A Simple Yes That Changed Everything.
Built in Dubbo, now powering events nationwide.
Watch the full interview: Powering events nationwide
What started as a simple ‘Yes, I’ll help’ with a school project for their children has grown into 123 Tix - an online ticketing platform now used at events across Australia - for Director Terry Wilcher and his wife, Caroline, the business’s CFO.
In 2014 Terry and Caroline’s children brought home a note asking parents for their assistance in the planning and organisation of a school musical.
“The idea of an online ticketing platform came from there, and with my web development background, I pitched the idea to the school of building it in as part of the musical. We wanted something that the students could run and use, and there wasn’t really a software platform that worked with the musical the way we wanted.
“We came up with the platform, and Caroline came up with the name. It started as a project to solve a real problem for the school community - and once local organisers saw it working, it quickly grew beyond that,” Terry said. As CFO, Caroline led the financial and operational foundations and supported the company’s strategic growth as it moved from local events to national scale.
At the start Terry and Caroline celebrated 100 tickets a week and their 10th event using the software.
The platform quickly gained momentum, driven by strong support from the local community and regional event organisers.
And then the pandemic hit.
“COVID was a defining period for us. Overnight, we shifted to supporting organisers through cancellations and refunds, then quickly adapted the platform to meet new check-in and compliance requirements.
Government mandates then changed, allowing people to gather in small groups, however all events and activities needed to be ticketed so attendees could be recorded and contactable should there be another outbreak.
“We were watching the news, and we realised when the QR system came out that all events would have to be ticketed. We needed to be able to handle the demand, so I rewrote the entire system during Covid to handle the increased volume of events that I thought we would be looking at.
“From there we were contacted by Service NSW who were looking for an independent ticketing company. Within a month we were fully tested, up and running and 123Tix was the first ticketing platform in NSW to support automatic voucher redemption.”
The platform has since taken off, with more than $25 million in gross ticket sales processed in 2025.
123Tix has been recognised at the Dubbo Business Chamber Rhino Awards, taking out the Gold Rhino in 2021. The team has also been recognised at the Western NSW Business Awards - including Western NSW Business of the Year in 2018 and 2022 along with Excellence in Small/Micro Business in 2018, 2019 and 2022.
Terry said Dubbo was a central location for the business and had also given the company valuable insight into what regional event organisers were looking for.
“We are focused on easy solutions for event organisers on site and have become a one-stop-shop when it comes to the ticketing. In regional Australia, connectivity can be the biggest risk on event day. That’s why we often bring a full on-site connectivity solution - including Starlink and local networking - to make sure organisers are covered.
“Dubbo is our home, and we have a strong footprint here, but we are really passionate about regional areas as a whole.
“We are continually looking forward, and we have exciting things coming this year, including a way that will allow donations to be given to a charity of your choice – not just in the event space, but wider. We want to be a regionally based organisation that keeps the money in the region of the group they are raising funds for.
The team are also building international opportunities, with the software recently licenced for use in the UK and launched at a small scale in 2025, partnering with a UK company that runs a show management business.
“It’s all our technology run under their brand in the UK, and it’s given us the opportunity to develop the software to launch anywhere around the world,” Terry said.
Terry and Caroline said there were so many opportunities in the Dubbo region, people just needed to think beyond the boundaries.
Caroline said Dubbo’s connectivity and central location make it possible to build a national business from the regions, while still enjoying a strong sense of community and belonging.
“Being part of our region and community is so important to us as is giving back and investing in our community. The question shouldn’t be Why Dubbo? it should be Why Not Dubbo?”
“The future of regional business isn’t competition between towns, it’s collaboration across them,” Caroline said.
Terry said local people genuinely celebrate others’ wins, and the support 123Tix received when it reached its 50,000th event was “strong and inspiring” across social media and LinkedIn.
For 123Tix, that collaboration is what helps regional events thrive — and what makes it possible to build scalable businesses from places like Dubbo.
To connect with the 123Tix Team: 123TIX Website
Explore more stories from our region, view our webpage: regionontherise.com.au