Pollstar + VenuesNow 2022 Women Of Live: Cynthia Parsons

Lyte
Director of Concierge Services

Like many leading figures in the live biz, Cynthia Parsons’ career can be traced back to Bill Graham.

Parsons, who today serves as director of concierge services for digital ticketing and reservations platform Lyte, joined Bill Graham Presents in 1987, spending the next 13 years in the company’s artist management division, where she worked with the likes of Aaron Neville, Eddie Money, Joe Satriani and The Neville Brothers.

In 2003, Parsons joined fellow Graham expat and “MF Ticket Queen” Shelley Lazar at the latter’s SLO VIP Services, working for the next 17 years as director of its Concierge Services division. (Ticketmaster acquired SLO in 2008.) Weeks before COVID-19 halted touring, Lyte enlisted Parsons for her expertise.

“Having joined Lyte just as the live industry shut down due to COVID-19, it was mostly a time of development for me due to the lack of live events,” she says. “I worked closely with several of my talented colleagues to help establish additional product solutions such as Concierge ticketing and Artist Touring ticketing (“Guest Reservations”), which complements Lyte’s existing product suite and mission to fill every seat and make tickets accessible and flexible.”

With touring back, Parsons has seen the fruits of her labor as “Lyte has ramped up to pre-pandemic levels.” The company’s business keeps expanding, from new product offerings to a growing staff worldwide.

“Fans are beginning to feel more safe in attending live events, and our requests across our platform, including Concierge, have increased in the first quarter of 2022,” she says.

In the months ahead, Parsons is focused on continuing her work expanding Lyte’s Concierge and Guest Reservations products “while acknowledging that a lot of the ‘magic’ of these offerings is the ability to feel and be treated like an insider – and sometimes that is best done one-on-one, person-to-person.” For Parsons, the “white-glove approach” is critical in helping to “create an enjoyable experience from end-to-end.”

Through it all, she explains, “Lyte’s mission remains the same: to put fans in seats, with real tickets at great prices, while bringing modern, flexible e-commerce principles to the live event space.”