From May 16 to May 26, StubHub and eBay are teaming up to host an instrumental art auction, with all proceeds benefitting the Musical Youth Foundation at the 7^th annual Dublin City Soul Festival. As one of StubHub’s Rising Stars, the Musical Youth Foundation is dedicated to providing every child on the Island of Ireland with access to a musical education.

StubHub’s Rising Stars program supports non-profits that are improving access and opportunity for at-risk youth through sports and the arts. The program goes beyond funding support to pair non-profits with employee talent and other company resources.

“We are proud and excited to work with the Musical Youth Foundation to host a charity auction on their behalf,” said StubHub Customer Support Supervisor Emma Jean Reay, one of the employee volunteers helping to spearhead this program. “Working with our eBay colleagues and leveraging eBay’s own platform to help raise the funds makes this project that much more rewarding.”

Musical Youth Foundation Founder and Chief Executive Chris Maher said, “We are thrilled to be working with StubHub and eBay to help us raise funds in a unique new way, giving even more children in Ireland access to music education and all its many life-changing benefits.”

The auction has already begun so bid now! Head to www.stubhubcharityauctions.co.uk and check out the selection of pieces from the charity’s Instrumental Art collection, including the ‘Guitar of Note’ by billioneurohouse.com artist Frank Buckley (pictured above). The guitar, donated by Buckley, is covered in decommissioned euro currency and is just one of ten unique pieces going for online auction as part of the festival.

Managed by AEG Facilities, the $150 million, 125-acre site includes a 27,000-seat soccer stadium, 8,000-seat tennis stadium, 2,450-seat indoor velodrome and 2,000-seat track and field facility. It is located on the campus of California State University, Dominguez Hills, in Carson, CA.

”As leaders in the ticketing industry, providing the highest levels of customer satisfaction and as an increasingly popular consumer brand, this partnership is groundbreaking for our company,” said Danielle Maged, global head of partnerships and business development at StubHub. ”At StubHub, we have an unyielding focus on the fan experience and with our partners at AEG, we intend for StubHub Center to be the embodiment of that focus as we work to create one of the most fan-friendly stadiums in the world.”

StubHub plans to transform the live event experience at StubHub Center, including on-site interactive fan experiences activities and top-notch customer service. In addition to MLS,  StubHub Center  will also be home to world-class competition and training facilities for amateur, Olympic, collegiate and professional athletes. It is an official U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Site and the training center for the United States Soccer Federation, the United States Tennis Association and USA Cycling.

Photo: StubHub Center.  Credit: German Alegria, AEG

StubHub has launched All Access, its new externally facing corporate blog. Designed to capture the stories and experiences of all things StubHub, All Access will become the source where fans can discover, access and share StubHub news, information, technology previews, conversations, sneak-peeks, features, promotions, etc. all in one media-rich location.

Like eBay, StubHub is inherently social. It is a company built on social experiences. The StubHub marketplace is a catalyst for positive memories and emotional connections – whether it be through sports, music or theater. You can find them on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn. The StubHub Ticket Oak has his own Facebook page and you can check out their StubHub UK Facebook, StubHub UK Twitter, and StubHub UK Google+ pages too. Until today though, there hasn’t been a hub; a central location for all of these connections and discussions to live and grow.

StubHub wants to create a network that connects fans with one another; a destination that highlights all the new and innovative things we’re introducing for their fans.

We’re excited to see what the StubHub team has in store!

“Imagine if the next LeBron, Michael Oher or Beyoncé never had the opportunity to pick up a basketball, football or instrument as a child,” said Chris Tsakalakis, the Chief Executive of StubHub. “Yet vital community music, theater and sports programs for youth are falling on the chopping block today. That is why Rising Stars will focus StubHub’s philanthropy where we see the greatest need: underserved, at-risk youth and locally rooted, grassroots nonprofits.”

With New Orleans in the spotlight as Super Bowl XLVII approaches, the inaugural Rising Star award and initial $50,000 grant has been awarded to a nonprofit there. The Roots of Music Foundation aims to support, teach, and protect at-risk youth through music education, academic support, and mentorship while preserving and promoting New Orleans’ musical heritage. (In January, the Roots of Music  Marching Crusaders became the youngest marching band to perform in the Rose Parade in Pasadena, Calif.)

The Rising Stars award is designed to have a transformative impact on both the programs and the youth they serve. Benefits of selection into the Rising Stars program include grant support (starting at $25,000) from the StubHub Foundation (a corporate advised fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation), exposure to StubHub’s international network of sports, music and theater fans, and access to StubHub employee talent through skills-based volunteerism and dedicated service projects.

Watch a video about The Roots of Music, below. For every view of this film before Super Bowl Sunday, the StubHub Foundation will donate $1 to the Roots of Music, up to $50,000.

Read more about Rising Stars: http://www.stubhub.com/rising-stars/

More about The Roots of Music: http://www.stubhub.com/roots-of-music/

Raji Arasu is a role model for women. Not only is she a female engineer, but she is also an executive, currently serving as Chief Technology Officer at StubHub.  That’s a pretty rare role, given that women currently make up 25 percent of the technology industry and fill only 9 percent of executive roles in the field – and these numbers have been in decline for the past two years.

