Experts discuss key tech learnings from BIGSOUND

The conversation at one of this year's hottest music events, BIGSOUND, reflected the rapidly evolving industry in the age of tech innovation and AI. Experts gathered to discuss everything from the importance of data, the tension between AI and authenticity, the shift from selling tickets to building fan relationships, and the need to read audience signals before sales slow.

The event prompted the question: what if slow ticket sales aren't a sign that your audience has lost interest? From venues struggling with late purchases to organisers sitting on huge amounts of data they can't act on in time, the conversation often returned to this theme many event organisers are pondering. 

The events that thrive may be the ones that know their audiences early, own their data completely, and act before the warning signs become a crisis. Read on for more from Leap Event Technology's Louis Rogers, Senior Director of Sales, and Jess Attwood, General Manager APAC.

Venues can't control everything, but they can innovate with tech

There's no denying the pressures facing music venues. The list will be familiar to anyone in the industry: insurance, rent, staff and utilities, plus a growing trend of slow or late ticket purchases that sometimes ends in cancelled shows.

Despite these challenges, Louis Rogers, Leap Event Technology Senior Director of Sales, points out that venues have more power than they realise, and they may not be maximising the opportunities available.

Marketing technology has moved on. It's targeted, responsive and trackable, and a good ticketing partner should treat it as part of the offering, not an afterthought. Venues should go beyond the inbox and partner with a dedicated digital marketing team that lives and breathes ticketing, with a mission to promote events by every digital means available.

Rogers says, "Every venue and every event needs new audiences. Relying on the same people to support your venue or event forever is unsustainable. Finding new audiences is imperative. And using every means at your disposal is critical. Ticketing and digital marketing should work in unison, not apart. It should be like a bio-feedback loop that sustains sales and new audience growth."

Who owns your data, and can you actually use it?

Data was a recurring theme of the conference, and it raises an important question for anyone choosing event technology solutions: who owns the data your sales generates? 

Used well, that data is a goldmine of possibility. It can help organisers understand demand, improve marketing, identify audience segments, predict attendance patterns and make programming decisions. But all of that depends on answering a more basic question first.

Rogers comments, "As online sales occur, a huge amount of data is harvested. But what happens to the data? And who owns the data? It has been a controversial question ever since digital data could be captured and stored."

Every ticket sale tells an organiser who's coming, when they decided, and what they chose to buy. If that information stays with the ticketing company, the organiser is left making marketing, pricing and programming decisions with only a partial view of their own audience.

Rogers continues, "The ticketing company reaps the consumer data, but not all ticketing companies want to share the data, even with the clients that employ the ticketing company to sell the tickets in the first place. 

"Data ownership isn't necessarily the first thing that springs to mind when thinking about which ticketing solution you're going to choose. And even if you do have "data ownership" how accessible is it? Can you export it yourself? Or do you have to ask nicely? Will it be easy to manipulate, interpret and understand? Or will it be a giant mass of indecipherable information?"

Those questions work as a practical test for any ticketing arrangement:

• Access: can you get to your data yourself, or do you have to ask permission?
• Usability: can your team turn it into something they can analyse and act on?
• Permanence: is it genuinely yours, or only available while the relationship lasts?

Ownership should mean real access. Rogers' view is that organisers should be handed the keys to the data kingdom along with full report customisation that makes it easy to arrange the information, understand it, utilise it, export it, and own it, forever.

The value of data is speed, not volume

Owning your data is the starting point. Using it in time is also imperative, and this is the idea Jess Attwood, Leap Event Technology, General Manager APAC, took away from the data sessions at BIGSOUND.

She says, "Most event organisers already have huge amounts of data available to them. The challenge is bringing it together in a way that allows them to make better decisions while there is still time to influence the outcome."

Historically, event reporting has been retrospective: what sold, who attended, where customers came from, which campaigns worked. That information is valuable, but the bigger opportunity is seeing those signals during the sales cycle and acting on them.

The real value comes from seeing what audience segments are converting, where demand is coming from, which ticket types are moving, whether previous attendees are returning, and what marketing efforts are actually driving sales. From here you can decide where your next marketing dollar goes, how to speak to different audiences, and when to change strategy. That is the promise of modern live event technology.

Slow sales are not the same as low demand

One of the most thought provoking ideas from the wider BIGSOUND conversation is that slow sales and low demand aren't necessarily the same thing.

As highlighted in the research by The Push on young music audiences, 63% of people aged 16-25 agree that live music matters in 2026, with this figure remaining consistent from 2024 onwards. The study shows live music matters to young audiences, but they face barriers around cost, access and discovery. If ticket sales stall, concluding that nobody is interested could lead an organiser to the wrong response.

The better approach is to ask what the signals are really saying:

• Is there genuinely not enough demand?
• Is the audience highly engaged but purchasing later?
• Are some customer groups converting while others aren't?
• Is price becoming a barrier?
• Are people simply not discovering the event?

Attwood comments, "Those are different problems and they require different responses. Putting more money behind advertising isn't necessarily the answer to all of them."

This is where an event technology service earns its place. Behavioural and purchasing data shows organisers what's happening, but data needs to be combined with listening to audiences to understand why they're making certain decisions. The organisations that do both well will be in a much stronger position to respond before sales become a problem.

The organisers who thrive are the ones embracing tech innovation

Taken together, BIGSOUND's themes point in the same direction: the organisers who thrive will be the ones who know their audiences early, own their data completely, and act on both before the warning signs become a bigger issue.

That starts with marketing technology. Venues can't control rent, insurance or utilities, but they can control how they find new audiences, and relying on the same people forever is unsustainable. It continues with data. Real ownership means access that organisers can actually use, not a promise on paper, and its value lies in how quickly it helps you decide. And it depends on reading the signals correctly. Slow sales and low demand aren't necessarily the same thing, and different problems need different responses.

The wider themes reinforce the same point. Build relationships that outlast the event, treat the experience as more than the performance, make sophisticated tools available to venues of every size, and start building audience infrastructure ahead of Brisbane 2032. The organisers who build deeper relationships, ongoing experiences and powerful systems will be best placed for what comes next.