Stefan Debattista | Step right up and get your tickets here

You launched www.showshappening.com last week. What does it do?

ShowsHappening.com is a site that I hope everyone in Malta will begin to see around, and love to use to easily buy tickets for all sorts of events, shows, meetings and groups in Malta. Events can range from a parties and festivals to private lessons or pilates sessions. Event organisers can manage their events from a dashboard that shows them everything they need to know about ticket sales for the event - including information about guest list, VIP tickets, or even shop outlets and ticket runners and more. We collect payment from the ticket buyers in a hassle-free kind of way (and yes, ShowsHappening also works on tablets and phones - none of that pesky flash code on this domain). We then email the attendee his/her ticket and receipt for their adventure ahead. Our rates are extremely competitive too.

What inspired you to create www.showshappening.com? 

It was all a little bit of luck and serendipity actually. I saw an advert for ShowsHappening when it was in its very basic stages and saw that there we some improvements that could be made. I got in touch with the contact person who turned out to be an old teacher from MCAST, though I didn't realize this until he told me just before we met in person.

That same week my dad had also complained that it took him an hour to buy a ticket from the Manoel Theatre site... so I proposed to Mark Farrugia that we could build ShowsHappening together. It took one screenshot to show him what I thought we could do and we started building it immediately!

We work really well as a team as with him focusing on the development side of things while I take care of the business side. The complete team now comprises of myself, Mark Farrugia, Tomas Janovsky and Mark Camilleri.

What major players have started to sell their tickets on www.showshappening.com? 

We launched the site selling Privé Memberships, Bunker 909 tickets, Sailing Charters and The Bubble Festival and are very excited about some of the people we are already talking to!

 What makes it easier for the person looking for tickets?

When buying a ticket from ShowsHappening a ticket buyer knows that we have a safe payment solution. Our dashboard can also be used to manage your tickets by reprinting or forwarding any of the tickets you've bought to your friends. And of course, you can do this all from your sofa!

Why use this site and not go direct to the ticket buyers?

If event organisers went straight to ticket buyers then they would have to pay for the development for a website and maintain it. There are also some fees that we are able to bring down like payment gateway or merchant account fees, as our volumes are larger than an individual party. This means that our 4% commission is more than made up for by the services we offer.

What makes it easier for the person organising events?

Event organisers can use our dashboard to have full control of the sales of tickets to their event. They can even set up shops or ticket runners to sell physical tickets and accept cash. We're also coming up for some really cool ways to better the communication between organisers and attendees before, during and after the event!

 How did you get into the website business?

It was just an idea that I decided to try and fulfill. I bounced off my initial idea for 8am (a social network for jobs) off a few people and it seemed to hit a spot. So I decided to go for it.

 This is not the first website your has set up. www.8am.com.mt was set up in 2012. How has it grown since its inception?

8am has been doing real well, its forever growing, in the past 18 months since we launched it, we've processed 4,874 applications for jobs - which is awesome. The best thing is when we hear of people who have found work through the site! Right now we are working on a brand new version of the site and can't wait to launch that.

How is 8am different to other recruitment sites out there?

8am aims to be a showcase for employers and candidates - a showcase for them to demonstrate why they are so great. We feel that the technology available today allows someone to showcase themselves in a better way than a CV can. These are the main principles with which we are building the new 8am.

How do you see the future of the company? Any other ideas for new websites?

Between my team and me we always have ideas for websites. I share progress onto my Facebook page and the results are extraordinary really because people take interest, help by testing out early versions of the software and providing feedback which we seriously take into consideration before launching the final product.

Right now it just a matter of prioritising these two sites and getting them settled. For the moment I'd rather see the companies scale internationally than add more products.