Halloween Town is an annual community event that takes place in Eagle Mountain City, Utah, inviting local businesses to participate by setting up creatively decorated booths for Halloween and passing out candy and treats to local children. The one day event brings together 3,000 people annually as locals enjoy trick-or-treating, a petting zoo, a car show, and performances by local dance companies from the community.
We spoke to Dawn Hancock, Events Manager for Eagle Mountain City, who found OnePlan after being frustrated with softwares designed solely for indoor venues with limited features.
Before Using a Planning Software
Before OnePlan, Dawn had to rely on non-specialist, non-collaborative tools. Not only was this time consuming and tedious, but she felt the layout often appeared unprofessional.
Dawn says, “Before discovering OnePlan, my process involved capturing a screenshot of my park using Google Maps and then importing it into Publisher to start creating my event layout. However, I encountered several challenges with this approach.”
While event planning, Dawn would collaborate with around 30 to 40 vendors causing her significant stress. She mentions the toll this took on her events.
“I’d wonder how we’d fit all these people into the available space. We’d sometimes overcrowd the area, resulting in disorganization, or it would feel empty if I had to limit registrations due to space concerns.”
She continues: “Now, I can accurately determine how many vendors we can accommodate and arrange their setups optimally.”
Thankfully Dawn has got instant benefits by using OnePlan and fell in love with the software that could accommodate event layouts in an outdoor park setting. “I find it incredibly valuable that I can create my event layout to scale using OnePlan,” she says.
“This feature is a game-changer because it provides me with precise knowledge of the available space, and I can work on an up-to-date park image as well. I especially appreciate the tent icons, the borderless areas, the various walking and driving paths, and the option to label icons – just to highlight a few of the fantastic tools at my disposal.”
Creating Professional Plans
Composing professional event plans to share with your stakeholders, vendors, suppliers, and attendees can seem daunting. With OnePlan’s up-to-date GIS mapping capabilities and our presentation export feature creating professional plans has never been easier. It means the Halloween Town event plan can be shared with local stakeholders, by exporting a presentation of the plan via ‘screenshots’ of each layout view.
“This software simplifies the process but also elevates the standard of professionalism, quality, and detail in site planning. Its user-friendly interface and robust features make every aspect of the planning process a breeze.”
Dawn Hancock
Events Manager, Eagle Mountain City
With OnePlan, Dawn feels more confident presenting her event to the community. She says, “OnePlan has significantly boosted my confidence in the appearance of my layouts, allowing me to create a comprehensive design that includes the elements I require.”
“Gone are the days of creating separate layouts for fire, police, facilities, and other departments. Now, I can create a single, all-encompassing layout that I proudly present at meetings involving all relevant parties,” Dawn continues.
Time and Cost Savings with OnePlan
Planning an event with traditional and outdated methods is time consuming and expensive. Dawn used to make separate maps for each of her vendors, facilities, and staff, but now she puts everyone on the same map and distributes the plan with ease.
“It used to take me roughly 8-10 hours, for a larger event. That entails creating several different maps for different stakeholders. Now I can create an all-inclusive map for everyone in just a few hours,” she says.
“I plan over 20 events per year. I will be using OnePlan exclusively, and in much greater detail from here on out.”
It means Eagle Mountain City has achieved a huge 70% time saving, allowing Dawn to spend more time on other parts of her event planning process.
Dawn’s time efficiencies have led to an estimated 5x Return on Investment on the monthly OnePlan spend. She says: “It’s safe to say using OnePlan saves us thousands of dollars.”
Dawn and the Eagle Mountain City team are joined by other event planners including Silverstone, Tour of Britain, Beirut Marathon and many more who experience time efficiencies, cost saving and healthy return on investment by using OnePlan.
Sharing with the Team
Collaborating with your team, vendors, and local governance is crucial for executing a successful event. Dawn described her sharing process with us, saying: “During meetings, we would have to discuss the event page by page. Now, I create one comprehensive map that covers the entire event, accommodating all stakeholders.”
“I can then share this single layout via email and address any questions or concerns that arise in a more efficient manner.”
With OnePlan’s view-only links and vendor management tools, event planners can streamline the communication process. The view-only link gives planners the ability to generate a shareable view-only link to your event plan, so that anyone can open it without needing a OnePlan login or being able to modifying your event plans.
Using the vendor management features allows event planners to input information on each object placed such as vendor name, cost, availability, power requirements and much more.
These features help Dawn and her team to work closely with the Parks department, local businesses, local schools, the Chamber of Commerce, and major corporations (including Meta). She found sharing to local authorities and her team easy, saying: “The comprehensive features offered by OnePlan enable me to accurately illustrate the placement of all event components enhancing my planning process, but also ensuring that I can provide detailed documentation for permitting purposes, facilitating a smoother and more streamlined approval process with the relevant authorities.”
“Thanks to OnePlan, I can consistently deliver exceptional and visually appealing event layouts that not only meet but often exceed the expectations of my team, vendors, and stakeholders.”
Dawn Hancock
Events Manager, Eagle Mountain City
Eagle Mountain City’s experience using OnePlan shows the importance of using an all-in-one comprehensive software to plan events. With OnePlan, Dawn and her team are able to easily and precisely map their event layout and share amongst different departments and partners. Start planning your next event and sign up for free today!
