Kanban for event planners: tracking vendors, clients and deadlines on one board
Event planning is one of the purest "who has the ball?" jobs there is. For every event, dozens of small actions bounce between you, the client and vendors: the client picks a menu, the caterer confirms numbers, the venue sends the floor plan, the florist needs the colour palette, the AV company wants the run of show. Miss one handoff and you find out on the day.
Most planners manage this with a mix of spreadsheets, email threads and memory. A simple 2D board makes the handoffs visible.
One row per event
Each event is a row: "Morgan wedding, 12 June", "Acme sales kickoff, 3 March". Busy planners might have ten or twenty rows at once, each at a different stage.
Four columns that match the work
- Mine: things you need to do. Send the menu options. Book the photographer. Draft the timeline.
- Other: things you are waiting on. Client choosing the menu. Venue confirming the floor plan. Caterer confirming final numbers. Each one with the person's name.
- Next Steps: things coming up. Final walkthrough. Seating chart. Payments due.
- Done: confirmed and finished.
The Other column is the one that saves events. It shows every decision and confirmation you are waiting for, across every event, in one view.
Chase vendors and clients on time
Event timelines are unforgiving. A menu decision that is a week late can mean the caterer cannot source an ingredient. In Axtio, items in Other show how many days they have been waiting, turn red at seven days and gather under a "to chase" button. A morning glance tells you which client or vendor to call first. See manage follow-ups without notes.
Use dates for the hard deadlines
Events are full of hard dates: final numbers due, deposits due, rehearsal, setup times. Put due dates on those actions so they surface in a timeline view as the event approaches. See Axtio's timeline view.
Keep client decisions separate from your tasks
A common mess: your task list mixes "things I must do" with "things the client must decide". On a 2D board they are separate columns, so you can show a client exactly what is waiting on them without exposing your whole to-do list.
Event week
In the final week, the board shrinks to the essentials: last confirmations in Other, final tasks in Mine. Many planners also keep a separate run-of-show document for the day itself; the board is for getting there.
After the event
- Move remaining actions to Done
- Note what went well and what to change
- Chase final invoices and payments
- Collapse the row
Why not a spreadsheet?
Spreadsheets are great for budgets and guest lists. They are poor at showing where the ball is across twenty events at once. A board does that at a glance, and the free version of Axtio runs in the browser with no signup, so you can try it on one event before deciding. See kanban for freelancers and manage multiple clients with less overhead.