OnePlan benefits event planners and venue managers, with one single source of truth of their plan. It’s a real-time platform, using maps of your choice, that aids collaboration among teams and their partners.
In this final part of the “in our users’ words” blog series, we see how sports governing bodies, councils and festivals benefit in multiple ways. You can read Part 1 and Part 2 of the series here.
12: REAL-TIME WEB PLATFORM
“It means everybody has the most up-to-date and most detailed plans”
Gone are the days of multiple, out-of-date and inaccurate versions of event plans. OnePlan is a real-time, centimetre accurate cloud-based platform that always shows the latest information.
Jacalyn Morgan, Senior Events Manager at Silverstone, says: “The overarching benefit to using OnePlan is the live planning information that everybody has got access to, as well as the what3words locations for every single bit of kit. It just means that everybody’s singing from the same hymn sheet, and everybody has the most up-to-date, most relevant and most detailed plans.”
Our integration of what3words locations data means the placement of any object can be instantly seen and communicated to teams on the ground. The what3words location data is shown for each object placed on the map.
This is a big benefit for outdoor sites especially, such as large festivals. Alex Lock at Guernsey Together Festival says: “As an organising team we’re able to work far more productively thanks to OnePlan, due to the reduction of questions being asked from suppliers. With the what3words incorporation in the platform, we share locations of infrastructure, toilets, etc with suppliers and they can deliver them to exact positions – saving us time moving things around.”
The accuracy of OnePlan, coupled with its live, always-on status, has improved how the Tour of Britain plans its multi-stage event. Finish Director, Rob Kennison says: “With OnePlan, plans are ready six months in advance and they’re a ‘living thing’ until the day of the race instead of weeks’ before.”
He adds: “It’s great knowing all the race-specific facilities are in position for every stage and we can exceed the newest UCI regulations too.”
The accurate, to-scale platform means stronger than ever planning for events agency Pont3. They manage events including the Sydney Harbour 10k. Simon Bryan says: “OnePlan has brought a huge improvement to the quality of our plans.”
Using the best GiS mapping technologies in our core platform, OnePlan also provides intelligent calculators that instantly show area sizes and capacities. This is a time saver for defining crowd control and other movement flows.
Ehrabi Nael, Race Director at Beirut Marathon, says: “We used to measure capacity by eyesight. With the crowd management feature it is so helpful to measure how many people you can fit in an area.”
OnePlan’s built-in artificial intelligence that instantly shows area sizes and capacities means the Beirut Marathon now needs 75% less site visits compared to their old way of planning the event.
13: INVENTORY MANAGEMENT
“The Bill of Quantities tells us exactly how many barriers we need”
OnePlan provides powerful data about your event and venue. It becomes an inventory management tool to help optimize your current and future plans, and removes the need for separate spreadsheets unconnected to your visual plan. Now with OnePlan it’s all in one place.
One click away from the map view are real-time dashboard reports based exactly on what you’re placed on the map. These can be viewed, downloaded and shared with suppliers, partners and any stakeholder.
“The Bill of Quantities was a game-changer for us,” says David Markham, Venue Operations Director at World Triathlon.
Brian Stenzel at Festival Foods adds: “In OnePlan the dashboard is very helpful. Showing how many left turn signs we need, for example, is very easy in OnePlan.”
For large venues such as Silverstone, with its 10,000+ contractors, suppliers and staff, having one information hub directly linked to multiple event plans is a contributor to their time-saving and Return on Investment benefits. Jacalyn Morgan says: “The Bill of Quantities tells us exactly how many barriers we need for an area which helps cut down the amount of spreadsheets we have with suppliers. Using OnePlan has streamlined our processes, for sure.”
And the additional business benefit of the real-time data reports is that it leads to better procurement. Alan Govan at Mugstock says: “It’s helpful to be able to export a CSV of all the fencing and use this to calculate our requirements for procurement.”
14: COMMERCIAL BENEFIT
“OnePlan helps us create more profitable events”
Ultimately, we want OnePlan to empower event and venue planners to create safe and successful, profitable events. That means planning a great experience for attendees, with a full quota of ticket sales, and a return on investment for all our customers.
For Gergely Markus, Sport Director at World Triathlon, OnePlan has led to a cost reduction for planning their international events: “The benefits of using OnePlan were felt immediately. Using OnePlan saves time and reduces costs, making triathlon events far easier to manage.”
Amy Bertaut, organizer of the Shrewsbury Folk Festival, says: “We love OnePlan! It has helped us to identify a completely different way to use our site and the most efficient way to get full capacity.”
Full capacity means a greater likelihood of more profitable events. Simon Bryan at events agency Pont3 confirms this: “It has everything we need. OnePlan increases our efficiency, which helps us create more profitable events.”
