Comic-Con International will open up registration Feb. 5 after having to close down the sales operation twice because of computer glitches.
Comic-Con spokesman David Glanzer said he can offer no more details about the online sale other than that registration will start at 9 a.m. Pacific Time. The convention will have more information on its website closer to Feb. 5 on how to purchase single-day and four-day badges.
In December, Comic-Con launched a test sale limited to 1,000 passes to determine whether it would be able to accommodate the tens of thousands of people who normally want to buy passes without overloading computer servers.
Deluged with a huge volume of aspiring purchasers, Comic-Con’s online system was able to process the sale of the 1,000 passes within 15 minutes, Glanzer said at the time.
Comic-Con tried twice in November to sell single-day and four-day passes to its pop culture extravaganza, but each time, the sale had to be halted after servers were overloaded, and purchasers were greeted with error messages.
Comic-Con has chosen to partner with TicketLeap for the initial ticketing aspect of registration. TicketLeap is powered by Amazon web services, which provides TicketLeap with access to Amazon’s servers and network so they can bring the flexibility required to create a system that matches the needs of the event. Additionally, when researching ticket sellers to partner with, the ticket fee pricing structure became an important issue. TicketLeap is again at the top of the list because they are able to keep costs reasonable for the buyer; they offer a flat $2.00 service charge per ticket.
It is this combination of the ability to adapt to the size of the event while keeping fees reasonable that make TicketLeap a good match for the initial portion of the registration process.
Registration for Comic-Con is more than just managing ticket sales. With over 126,000 attendees and several different departments, ticket levels and types, the requirements for a show of it's size are daunting. Each year EPIC has been able to meet the daunting challenge for the attendees and staff.
Glanzer said, We believe that continuing our partnership with Epic Registration Services will again result in good customer service and a registration process that will continue to work on site as it has in the past. The size of our show makes it a very unique event, and EPIC has proven that they have the equipment, personnel and the experience to meet the needs of Comic-Con and our attendees.
