In 2016, two brothers, Mezzy and Moss Belkessam, had an idea. What if they built a platform that made it easier for event organizers to track and sell tickets?
The Belkessam brothers were working in the nightclub industry at the time, and they were ready to bring their experience to the next level. So they asked their childhood friend, Asad Ali, who has a computer science background, to join them in building it and from there the tech that would soon become Event Nation grew.
From waiting in line to having the time of your life, Event Nation is working to make tracking event-goers’ experiences easier by helping venue owners and event planners monitor sales and track audience engagement.
The program tracks what users are buying, monitors which tickets are selling the best, and works to increase event engagement across web platforms.
Ali, who is now Event Nation’s senior vice president, works alongside Sammy Kassim, the company’s president, and Brittany Hill, the creative director. All three met while they were in school at George Mason University.
Event Nation’s software has three components to help venue owners and events planners: event features, table tools and the box office.
“While, a lot of people were getting ready to go out, we as a team were already suited up and ready for the events,” said Ali. “While we’re there, we are making sure the software works and that our clients have support.”
The team is also on-site to ensure that the technology runs smoothly and that venue owners have assistance.
The event features include websites and event pages, promotional tools and brand integration. It allows clients to create flash sales for tickets and gear, make digital coupons, track ticket sales and send custom SMS messages to ticket buyers.
“We look at ourselves as a company that wants to know everything about the customer,” said Ali. “We build custom websites for a lot of the venues that we work with and they’re able to track a lot of the consumer behavior.”
The table tools component enables event-goers to reserve tables in real-time and split purchases with their friends. This component also allows hosts to manage and analyze data from the event. Revenue, deductions, and associated transactions data are compiled in a single report. Event Nation’s software works to prevent fraudulent charges by eliminating high risk orders with advanced customer identification verification.
The last component — the box office — focuses on ticket sales and upgrades. The software allows clients to process most world currencies from customers. Event hosts can also record cash sales and comps, and track data in real-time from any mobile device. Tickets can be scanned and verified without wifi.
Event Nation’s popularity has grown since its 2016 launch and certain days of the year require all hands on deck. One of the company's biggest clients is Bliss, a nightclub in Northeast D.C.
“New Year's Eve is our Super Bowl,” Ali said. “We have hundreds of thousands of dollars in tickets being processed the day of.”
The company, while still based in D.C., has teams in the District, New Orleans, Miami, Charlotte and Atlanta has plans to expand to New York and Las Vegas in 2019.
"The nightlife, live performance, and even festival experience in D.C. is so unique we see it being copied in other cities," said Ali. "While we will continue to expand aggressively across the country, D.C. will always be our home."