And for major venues that host a high volume of events throughout the year, the ROI keeps increasing. At Silverstone, the UK’s premier motor racing venue, Senior Event Manager James Loveridge says: “The team has seen great success using OnePlan for their venue planning, with an estimated 13% ROI.”
15: REDUCES CARBON EMISSIONS
“OnePlan means 75% less site visits and cuts our CO2 emissions”
Our customers switch to OnePlan because of the additional sustainability benefits. Having a single source of truth, collaborative platform powered by accurate, live data means a far reduced need to do site visits before events.
For the organizers of the UK’s leading cycling races, the Tour of Britain and The Women’s Tour, this brings a cost and carbon saving. “Add fuel price and the environmental toll, it beats travelling in the car for meetings I can just as easily conduct from home while working in OnePlan,” says Finish Director Rob Kennison.
He continues: “Our calculations show that with 75% less site visits now needed, using OnePlan also cuts our CO2 emissions by 2.2 tonnes per year.”
This rings true for permanent venues that use OnePlan to plan a wide range of events each year. ExCeL London, one of the UK’s biggest exhibition centres, cite the sustainability benefits of OnePlan because they align perfectly with their wider business strategies.
James Rees, Executive Director at ExCeL London, says: “As a carbon neutral venue, using OnePlan aligns perfectly with our new ESG Strategy and our ambitions to be Net Zero by 2030.”
Our 2D maps integrate seamlessly with our 3D digital twin view, meaning any changes you make instantly appear in the other view. This means signage and branding can be viewed remotely without needing a site visit.
The sustainability benefit is just as true for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Alain Nguyen, Head of Games IS, says: “OnePlan is a really useful innovation for the Games, enabling us to save costs and address our environmental challenges.”
16: OUTSOURCED DESIGN SUPPORT & PUBLIC MAPS
“A superb Show plan which was on display for all to see”
Our team at OnePlan can support your event planning in various ways. Along with the Customer Support provided in our various packages, we also offer the ability for our in-house team to provide Event Design Services and Public Maps that can be shown at your event for attendees, in whatever format you need.
This service is led by Alice in our team, who you can brief on a call with your specific requirements and whatever amends you need throughout the process.
Nick Curtis, Festival Director at the New Forest Folk Festival, says: “Alice was fantastic and we are delighted with her professionalism, helpfulness and willingness to listen and respond to our particular needs.”
He continues: “She created professional maps which will help take us forward as we develop and our customers appreciated the map which was included in our programme.”
The Great Fair of Shalford uses OnePlan for its village fair attracting 5,000 attendees, and had Alice create a Public Map for guests to easily navigate the village. Organiser Frank Ago says: “It’s ridiculously good. The map Alice created makes it so easy for everyone here.”
Richard Heath, Show Director at Hanbury Countryside Show, got a similar benefit: “The team completely understood the brief, our financial constraints and the timescales. Most importantly, they shared our pride in the Hanbury Countryside Show and went the extra mile to help us, staying patient and showing good humour, when we had ‘just one more change please’.”
He added: “OnePlan collaborated with us to deliver a superb Show plan, which was on display for all to see.”
17: COMMITTED CUSTOMER SERVICE
“The customer service I’ve received from OnePlan really shows their commitment to their customers”
We have multiple package options for events and venues of all sizes on our pricing page. For our Free and monthly subscribers, there’s a mass of online content, structured by topics and easy to follow.
Katy Welch at the Historic Hannibal Marketing Council has benefited from this: “Once I watched a few tutorials on how to use OnePlan, it took me about 6 hours to lay the whole event out. I am so grateful to have found this!”
Our team comes from the Events and Venues industry, and so have deep first-hand experience of the planning problems that our software solves. Richard at Hanbury Countryside Show says: “OnePlan saved us time and money, and provided us with a superior end product. Being able to liaise with a team that truly understands events is invaluable.”
For our annual and large team subscribers, our Customer Success Managers are on hand around the world for onboarding, training and on-going support.
Brett Knaus at the National Cherry Festival says: “The customer service I’ve received from OnePlan is unlike any software I have used in the past and really shows the commitment to their customers. I only see more great things happening!”
Every day we admire the creative, detailed event plans that our users in 110 countries make. And we’re grateful for the feedback we receive that helps define our product roadmap to make OnePlan the best possible platform for the events and venue industry.
To end this three-part series with a few words from our Founder and CEO Paul Foster: “Thanks to all our users for your on-going feedback as we continually improve OnePlan. Our mission is to simplify and improve your event and venue planning experience, to help you create safe, successful and sustainable events.”
Click here to read Part 1 and Part 2 of this blog series.
Start planning now in OnePlan, or Book a Demo with one of our team to learn more.