US-based non-profit Inspire Aviation has a mission to help people learn about aviation as a career or hobby through its summer events season. Its showcase event is the Props and Pistons Festival, which takes off in Ohio every August.
At this event the goal is to provide educational opportunities to people of all ages about aviation and STEM through expert talks and an impressive array of historic, military and commercial aircraft displays.
A complex event planned efficiently
The Props and Pistons Festival is a complex two-day event to organize. It consists of an airshow, carshow, STEM educational areas, flight simulators, kids zone, vendors, not to mention the helicopter rides. That’s a lot to plan to ensure the event runs smoothly.
Brad Clinton is the Displays Coordinator. He uses OnePlan to ensure the layout of the event is planned accurately for the wide range of activities that take place, and ensures pre-event scenario planning will ensure the safety of the 5,000 attendees.
“There’s a lot to manage to make this event run efficiently,” Brad says. “OnePlan has helped tremendously with our general layout of vendors, food trucks, tents, barricades, static ramp aircraft, restrooms, and our carshow.”
‘Super simple’ to plan aviation events
One of the great aspects of Brad’s plan is all the aircraft plotted on the event site. In total, there are 28 airplanes carefully positioned to allow attendees to walk amongst them and experience them up close.
The historic, military and commercial aircraft at the Props and Pistons Festival include a C-17 Globemaster III, CH-47, TBM Avenger, C-123K Thunder Pig, B-25, the Goodyear Blimp, and so many more displays.
“OnePlan makes static aircraft ramp planning a breeze,” Brad says. “It’s super simple to resize aircraft and figure out the best way to move forward.”
With 14 crowd areas, 16 walking routes and 5 parking areas on the plan, Brad’s grateful for the flexibility OnePlan gives him to hide and re-position objects on the map. “Being able to turn on and off select items helps to declutter the overall layout. It’s very easy to use.”
“By far the best feature is the simplicity of scaling objects on the overall layout map. It makes layout planning a breeze,” Brad adds.
Sharing event plans internally and externally
Throughout the planning process, Brad shares his plan with many colleagues at InspireAviation and people external to the organization. As an event management tool, OnePlan has a suite of collaboration tools that make sharing easy – including view-only links, exporting the plan, and Team workspaces to collaborate in real-time.
Brad continues, “OnePlan is used by many people in our organization. The Airshow Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Displays Coordinator, Logistics Coordinator, and more, they all use OnePlan and add input to the plan.”
For an event of this scale, with certain security protocols required, it’s key that the ‘living plan’ for this community event can be shared in the months, weeks and days leading up to the event. “Externally, we share our OnePlan with the local Fire Department, the Police Department, and other local authorities. It means everyone is aligned and helps to reduce our risks.”
Brad adds, “We’ve got lots of stakeholders and OnePlan means we collaborate better than ever with them. They can view the plan, give feedback, and it’s easy for us to make changes in the moment.”
"We’ve got lots of stakeholders and OnePlan means we collaborate better than ever with them."
Brad Clinton
Displays Coordinator, InspireAviation
A time and money saver
Risk reduction is one of the many benefits Brad cites from using OnePlan. It allows for a more thorough, accurate and collaborative way of planning than before. And there are other benefits the Props and Pistons Festival gets too.
“OnePlan saves us a ton of time. We can plan remotely so it reduces the need for site visits by various team members,” Brad says. “And it’s great value for our subscription. It definitely saves us money when planning the whole event.”
“We get so many benefits from using OnePlan for our events – we love the software!” Brad concludes.
We’re grateful to Brad and the team at InspireAviation for sharing their event planning story. You can find out more about how they enable aviation education communities at their website.
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