From Ticketing Support Struggles to Strategic Success

Based in a former church in Denver, Colorado, Curious Theatre Company produces thought-provoking contemporary plays. With a commitment to new voices and community engagement, the organisation has built strong relationships with patrons around intimate and impactful productions.

At Spektrix Hubs in Denver, Emily Whalen, Marketing Manager, and Katelyn Sauer, Development & Patron Services Manager, shared how working more closely with Spektrix helped their team make better use of the platform.

They spoke about staff turnover, inconsistent system use, and the need to better understand the tools already available to support marketing, fundraising, ticketing, and audience engagement. Their story shows what can happen when an organisation has the right technology and a team invested in its long-term success.

Like many theatres, Curious entered 2024 under serious financial pressure.

The organisation had been using Spektrix for nearly a decade, but the team had changed so much that few people had a clear picture of how the system was set up or how to use it strategically.

When Emily joined, she was tasked with learning how to use Spektrix and helping the wider team use it more confidently, so the platform could support their goals instead of slowing them down.

With so much change and no shared ownership of the Spektrix system within the team, key features, from digital ticket passes to Dotdigital email automation, had been sitting unused.

With guidance from the Spektrix team, they learned how to use more of the connected platform to:

• Automate email campaigns and reduce manual work.
• Shift donations from external platforms into Spektrix to retain more patron data and revenue.
• Use digital ticketing to streamline operations and improve the patron experience.

Just as importantly, they learned how to ask better questions about their goals, their data, and their patrons.

Rather than turning to Spektrix only for technical help, they learned they could work with the team as a strategic partner to clarify what they needed, what they wanted to achieve, and how to use the platform to make it happen.

That shift has helped them grow revenue, improve collaboration, and rebuild trust in the system as a foundation for stronger patron engagement.

Before the reset, Curious had more than 12 pages of reports, many of which no one understood or used. With Spektrix, they cleaned up their reports, streamlined event setup, and created processes that worked across departments. Now, connected data is helping drive day-to-day decisions across marketing, fundraising, and patron services.

Instead of relying on one person to manage the system, the shared understanding, clearer processes, and stronger ownership helped Curious build a high performance team.

Curious Theatre Company’s story shows what’s possible when organisations work with a technology partner that understands their goals and is invested in their long-term success.

By reaching out, getting support, and investing in shared learning, they moved from confusion and frustration to clarity, confidence, and stronger use of their data.

And as their mountain-themed campaign suggests, they are still climbing, but now they are doing it with the right tools, the right ticketing support, and a stronger foundation for long-term success.