Migrating from Manual Processes to Event Management Software for Music Festivals

Music festival organisers have traditionally used manual processes to plan and implement their events, but these can be time consuming and prone to errors. The emergence of advanced event management software is improving every aspect of managing a music festival, but how should organisers plan their migration from manual processes to a software platform.

Manual processes can work reasonably well for small events with low attendance but as soon as it experiences growth, the manual processes become stretched, increasing operational risk. The use of spreadsheets and word documents on shared drives, disconnected group chats, and the reliance on vast amounts of knowledge retained by key operational staff exposes the organisation to risk. With an increase in event size and complexity, it can become extremely challenging to perform operations effectively. Using an integrated event management software platform can improve operational control, transparency, compliance, and enhance festival-goer experiences. Organisers considering moving from manual processes to event management software should plan well with a timeline that can take up to 12 months to successfully migrate everything.

Documenting Current Manual Processes.
Before considering any migration, organisers should document their current workflows to enable them to correctly assess migration requirements. This can typically include festival site planning, the accreditation process plus artist, volunteer, vendor, contractor, and sponsor management. Other key processes that may require documenting can include budgetary control, contract management, riders and tech specs, transport logistics, and health and safety compliance. It can also be useful to identify where current bottlenecks exist, and delays caused by manual approvals or where most errors typically occur, for example.

Migration Benefits.
If a music festival has been operating for a number of years, it can build vast volumes of data, spreadsheets, and documents which may not be arranged in any logical format or sequence. This can cause confusion for staff who may not know which version they should be using. Manual processes can make third party coordination difficult with slow accreditation and approval processes. A manual system will always make budgetary control, auditing, and compliance challenging. A good event management software system gives organisers a single source for all their event operations and simplifies workflow processes with increased automation and real time reporting dashboards. Event software enables the smooth integration of ticketing, accreditation, and third-party management (artists, contractors, and vendors). With everything controlled in one place, everyone has real time access to the information and data they need, improving communication and visibility, and reducing administrative workloads.

Building the Migration Plan.
Selecting the appropriate platform is key, and it should closely fit the identified existing workflow processes. The operational requirements should include scheduling and workflow management along with the ability to hold key personal credentials and permissions. Management of event safety and compliance is always a priority, so emergency planning and incident reporting capability is essential. Other key integration requirements can include managing third party contracts and festival-goer management of tickets, cashless payments, and customer service workflows. All existing manual data should be thoroughly cleaned to ensure only high-quality up-to-date data is migrated to a new platform. This can include removal of duplicates and incomplete records, plus ensuring that GDPR permissions are current. Planning staff and third-party training is a key part of the migration planning process, so organisers need to identify individuals who will receive training along with measurable objectives for adoption of a new platform.

Platform Selection.
There are a number of options available for festival organisers to consider when migrating from manual processes to an event management software platform. For the festival sector, the leading solution from Festival Pro includes every aspect of festival operations and logistics. Other alternatives can be more generic project management, dedicated venue or workforce management systems. There are also some more specialised software applications that focus on particular processes like accreditation or volunteer management, but they do not provide capabilities for every festival operation and workflow. Other key considerations can include the ability to scale from small events to large scale festivals and mobile integration plus an offline capability. Finally, the cost of ownership is always an overriding consideration which must be weighed against the ongoing costs of continued use of manual systems and processes measured in time and accuracy lost.

Phased Migration.
It is not wise to move every manual process over to a new software system on one go, and it makes better sense to phase any integration. In addition, if resources allow, organisers can consider running a new event management software system in parallel with existing manual processes as a backup. Typical priorities for the phased migration plan is to move low risk functions first like contact databases, document management and contractor records. This can be followed up by operational functions like accreditation, volunteer management, and production scheduling. Festival critical functions like command centre reporting, vendor management, incident reporting and asset tracking would follow and lastly are advanced integrations like ticketing, cashless payments, crowd monitoring and sustainability reporting for example.

Common Risks.
A music festival operation that has been operating for a number of years with the same team members can sometimes meet resistance to change. It is essential to involve all operational staff in the whole planning and migration process whilst demonstrating the benefits to them. Where an event management software system offers comprehensive functionality, it can be tempting for organisers to demand customisation to suit their specific needs. This can lead to increased complexity, and organisers should try and adopt their processes and workflows to what the software offers, these are usually industry standards that are used by the majority of music festival entities.

For festival organisers planning their next event using a software management platform like Festival Pro gives them all the functionality they need manage every aspect of their event logistics. The guys who are responsible for this software have been in the front line of event management for many years and the features are built from that experience and are performance artists themselves. The Festival Pro platform is easy to use and has comprehensive features with specific modules for managing artists, contractors, venues/stages, vendors, volunteers, sponsors, guestlists, ticketing, site planning, cashless payments and contactless ordering.

Image by geralt via Pixabay

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