A company that helps event planners sell tickets online launched Nov. 5 a Facebook application called "Ticketing" that would allow AU clubs and organizations to sell tickets to events posted on Facebook.
TicketLeap, the company that created the application, was interested in making the application after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg opened his social networking site to external developers last June, according to Carolyn Daniel, TicketLeap's corporate manager.
AU's Student Union Board, which charges for tickets to performances in Bender Arena and occasional performances in the Tavern, may eventually use TicketLeap's Facebook application, said Cole Morrison, assistant director of SUB.
"I am sort of hesitant of a new system; I want to make sure that it can handle a large-scale show," he said.
The company was also interested in launching its application through Facebook because students use it an average of two hours per day, according to Christopher Stanchak, CEO and founder of TicketLeap.
"It's the No. 1 platform that they use to promote their events with their friends on campus," he said. "It just makes sense that they sell tickets in the same place."
Event planners who add the application can send requests to friends to purchase tickets, and all Facebook users may click on that event and use a credit card to buy tickets. People can print the tickets they bought, Daniel said.
Facebook users who purchase tickets through TicketLeap do not have to add the application themselves. Only the event organizer needs to add the application, she said.
TicketLeap charges event planners a convenience fee of $1 per ticket. This fee is less than the fee TicketLeap places on tickets sold through its main Web site, Stanchak said.
SUB currently uses Ticketmaster, a company that also provides online ticketing, to sell some of its tickets to Bender Arena performances. SUB also sells tickets through the Student Activities desk and some tickets at the door if they are still available before the performance. These practices would continue if the board began to use the Facebook application, Morrison said.
"We definitely make Facebook events for the events we host, so I think being able to put a link right on the Facebook event is a good idea," he said. "It's something worth looking into."
The Kennedy Political Union, which sells tickets for Family Weekend guest speaker events to students' parents and other family members, would probably not use the Facebook application for this event since many parents and family members of AU students do not use Facebook, said Reid Rosenberg, KPU's volunteers coordinator.
"This is the first time I've heard of this, and we might be able to find uses for it if we look at it closely," he said.
The TicketLeap application may also help groups fundraise, said Emily Willard, a senior in the School of International Service who is planning an alternative spring break trip to Mexico through the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Ally Resource Center and the Community Service Center.
"Looking from the viewpoint of someone who does a lot of organizing, I use Facebook a lot to get the word out about events that I do," she said. "Lots of people say they are going to fundraising events, but if they could get their tickets right through Facebook, I think you could get more people to buy tickets and get a better idea of how many people are going to attend."
TicketLeap may eventually add applications to other social networking sites, such as MySpace, to broaden its potential audience, Stanchak said.