A Complete Guide to PAC (Performing Arts Center) Venue Management

Are you the manager of a Performing Arts Center? The last year has hit the performing arts industry hard, and the survival of venues is vital. Luckily, to help them stay afloat there is help available in the form of PAC (Performance Arts Center) Venue Management software. 

Software helps you communicate and stay on top of finances in an increasingly difficult environment. Below, we discuss specific software made for PAC managers and how it can help you. 

Scheduling

One of the toughest areas you will have to manage is the scheduling of your space. It would be fantastic if we all had enough theatres and stages to assign one to each performance or group. However, for most people, reality means maximizing the use of one or two spaces. 

You may have one group using the stage for rehearsals in the day and a band playing in the evening. You need to account for load-in and out times, set up, and cleaning. If you are operating with a skeletal staff, then you may not see each other and need a way to communicate efficiently. 

In addition, you may find that you have non-performance related scheduling needs. Perhaps you need a staff meeting or routine maintenance at a certain time. All of this adds to the pressure of trying to stay on top of PAC venue management. 

For this, you need a powerful calendar management tool. Prism for venues and promoters can provide single click, drag, and drop calendars to schedule the many people that will be using your venue. It also has the ability to add confirmations, so you can schedule possible dates and accept them when the performers confirm. 

Related: Interview with EXIT/IN Nashville on Thriving and Surviving During COVID

Finally, the calendar can be integrated, meaning it syncs up with your email systems. Performers, organizers, and the rest of the staff can be constantly kept in the scheduling loop and see a change in real-time. 

(Performing Arts Center) Venue Management Finances

The budget constraints of most performing arts venues were tight before the global COVID-19 pandemic. However, now with shut-downs part of everyday life, the finances of PAC venues are now a matter of life or death. You need to have full control over them, and be able to view what is happening in real-time. 

The right performing arts center management software, one with a robust financial component that integrates with other business applications and your ticketing platform, will let you do just that. It has options for both internal and external funds, with gross ticket revenue estimates and reported revenue. This means you can track the sale of tickets in real-time, and offset it against the cost of managing the venue and paying performers. 

It also allows for the individual pricing of acts. You can set how much they receive, even adding percentages of ticket sales, and view what you will be left with in the end. It can be used to send offers to bands and booking agents directly from the software itself. 

With each show, you become more aware and empowered with data as you are able to monitor your potential profit and actual profit. This helps you cut down on overtime charges and your reimbursable expenses. 

Communication

With budget constraints comes staffing constraints. COVID-19 has taken so much from everyone, and PACs will have to operate leaner than ever. You will probably be working even harder, with less staff, and limited capacity. In this case, you need to make sure your communication is excellent. 

As well as your staff, you may need to relay information to artists, volunteers, freelancers, and internal departments. All of this takes time and effort, particularly when dealing with overlapping departments trying to share the same space. You may have education groups, production, programming, and performers all using the center at the same time and you need to make sure everyone is on the same page. 

With PAC venues being open from early in the morning until late in the evening, it may not always be possible to rely on phone calls and text messages. You can not be expected to be available every hour of the day, and to relieve this stress you need performing arts center management software that keeps people in the loop. 

If you choose the right cloud-based software, everyone you give permissions to can access to detailed notes about a show – from anywhere at any time. This can include general notes, running orders, and any files necessary to the implementation of the performance. All of this can be centralized on an event, that will also display the financial details and calendar.

From here, you can assign tasks and create deadlines for your staff members. You can also utilize flexible permissions and control what each member of your team has access to, including external vendors. All of this will undoubtedly improve your efficiency. 

Problem Solving

With finances on a knife-edge, you need to know where you stand when an event is coming up. One event with poor ticket sales could mean disaster, so it is better to stay on top of where you are at all times. This needs to be done through detailed reporting with box office software. 

Depending on the event management software, you may have a helpful event health dashboard to present data that’s important to you in one place. This can automate and speed your ticket counts, providing weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual reports. This will drastically cut down on the time you spend calculating totals and performing data input, leaving you free to concentrate on booking greater acts and promoting them. 

Get Started Quickly

PAC (Performing Arts Center) Venue Management software is easy to use right away. As time is of the essence to get the arts back up and running, you need to be smart and get assistance starting today. 

Prism is the ideal software for your business. We have a flexible pricing package for all sizes of venue and operations. Fill out this form to schedule your demo.