked with Blackbaud (who distribute Patrons Edge), Tessitura, ENTA, Spektrix, Tickets.com, Patron Base and Red61 users to help them through the installation process or to improve their Box Office operation.
Previously Beth worked for Select Ticketing Systems (A developer & supplier of a large CRM, ticket sales & fund raising software solution) for 8 years in the 1990’s progressing from Support & Installations Specialist to Customer Services Manager. During her time with Select she installed the product at 44 organisations around the UK, created and collaborated on many innovative data analysis projects, was seconded to the Dutch, American and Australian offies, spoke at and managed ten conferences around the world, Project Managed the Royal Albert Hall ticketing installation and finally managed 17 staff as Customer Services Manager. During this time she learnt some fundamental lessons:
“My first post involved spending 1 to 2 weeks on new customers’ sites training staff and configuring software. I realised that the installation of the system provided the catalyst for a large amount of organisational change. The wide impact of the software demanded inter-departmental collaboration which had often not happened previously.
Customers also frequently had an expectation that the introduction of technology would bring about either the redundancy of half the staff or an instant solution to all their problems. I hugely enjoyed the challenge of exploding both myths and leading the customer towards an appropriate, phased approach to computerisation and a realistic understanding of the software’s potential as a tool rather than a universal panacea. I aimed to expand the users’ horizons by exciting them about what they could achieve.”
Staying with the same company and meeting & supporting the same clients for many years enabled her to see the long term impact of business critical software adoption, and how differently the same product could be exploited within different organisations.
Beth is Vice Chair of the board of the Arts Marketing Association, a Director of Cambridge Business Associates, has a Diploma in Business Analysis and is currently completing a Diploma in Procurement and Supply.
She regularly trains and speaks at conferences in the UK, across Europe and Australia.
In her private life, Beth is a sculptor and has recently fallen in love with glass, she also takes many photos - some of which are shown around this website.
