Event Management
Platform
Needs Assessment from the 2026 Feedback Sessions
"Creating Art and Building Community" · A Volunteer Run Not-for-Profit Organisation
Prepared by Petr Cervenka, Committee Member · May 2026
Before We Begin
A note on transparency
- I sit on the Blazing Swan committee and I run Nano Solutions, a software company
- This presentation is committee work -- a needs assessment based on your debrief feedback
- If the committee agrees to proceed, Blazing Swan would go to tender
- Nano Solutions would be one bidder among any interested vendors
- The committee controls every gate in this process
I want to be upfront about this from the start so the rest can be received on its merits.
Where This Comes From
I've been sitting on the committee for almost a year now -- in meetings, reading Slack, and talking to people across the org. You hear things. This isn't a document I wrote in a weekend -- it's what I've been hearing from all of you, written down.
Seven formal sources back it up. Your words, not mine.
Event Manager Debrief -- 21 April 2026 15+ participants
Kulin Stakeholders Debrief -- 30 April 2026 Shire, BSI leadership
Department Leads Survey -- April/May 2026 11 department leads
Post Event Report -- Vida Barrett, Event Ops Manager, 6 May 2026
MOOP Report -- Riley Jagoe, MOOP Lead, 2026
DMT Report -- Dax/Krisis, DMT Lead, 2026
Arts Final Report -- Nancy Maskell, Art Manager, 2026
The Year-Round Reality
Blazing Swan isn't a 5-day event.
It's a 365-day operation.
"burnout burnout burnout"
"comms runs most of the year -- we need to figure out an off time -- people need to rest."
"The event ended 10 days ago now, and Comms still has no advice from Committee re lost property, posting an official thank you..."
Rostering Is Broken Everywhere
"Our existing system of a spreadsheet people can add themselves on has served well, but we may be hitting the point where we need to move to something else. No easy way to let people self manage, AND ALSO stop people fiddling with things they shouldn't."
"A globally-editable spreadsheet on Gdrive. This was a far-from-perfect solution."
"NOE was incredibly useful for rostering, messaging and communicating with volunteers."
Riley went and found an external rostering tool because nothing existed internally -- and it worked. Volunteers jumped from 17 to 55 with only 1 no-show. Three departments, three different broken approaches, one already proved the concept.
Governance Bottleneck
"Getting an answer / approval out of Committee was, as always, verging on impossible. Having heads of department report 'to Committee' as a whole is completely ridiculous, because no one will ever get all six of them to answer or agree."
"Committee IMO overstepped several times, and were micromanaging teams more than they should have been. There also seemed to be some conflict within the committee, which lead to changing answers on issues."
Nina's fix: "Assign ONE committee member to each department as a single point of contact." A decision log and clear approval workflows would make this systemic.
Incident Reporting Is Ad Hoc
"A custom built IR system with a SQL backend that can intelligently associate related reports would be nice..."
"Incident Reports were a very mixed bag. Several submitted by Rangers or EM did not contain useful/expected information."
"Not having a plan on what to do with patrons that were caught without bands."
Information Dies Between Shifts
"Recommended a standardised handover template to improve accountability and reduce confusion from illegible notes."
"Digital logs or shared Google Docs for persistent information tracking across shifts, improving continuity beyond immediate handovers."
"Low engagement with the current event run sheet, finding it too high-level and not event management focused."
Volunteer no-shows compound the problem -- Gate, DMT, and MOOP all report people not turning up or not realising they were scheduled. Dax: "volunteers just didn't end up showing up."
Nobody Should Go In Blind
"It felt like we were all very much going in blind but I did feel very supported from a few people in particular."
"Assuming everyone knows what is and isn't moop doesn't work, full training will be given before the event."
"How can we have a process to flag when someone is not understanding their role... we should have a clearly defined process where anyone can flag what they think is happening."
Nancy's Arts department runs on a 26-tab master spreadsheet -- 39 artists, 44 applications, $43K in grants across 4 rounds. That's operational complexity beyond what spreadsheets can safely manage.
Security Has No System
The Numbers
30-40 unticketed individuals caught
"potentially more undetected"
197 medical check-ins
5 ambulance transfers (record)
Security budget will increase
Source: Shire Debrief + Post Event Report
"Many participants removed or lost wristbands to evade enforcement, with some sewing wristband ends together for friends."
"Suggested creating a cross-event 'naughty list' database."
Budget Process Causes Friction
"Administering the budget this year was a hassle, and caused a lot of confusion. We submitted our budget early as requested, and then had considerable delays before getting a partially approved budget, which then caused delays and frustration."
"BSI needs to better standardise what needs to be on budgets and what doesn't, and provide examples/assistance to team leads on how to fill out."
Multiple leads report budget timing issues, unclear approval chains, and amounts changing mid-process.
Compliance Is Slipping
MOOP: 75% of Theme Camps in RED
Up from 36% last year. 60 camps assessed -- 45 had 20+ MOOP items. Riley wants digital tracking forms, offline-capable on site.
"75% of theme camps were rated Red, compared to 36% the previous year."
DMT: Vehicles Without Safety Checks
2 mutant vehicles operated on-site without completing safety inspection. No clear enforcement procedure existed. Dax wants paperless digital safety forms.
"2 vehicles were still operating at the event without having completed safety... no clear procedure for what happens when the rules aren't followed."
When compliance tracking is on paper, things slip through. That's a liability risk the org carries.
Equipment Vanishes, Contacts Are Missing
"The 'borrowed?' checkout system for moop sticks and heavy duty gloves did not work. People either ignored the boxes, or forgot to sign them back in."
