“It’s critical that our clients stay in touch with their customers, and RainedOut provides the best way for them to do that,” said Derek Mitchell, director of client services for UniversityTickets. “RainedOut’s reliable Tier 1 platform, integrated seamlessly into the UniversityTickets platform, ensures that ticket holders will never miss cancellations, updates or reminders sent by our clients.”

 
“UniversityTickets has a tremendous presence in their industry, and we are pleased to help them reach their goals in communicating with their clients and customers,” said Jim Fitzmaurice, director of user development with RainedOut. “We have great experience working with the colleges and universities through our e2Campus service, so we know firsthand how well our platform can help this market.”

 
About Omnilert

Omnilert, LLC develops intuitive communication technologies that keep communities safe and connected. The company’s flagship service is a Tier-1 interactive unified mass notification system that enables a single person to communicate critical information to thousands of people anywhere, anytime, on any device or service. This affords better crisis communications, emergency management, business continuity, and disaster recovery. The award-winning company’s 6,000 clients include the U.S. Army, Bayer, Mazda, sanofi-aventis, Arizona State University, Penn State, Marine Corps Marathon, YMCA, American Red Cross, and UNICEF. Omnilert solutions are sold under the brand names e2Campus, Amerilert, and RainedOut. The privately held company is headquartered in Leesburg, Va., and at www.omnilert.com online.

Since 1999, UniversityTickets has partnered with higher education clients to design a ticketing platform that integrates seamlessly with other campus technologies, including student information databases and campus payment systems. Powering online and point of sale transactions, secure ticket and student ID validation, season ticket sales and renewals and more, the platform is in use by Northeastern University, Cornell University, McNeese State University, Colorado State University, St. Olaf College, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and hundreds of other colleges and universities across the U.S. and Canada.

“For more than a decade we’ve worked to make ticket sales easy and accessible for our college and university partners,” says Stephen Weissman, president of UniversityTickets. “Along with Mailchimp, we’ve offered our clients seamless access to a robust email marketing platform, adding another ingredient to their marketing and customer service mix.”

“When we launched the Integration Fund we aimed to prioritize development with our API for developers and third party applications that we would never be able to accomplish on our own,” said Amy Ellis, Head of Integrations and Partnerships for MailChimp. “I’m thrilled that we have been able to work with UniversityTickets and that there is now an integrated ticketing and email solution for colleges and universities.”

Event Ticket Protector insurance will be offered by UniversityTickets and provides coverage for event tickets that go unused due to illnesses, traffic accidents, car breakdowns or even flight delays.

“Despite their best intentions, sometimes customers just can’t make it to an event or concert,” said Stephen Weissman, president of UniversityTickets. “Partnering with Mondial Assistance to offer Event Ticket Protector will give customers an opportunity to recoup 100 percent of their ticket costs, including taxes and shipping. And that means happier customers for our university partners.”
Event Ticket Protector insurance, which typically costs approximately 5% of the total ticket and shipping fees, covers the ticket price, taxes and shipping up to $10,000 per ticket.
“Now consumers who purchase their tickets through UniversityTickets have the added peace of mind of knowing they are protected when they have to miss an event due to a covered reason,” said Daniel Durazo, director of communications for Mondial Assistance. “UniversityTickets customers won’t have to face the financial burden—in addition to the disappointment—of missing an event.”
Launched in 2006, Event Ticket Protector has covered nearly one billion dollars in tickets to sporting events, concerts, races, special events and more. Typical covered reasons include, but are not limited to, illness or serious injury, traffic accidents, mechanical breakdown, airline delay, employer termination, and military duty.

About UniversityTickets
UniversityTickets is a leading provider of ticketing services for Colleges and Universities. Founded in 1999 after a successful pilot at Cornell University, UniversityTickets offers simple, cost-effective ways for college and university organizations to sell tickets and collect payments via the Internet. Our products were born in a college environment and have been built from the ground up around the unique needs of college event ticketing. Headquartered in New York City, UniversityTickets is a privately-owned corporation.

About Mondial Assistance:
Mondial Assistance, part of the Allianz group of companies, is a global leader in specialty insurance and emergency assistance services. In the United States, Mondial Assistance is a brand name of World Access Service Corp., which is best known for its Access America® brand of travel insurance and assistance services. The U.S. operation, one of 29 business units, serves major travel suppliers, health insurers, credit card, and entertainment companies with insurance products, international travel assistance, and concierge services. For more information, please visit www.mondialUSA.com and follow Mondial Assistance on Twitter at twitter.com/Mondial_Assist.

At checkout, UniversityTickets clients may allow customers to enter a mobile telephone number and have their tickets sent securely and instantly. Such tickets include a unique 2D barcode which may be validated at the venue directly from the customer’s telephone screen – no printing or hard tickets required. Made possible by a newly developed 2D scanning engine for the Apple iPod touch, UniversityTickets mobile ticketing technology supports all major cellular carriers and phone hardware.

“Cell phones are as common as textbooks on a college campus,” said Gordon Capreol, UniversityTickets’ vice president for new product development. “As a company that serves colleges and universities, the development of mobile ticketing technology is a natural and exciting evolution of our service.”

2D barcode technology improves ease of scanning in high traffic situations like event admission. Compared with 1D barcodes (like a UPC code on a retail item), 2D codes are capable of error correction that allows for scanning even if the code has degraded or been poorly printed. Further, 2D codes are omnidirectional – they may be scanned from any angle or perspective, where 1D codes require a near-perfect alignment with a projected scanning line.

Available now, the UniversityTickets mobile ticketing service utilizes handheld 2D ticket validators that are reverse compatible, capable of scanning 1D codes currently used on our thermal and e-ticket prints in addition to new on-screen mobile tickets.

Since 1999, UniversityTickets has partnered with higher education clients to design a ticketing platform that integrates seamlessly with other campus technologies, including student information databases and campus payment systems. Clients include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northeastern University, Cornell University, Colorado State University, McNeese State University and others. Learn more about UniversityTickets at UniversityTickets.com.

Enabling wireless authentication of print-at-home tickets, instant validation of student IDs, and tracking of season ticket holders, the system is made possible by a custom ‘sled’ for Apple’s iPod touch. Incorporating a laser barcode scanner and magnetic stripe reader along with an extended battery, the unit is the same device used by Apple in its own retail stores.

“We are excited to offer secure, wireless e-ticketing on a device already ubiquitous on college campuses,” said Gordon Capreol, UniversityTickets’ vice president for new product development. “The iPod touch is a compelling new hardware choice for mobile ticketing software.”

For more than a decade, UniversityTickets has partnered with higher education clients to design a ticketing platform that integrates seamlessly with other campus technologies, including student information databases and campus payment systems. “Our e-ticketing app is a natural extension of these offerings because it brings a familiar, easy-to-use interface to the e-ticket validation process,” said Capreol.

Launched at the 2010 North American Association of Commencement Officers conference taking place this week in Anaheim, California, the UniversityTickets Commencement platform includes unlimited ticketing, authentication with student information and campus authentication systems, print-at-home tickets, secure, barcode-based validation, training and technical support. For ease in budgeting, the technology will be offered at an all-inclusive package price based on the size of the graduating class.

“Our technology has simplified ticketing for college entertainment, athletics and performing arts,” says Stephen Weissman, president of UniversityTickets. “Now, our platform has been tailored to meet the needs of commencement officers and graduation committees, offering an easy reservation process while maximizing ticket utilization.”

Colleges or universities interested in learning more about the commencement ticketing solution should contact UniversityTickets at (212) 204-6374 or visit universitytickets.com.