Tour bookers get helping hand with new online services

Two new websites hoping to make the process of scheduling tours easier for theatre companies and venues have been launched within as many weeks. Farnham Maltings went live with tour-finder.org on 4 November, shortly followed by the launch of the beta version of an online tour-booking service, gobo, by an entrepreneur who was awarded a loan from the government-backed Start Up Loan Company to set up her service.

tour-finder.org aims to make it easier for venue programmers to find work for their seasons and to help artists book further-reaching tours. Touring companies can post free listings with details of their tour-ready productions, giving information on target audiences, accessibility and technical specifications, as well as press and film footage. No charges will be made for searching the site. 

Gavin Stride, Director of Farnham Maltings, stressed that the site is “not a replacement for the sheer graft of booking a tour”. He explained: “Our hope is that tour-finder will make it slightly easier for programmers to find what work is touring when and for companies to add to their existing dates, perhaps finding extra dates to make a tour more viable or to introduce venues new to their work.” Farnham Maltings resourced the creation of the site itself, and plans for it to be self-sustaining. Stride told AP: “The website has been designed to be low maintenance with a staff member using minimal time to approve listings and manage enquiries.”

The future development of tour-finder.org is planned to include increased search criteria, but how this will be funded will be decided following a period of evaluation of the site’s impact on tour booking in England. Stride continued: “If deemed successful and useful to the sector, we may look to fundraise for the development of the site through a trust and foundation or through a crowd-funding campaign to ensure its kept free and open to all those looking to tour.”

The launch of the tour-finder service came just days before the beta launch of another new online tour-booking service, gobo, developed by young entrepreneur and theatre professional Camilla Halford. As well as providing venue and artist profiles, gobo offers a UK-wide service that hopes to “unlock unused spaces” and provide a “digital relationship brokerage service… to help both sides communicate with each other more meaningfully”. Her service is being launched in response to her own frustration at the difficulties venues face when trying to find the right shows for their audiences, and for theatre makers looking for appropriate venues.

Although gobo will deliver mainly paid-for services, Halford is introducing new ways of helping organisations to pay. She told AP: “…as a theatre maker myself, I keep in mind that theatre-makers are often low on cash and have awkward cash-flow.” Access to gobo involves a monthly fee, but there are also seven non-cash ways to access the service, from paying with tickets or in-kind hours using time-banking platform Echo, to “good old-fashioned bartering”.

“I absolutely believe in public funding,” said Halford. “However, I also think there are other ways of seeing our own worth and of working as a community to support each other so that we are all paid fairly for everyone we work for and for everything we offer. I think it is important that the government fund the arts through the Arts Council, but I also believe that isn't the only way and we shouldn't always look towards the Arts Council to solve all our funding needs, especially when alternative currencies can offer us so much more.”