"Not ideal for anyone to have access to tools post blaze. Would love to have things counted and locked on site then recounted and logged in town."
"Definitely need phone numbers of people to contact on site as not all of us had slack."
WhatsApp groups could serve as a fallback channel -- everyone has it, works on mobile, no onboarding needed.
Why We Oversold by 500
No single source of truth for total attendance.
Non-general allocations consumed capacity before public sales opened:
Then 1,730 general tickets sold against ~1,434 remaining slots. Result: 3,796 total -- 500 over the 3,300 target.
"This calculation error placed considerable strain on administrative resources."
That 500 caused:
Water crisis
600,000 extra litres shipped in
Security overwhelmed
30-40+ fence jumpers on top
Medical record
5 ambulance transfers (was 3)
Gate chaos
Wrong ticket types, no enforcement plan
One people catalogue with burner profiles for everyone -- vollies + committee + org + public + theme camps = one live headcount. The same catalogue doubles as HR (roles, skills) and enforcement (naughty list).
Year-Round Foundation
People, Governance & Volunteers
Membership & People
The catalogue of everyone. Burner profiles for every human -- attendees, vollies, committee, org. HR tools: roles, skills, history. Enforcement: the "naughty list" lives here too. One identity across all modules.
Governance & Meetings
Agenda, minutes, decision log. Action item tracking. Budget approval workflow. Document repository.
Volunteer Management
Applications via Cognito Forms. Skills tracking. Position matching. Hours. Recognition. Returning volunteer history.
R&D validated
Prototype validated: user identity, org structure, Cognito Forms automation, position assignments, duplicate detection.
Year-Round + Pre-Event
Communications & Training
Communications Hub
Slack bot + AI summaries. Email campaigns. Cognito Forms webhooks. WhatsApp groups as fallback channel (not everyone is on Slack). Role-based notifications. Emergency broadcast.
Training & LMS
Video tutorials. Role-based training paths. Pre-event checklists. Completion tracking. Mentorship pairing. Role performance flagging.
R&D validated
Prototype validated: Slack bot, email campaigns, Cognito Forms webhooks/CSV/API -- all integrations proven to work.
The gap
Notification routing. Privacy tiers. Emergency broadcast. Post-event workflows. LMS. Video hosting. Completion tracking.
Event-Time Operations
Shifts, Incidents, Mapping & Mobile
Shift & Operations
Proper rostering (not spreadsheets). Shift display. Digital handover logs. Run sheets. Equipment checkout. Volunteer reminders.
Incident Management
Structured IR forms. Photo upload. Severity tracking. Cross-event enforcement DB. Wristband compliance. Police liaison.
Situational Awareness
Interactive site map. GPS tracking (opt-in). Incident pinning. Real-time dashboard. Weather integration.
Entirely unbuilt
The #1 request across all sources. MOOP, DMT, and Arts all independently asked for digital, offline-capable tools. Mobile-first. This is the core gap.
Financial & Analytics
Ticketing, Budget & Compliance
Ticketing & Finance
Humanitix sync (validated). Single source of truth for total attendance -- vollies, committee, org, public, theme camps. Budget workflow. Invoice tracking.
Data & Compliance
Google Drive audit (built). Year-over-year trends. Theme camp compliance. Equipment inventory. Reporting dashboards. Shire/police data export.
R&D validated
Humanitix ticket sync with sales dashboards and capacity forecasting. Google Drive file/permission audit with stale access detection.
Needs extension
Budget approval workflow. Invoice tracking. Cross-module analytics. Compliance workflows. External reporting.
R&D and Validation
The Blaze Portal prototype -- proving what's possible
A prototype has been built to validate API integrations and test whether a unified platform approach actually works for our needs. It's R&D, not a finished product.
Validated API Integrations
✓ Cognito Forms -- webhooks, CSV import, API sync, smart email linking
✓ Humanitix -- ticket sync, sales dashboards, capacity forecasting
✓ Slack -- bot, slash commands, AI summaries, workspace sync
✓ Google Workspace -- Drive audit, permissions, stale access detection
✓ Email -- campaigns with compliance tracking (CAN-SPAM / AU Spam Act)
Validated Data Models
✓ Org structure: 12 historical cycles, 60+ positions, role assignments
✓ User identity: multi-email accounts, duplicate detection, merge tools
This R&D proves the integrations are possible and the approach works. A production system would build on these learnings.
The Gap
| Module | Status |
| Membership & People | R&D validated -- identity model works, full lifecycle needed |
| Governance & Meetings | R&D validated -- org structure works, decision tools needed |
| Volunteer Management | R&D validated -- assignments work, skills/engagement needed |
| Communications Hub | R&D validated -- Slack, email, forms integrations proven |
| Training & LMS | Minimal R&D -- basic data model only |
| Shift & Operations | NOT STARTED -- #1 request across all sources |
| Incident Management | NOT STARTED -- Governor's direct ask |
| Situational Awareness | NOT STARTED -- most-requested innovation |
| Ticketing & Finance | R&D validated -- Humanitix proven, budget tools needed |
| Analytics & Compliance | R&D validated -- Drive audit proven, cross-module needed |
The R&D validated the integration approach. The event-operations layer is the gap a production build would fill.
Proposed Process
The committee controls every gate.
No dates locked in. The committee sets the pace at every gate.
Three Questions
Nobody is being asked to commit budget today.
1 Do we agree these pain points warrant a technology solution?
2 Are we willing to invest two more sessions refining the requirements?
3 Are we comfortable with the tender process as the path forward?
The full PRD document (20+ pages with all evidence) is available for detailed review.