Set up your first event
An event in Herding Cats is one competition weekend: a name, some dates, a venue, a hotel, and the people who make it happen. This page shows you how to create one and explains what every tab on its page is for.
Three ways to add an event
- A whole season written down somewhere? Use Build a season — it reads your schedule document or your website and creates all of them at once. See Import your schedule.
- Just one event to add? Use the New event form below.
- Adding an event to a weekend you already have? Use the Add event button on that weekend’s group.
Create one by hand
- Open the new event form
Choose Events in the left menu, then press New event at the top right. The page is headed New Event.
If it is your very first one, the page shows No events yet with a Create your first event button instead. Same thing.
- Fill in Event Details
Only three things are required: Event Name, Start Date, and End Date. Everything else can wait.
If you have the times handy, add Load-In Time, Load-Out Time, and Brief Start (staff must arrive by). That last one matters more than it looks — Herding Cats uses it to work out the latest flight each person can take and still make the brief.
On-Site Contact Name and On-Site Contact Phone are the person your crew calls when they arrive.
- Set the Venue
Use Select Venue and start typing. Venues you have used before come up automatically, and picking one fills in the address for you.
If it is somewhere new, choose to add a new one. A panel headed New Venue appears with Venue Name, Venue Address, Venue Phone, and Nearest Airport. You can also add Venue Contacts here, marking one as Primary.
If you change your mind, press Cancel — use existing.
- Add the Hotel, if you know it
Hotel Name and Hotel Address. Leave them blank if the hotel is not settled yet — you can add it later on the event’s Hotel tab.
- Say how many of each role you need
The Staff Roles section lists positions such as Judge, Event Manager, Show Director, Announcer, Stage Manager, Awards Coordinator, Photographer, and more. Type a number beside each one you need.
If your company uses a role that is not on the list, type it into the box reading Add custom role (e.g. Lighting Lead) and press + Add role.
The page tells you Total staff: as you go.
- Press Create Event
That is it. You land on the event’s own page.
The form says it plainly: You can leave everything at zero for now and fill these in later — roles are often finalized days or weeks apart. Do not hold up creating the event because you have not decided how many judges you want.
The event page, tab by tab
Every event has its own page with a row of tabs across the top. The name and dates at the very top can be edited by clicking them — there is no separate edit screen.
Overview
Your one-screen summary of the event. At the top is a strip of tiles — Staffing, Flights, Rooming — each with a short status underneath such as nobody assigned yet, all booked, or rooms assigned.
Below that are three worksheet cards you fill in as the event firms up:
- Event Timeline — Staff Brief, Load In Start Time, Event Start Time, Load Out End Time.
- Event Details — Venue Name, Address, Fly Into, # Event Staff, # Judges, Planning Notes.
- Hotel Details — Hotel Name, Address, Phone, Staff Rate, Attendee Rate, Booking Link, Hotel Onsite Contact.
Then the Roster — everyone assigned — and a Documents & links card where you can paste a link to a folder or a file and give it a label.
Hotel
Everything about where your people are sleeping: the address, phone, Onsite contact, Staff rate, Attendee rate, Booking link, shuttle details, and Rooming list due.
There is a Contract card on the right. Upload the signed hotel contract as a PDF and Herding Cats pulls the key terms out of it for you.
History with this hotel shows you what you paid at this property before, so you can see whether this year’s rate is fair.
Venue
The same idea for the building. Address, Airport, Onsite contact, Contact phone, and a Contract card. History at this venue builds up over the seasons.
Staffing
One card for each person assigned to the event, showing their role, how to reach them, and a badge telling you where they stand: Needs travel, Needs room, or All set.
Open a card and you get their Flights, their Ground, and a Notes box for anything the weekend crew should know. There is a Message button on each row to reach them directly.
This tab shows people already on the event. To put somebody on it in the first place, use the Roster on the Overview tab. See Staff an event.
Rooming
The room board for this event — who is in which room, and whether the list has gone to the hotel yet. Covered in Hotels and rooming.
Travel
Flights and ground transport for everyone on the event. It warns you when flights are still unbooked and you are inside the window where fares start climbing. Covered in Flights.
The tabs that only some plans have
These tabs carry a small sparkle and only appear if the matching add-on is in your plan. If you do not see one, it is not in your plan yet — ask us.
| Tab | What it does | Add-on |
|---|---|---|
| Registration | Entry categories, pricing, and a public page studios register from | Registration |
| Passes | Convention passes and attendee enrollment | Tuition |
| Faculty | Who is teaching or judging, and what they are owed | Talent |
| Tour Website | Your public tour listing for this stop | Tour Website |
| Financials | The live profit-and-loss for this event | Finance |
| Settlement | The show-day money sheet — cash boxes, card batches, merch counts | Finance |
| Debrief | The survey sent to the staff who worked it | Surveys & Debriefs |
Scoring, tabulation, and judging tools are in active development. Talk to us about where they are.
Archiving an event that did not happen
Sometimes a venue falls through. Press Actions at the top of the event page, then Archive event.
You are asked Why is this event being archived? and given four choices: Venue loss, Insufficient registration, Weather / natural disaster, or Other. Then a Details box.
Archiving hides the event from your lists and from your staff’s portals. Every assignment, flight record, document, rooming list, and message stays exactly where it is. You can bring it back with Recover event from the Archived view at any time.
Fill in the Details box properly. It is not busywork — those reasons feed better recommendations for future seasons.
What to do next
- Invite your team — get other people into the app.
- Staff an event — fill those roles.