Lincoln High School

Lincoln High School is a co-educational public school located just outside of Christchurch City, New Zealand. They've used TryBooking to create a complete approach to selling, managing and promoting their theatrical events.

Drama at Lincoln High School

The drama department at Lincoln High School holds a special place in school life. “We hold productions for students in years 11, 12 and 13, both in the curriculum and as part of extracurricular activities,” says Sandra McLean, Head of Drama.

After years of manually managing their productions, the school’s IT Manager set up an account with TryBooking to see if the system could work for them. Impressed with the results, he handed over the account to Sandra, who connected with the TryBooking support team.

“The system and layout are really user-friendly,” says Sandra. “The TryBooking support team have been really helpful, and are all about getting me to be self-sufficient, rather than just doing it for me. It’s been great to get a personal response, not just an automated email that links to a website. The team are always ready to help and offer great tips on how an event could work better or look nicer.”

Introducing TryBooking to the community

Empowering parents has been a key advantage of the system. “We don't have to rely on office hours to sell tickets anymore. We now refer people to the web page, and they can book their tickets whenever they want.”

Having a button on the event page for queries has also been a great help. “We can now manage questions from potential audience members online. These people might not have had direct contact with me in the past, and can now easily get in touch to find out information like finishing times and appropriateness of content. It’s also easy to swap performance times for them if they can no longer attend their original session.”

Saving time with reports

The simple, powerful reporting available in TryBooking has cut down the amount of time Sandra spends on tedious administrative tasks. “With TryBooking, I can quickly see the number of tickets sold and how much revenue the event has generated. Before, I had to manually work this information out from a count of physical tickets. With different ticketing levels and complimentary codes for staff, revenue is now automatically tallied up by the system, instead of being calculated manually.”

Less stress on the night

TryBooking has saved not only Sandra’s time, but also that of the parents. “Selling tickets before the performance has been great for parents. They don’t have to arrive super early on the night anymore to secure their seat. Now they book in advance and can arrive closer to the performance time, knowing exactly where they will be sitting. Without these queues, parents are less stressed, and staff can better spend their time helping students, rather than manning ticket booths.”

“My next task is to permanently label the mobile seats in the hall,” says Sandra. “This will help parents find the seat they selected online when they arrive on the night.” TryBooking is a system that grows with its users and will be able to help Sandra and the Lincoln High School community create great events for many years to come.