Being a female technology executive is “sort of a lonely world,” she tells the Daily Muse. “In technology, there are fewer women than there are in business organizations, and there are even fewer women in senior roles.”

Raji didn’t always want to be an engineering executive. Like many children, she had lots of different childhood aspirations, ranging from teacher to astronaut. It wasn’t until she went to Pune University of Engineering that Raji discovered the exciting world of computer science and realized it was her professional calling. At school, Raji noticed the gender gap in her field from the start, but she didn’t let it scare her.

Starting her career as a software engineer at Oracle, Raji served as director of engineering at marchFIRST before joining eBay in 2001. This was a time of exciting innovation and growth for the company, and she helped tackle problems involving scalability, traffic and payments in the rapidly evolving world of ecommerce. She now creates personalized and intuitive experiences for millions of StubHub users.

The Daily Muse recently sat down with Raji to talk about her experiences as a woman in tech and to hear the important lessons she’s had to learn on her way up the ladder. Check out the full interview at their website.

The two companies said Monday eBay’s StubHub will become the exclusive secondary ticketing solution for AEG venues and the company’s AXS ticketing platform, forming the centerpiece of a global, multi-platform partnership.

As part of the deal, StubHub also becomes the official fan-to-fan ticket marketplace for the Los Angeles Galaxy and the Los Angeles Kings, as well as for over 30 global AEG venues, such as the Staples Center in Los Angeles, the Sprint Center in Kansas City, MO, and the Best Buy Theater in Times Square.

Further solidifying eBay Inc.’s relationship with AEG, PayPal will become the preferred method of payment for AXS and GSI Commerce will work with AEG to provide e-commerce solutions for AEG companies, such as bandmerch.com.

“Technology is revolutionizing commerce, and eBay Inc. is working with leading companies around the world to use our platforms to bring innovative new experiences to consumers,” said Devin Wenig, president of eBay global marketplaces. “Integrating our technology platforms with AEG is a natural fit for eBay Inc., and allows our companies to give fans nearly unprecedented access to the events, performers and athletes they love.”

Read more about the deal over at StubHub’s Tumblr.

Excitement over the World Series is at fever pitch, especially in San Francisco, home of the Giants — and of StubHub!

Stubhub search traffic for Giants World Series tickets is up about 20 percent over search levels during the 2010 World Series, StubHub spokeswoman Joellen Ferrer told the San Francisco Business Times. Standing-room tickets for Wednesday’s game were going for $350.

Ferrer also advised that Giants fans consider buying tickets for Games 6 and 7 now, in case the Detroit Tigers rally and draw out the series. Buyers will be refunded if the games don’t happen, she told the Mercury-News, but will avoid soaring prices if they do.

A KTVU feature also showed StubHubbers in their offices in Connecticut and San Francisco, discussing the ticket rush and their own favorite teams.

“Part of the allure of working at StubHub — this year’s winner of the Courant/FOX CT Top Workplaces competition among midsize employers — is that the job puts the staff in a business they love. They’re dealing with tickets to events they care about, not, say, curtain rods from a catalog discounter,” reports the Hartford Courant.

StubHub employs more than 200 people in its East Granby office, mostly in customer services. Employees cite a supportive environment where they feel valued, empowered and can express their individuality. A fun office with foosball, pingpong and basketball doesn’t hurt, either — nor does the four-week sabbatical that all eBay Inc. full-time employees get after five years of service. StubHub also encourages employees to attend events to understand the fan experience, the Courant notes.

Check out the video report, featuring StubHub’s own Marty Pelosi:

Going to see your favorite band or team is one of the great social events you can experience with friends, but up until now, coordinating has proved a bit of a headache. With StubHub Go Together, fans can now organize going to a concert or sporting event, all from one easy location.

Check out this quick video to find out more…

With “Split with friends,” you can invite friends to go with you via Facebook or email, collect the payment from them through PayPal and talk about the event ahead of time – all in one place. I just used this for a baseball game last week for me and eight friends to see the SF Giants edge closer to the postseason. It was a snap!

With “Go with friends,” you can find friends who may want to join you at an event using Facebook and email, give them options to vote on where they want to sit, how much they want to spend and who else joins them. As someone who organizes group outings on a regular basis, I’m excited to put this feature through its paces.

Bottom line, going to an event is inherently a fun, social experience, but the process of getting everyone together ahead of time can be tedious. Our goal is to alleviate some of that pain and make the whole experience as smooth and seamless as possible. In the relatively short time I’ve been here at StubHub HQ, it’s clear that this is a feeling that is shared company-wide. Every colleague I’ve met so far is a fan through and through (that’s what attracted a lot of them to StubHub in the first place), and we’re excited to enhance the fan experience through initiatives like this.

Behind The Scenes
In September 2011, eBay acquired The Gifts Project, a social commerce platform that powers online group gifting. We originally used The Gifts Project to power eBay Group Gifts, and they have since evolved into the eBay Israel Social Center (ISC), working to help power unique social commerce experiences. There are many folks here at StubHub that have been instrumental in making today’s launch happen, and it is through our strong collaboration with the eBay ISC team we have been able to deliver the Go Together experience to our users. The partnership has bridged multiple time zones and business groups and I, for one, am very much looking forward to working together in the future.

Cheers!
RBH
@StubHubRBH

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