Marcato Digital Solutions, the Sydney company that provides administrative software for music festivals, celebrated its 10th anniversary last month and outlined plans to further capitalize on the rise of major music events.
The company’s 13 staff members held a party to mark a decade in business, noting that it has overseen more than 1,500 events around the world and paid $6 million in wages since its inception. Marcato now caters to more than 330 clients in 26 countries. As well as some of the world’s largest music festivals, the company’s clients include such events as the X Games, the Country Music Association Awards and Edmonton Pride.
And Marcato is planning to grow further, adding functionality to its software and attracting more festivals and events to its customer base.
“We continue to scale our team to meet the demand that we see in the industry,” Chief Operating Officer Natasha Hillier said in an interview.
Co-Founders Morgan Currie and CEO Darren Gallop established the company in 2008 with the goal of providing an integrated administrative tool for musicians and music festivals. The thinking was that artists and organizers need digital tools to help with the administrative side of their businesses so they can focus on the artistic side. The main thrust of Marcato’s business is now providing admin tools for festivals, which have grown in number and size around the world and involve complex operational demands.
In the past few years, Gallop has become more involved with a new business, Securicy, which provides corporations with a system the ensures they are compliant with the cybersecurity standards of their clients. Meanwhile, Hillier joined the Marcato team in 2011 and now oversees the day-to-day business.
As the company has added customers, it has also added features to the platform and will continue to do so, helping its clients to improve efficiency and save money.
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One recent addition, said Hillier, is a feature that helps festival organizers provide catering. Festivals commonly provide meals for their staff and volunteers, who are often on duty on different days or time-slots. The Marcato platform notes when each staff member and volunteer is on duty so the organizers know how much food to order and prepare each day. Staff members’ swipe cards will only let them in the catering areas when they’re on duty. In total, this can save the festival money on its meals.
Hillier said these are the sort of features that the team has built on to the Marcato platform, and it will continue to add to the solution to attract more clients.
She added the company has only “scratched the surface” in its potential market as there are more and more festivals being launched around the world all the time. Though the current clients include such major musical events as Coachella and Bonnaroo, the company is also helping young festivals expand.
“There’s definitely a lot of space to grow,” she said. “There are festivals popping up every day and we have features that address the needs of some of the smaller festivals.”