Over the past two months, the world has been united and consumed by the COVID-19 global pandemic. The massive disruption to the live experience economy has been devastating and relentless. The daily challenges can feel insurmountable and yet there is a bright light of resilience in our community.

Eventbrite was founded with the vision of enabling you to be successful. Through these challenging times, our mission remains constant: to bring the world together through live experiences. While we may not be face-to-face today, the desire for human connection is stronger than ever, and we see this desire matched by the entire creator community. 

We stand with you.

Very early on in this crisis, we mobilised our team to help you respond to this unprecedented time. We launched programs, resources, and product features tailored to your most urgent needs during this crisis including:

• • A flexible refund program, which included a partnership with Gift Up! that has enabled you to sell gift cards to support your business or offer as an alternative to refunds
  • The ability to receive donations from your communities and promote your GoFundMe pages

With the knowledge that there is more work to be done in the weeks and months ahead, we remain up for the challenge and committed wholly to the live experience community. We will continue to roll out the programs and product features you need to navigate this new normal.  Your feedback and partnership have been critically important to us through this time.

We’re inspired by you.

You have adapted in brilliant ways to reflect the realities of our new world, and we know this hasn’t been easy. Many of you are independent businesses, and while running a business is always difficult, these are unprecedented times requiring extraordinary effort. We’ve worked to adapt our business alongside you as we all move from offline to online experiences. Many of you have successfully migrated your events online with videos and live streams through our partnerships with Zoom, Vimeo and YouTube, powering nearly 20,000 online events per day in April. You inspire us and we will continue to build stronger products with flexibility that allow you to effectively respond to this ever-changing environment. 

We will lead the return to live events, together.

Gathering in real life will come back because it’s an innate human need. But it won’t come back all at once. There is no denying that the COVID-19 crisis will accelerate structural shifts in the live events industry. We know that to rebuild your business in a changed world, you will need cost-effective and easy-to-deploy solutions. That’s why we’re focusing on building products that will enable you to efficiently create and manage events, reach new audiences, and sell more tickets. We think of our platform as an extension of your team, and together, we will empower your success, no matter how your events take shape in the future. 

Yesterday, we announced the path forward for Eventbrite in strategy, financial security, and commitment to our community. We are here to stay and will be your partner in rebuilding your business as the live experience economy opens over time.

We can’t predict when the global outbreak will pass, but we take comfort in knowing that gathering together for live experiences is a staple of society. Together, we will move through this turbulent time to see thousands of people come together again. Countless live experiences will happen, and Eventbrite will be there to enable you with efficiency, innovation, and heart.