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Why Carbonhouse Really Gets Big Event Venues

Finding a niche in the business world is entrepreneurial gold. Local design shop Carbonhouse is on its way to carving out websites for large event facilities, like Bobcats Arena, as a niche all their own, and with style no less.

Whipping out sleek website after sleek website for big event venues is becoming a habit for these guys. It all started when Charlotte regained an NBA franchise. The Bobcats came to town, they needed an arena to play in, and that arena needed a website. And not just a snazzy, sit there and look pretty website either, although they had that covered.

“The client knew that they wanted some things very specific to the events and arena business. They needed to account for several showings, specific calendar demands, and multiple tenants” said Brandon Uttley, Partner/President of Carbonhouse. Listening and producing a quality product for the Bobcats Arena was step one in finding their niche.

During development of the Bobcats Arena website, a partnership was forming of which no one was aware. Brandon Lucas, who at the time was the Director of Marketing for Bobcats Arena, was so satisfied with Carbonhouse and their end product, that he began to recognize the value it would hold for other like venues.

“I was motivated by the environment, passion and values of the Carbonhouse team,” said Lucas. Previously working as VP of Marketing for Clear Channel Entertainment, Lucas knew the event venue business and he saw the Carbonhouse website as a high value tool that could be marketed throughout the industry.

He gently nudged the Cardonhouse crew, at first, to take this solution to the masses. That nudge eventually grew into sitdown between Lucas and Carbonhouse, discussing the real potential of the product. Lucas left Bobcats Arena, joined Carbonhouse as Partner/Business Director, and together they set in motion what is now branded as VenuElements.

Now all they had to do was sell it to other event venues, arenas, amphitheaters, performing arts centers and so on. Starting January of last year, Carbonhouse got some marketing materials together and started pitching the concept. It took six months before any clients began to arrive at their doorstep. But once the faucet began to drip, the volume has quickly grown. “It went from nothing to fast and furious,” said Uttley.

Carbonhouse sold VenuElements not just as a content management template for a website, but as a personalized solution for venues, the success of which came from their expertise. “It is less about the Content Management itself per se, and more about a deep understanding of their business because we spent time in their shoes. No other firm in the country has that empathy,” said Lucas.

Carbonhouse has finished five custom website solutions through this model: Bobcats Arena and Blumenthal Performing Arts Center in Charlotte, the Sprint Center in Kansas City, the Target Center in Minneapolis, Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Atlanta and the Prudential Center in Newark.

Quick to point out that each website solution is completely custom and not a template, Carbonhouse gives the same attention to each venue that they originally gave to the Bobcats Arena. “Each venue is a different puzzle. They all have a different setup, different priorities,” said Uttley. Through a fortuitous series of events, Carbonhouse has this particular puzzle down to a science.

“We know what its like marketing and producing entertainment and sporting events. All of our sites (facility vs. non-facility) are custom developed, but the facilities have key functionality behind the scenes that is specific to their needs,” Said Lucas.

These guys know what they are doing with websites. The quality of what they produce is one of the best in Charlotte in my opinion, so its great to see their client roster doing well. We look forward to featuring more of their work, venues or otherwise.

Carbonhouse continues to steadily build their big name roster of event venues, currently working on over five more projects, including TicketStarOnline in Green Bay, the RBC Center in Raleigh, Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, CA and Kemper Arena in Kansas City, among others.