A proposal that waits three weeks can change how a prospective client feels about your business. An unfilled shift can turn an otherwise quiet Friday into a scramble. A signed exhibitor agreement can create six separate rounds of data entry before anyone gets back to producing the event.

These were the kinds of problems discussed in There Is Finally A Better Way: Automation For The Events Industry at the Northwest Event Show 2026. Moderated by Loophole co-founder Archer Lawrence, the panel brought together Liz Sexton, Lisa Schulteis, and David Schwartz to talk about automation they had actually used in event businesses.

At NWES in Seattle, the conversation focused on the work behind the guest experience: what becomes possible when talented people spend less of their day moving information around?

Make Responsiveness Part Of The Client Experience

Liz Sexton described a proposal process at a previous event planning firm. The team already had carefully designed documents and a detailed way of defining each client’s scope. Their work was highly customized, and an off-the-shelf proposal tool did not fit the process they wanted to preserve.

The problem was the time required to assemble the result. Fundraising gala seasons created a particular squeeze: while the team was executing one season’s events, the next season’s clients were arriving for planning conversations. Liz recalled that a proposal could take two or three weeks to reach a client after the initial meeting.

With the workflow automated, she could finish a roughly 40-minute meeting, complete a checklist, and have a proposal ready to send about 15 minutes later.

What changed was bigger than document production. The client’s first experience became a prompt, organized response. The team kept its custom scope and presentation while reducing the assembly work that delayed them.

Look for this in your business: a valuable conversation followed by a long stretch of copying, formatting, or rebuilding information that you already have.

Connect The Tools Your Team Already Understands

Lisa Schulteis, executive director of the Northwest Event Show, described a different challenge. Once an exhibitor signed a contract, the information had to reach roughly six systems. For a small team managing a large show, manually maintaining those handoffs consumed attention that was needed elsewhere.

Her response to the familiar search for better software was practical: a new tool can introduce another implementation project, more training, and another set of compromises. Connecting the existing systems can sometimes solve the problem without asking the team to start over.

This does not mean every legacy tool deserves to stay. It means the diagnosis should come before the purchase. If staff are repeatedly entering the same information into tools that otherwise serve them well, the missing piece may be the connection between those tools.

Start by tracing one real transaction. When the contract is signed, which records must change? Who currently makes each change? Which details have to remain consistent? That map makes the integration problem concrete.

Automate The Chase And Protect The Judgment

For David Schwartz of Orion Entertainment, the friction was staffing. Individually texting people, waiting for replies, and tracking open positions made filling a schedule labor-intensive. The company also had different kinds of roles, with different levels of client-facing responsibility.

David described a system that lets eligible team members select available shifts. Assistant DJ and photo booth positions could be filled without him individually chasing each person. If someone dropped a shift, the system notified the people eligible to pick it up.

That freed David to spend more time matching clients with the right headliner talent. The distinction is useful: routine coordination could move through the system, while the decision that most shaped the client’s experience still received his attention.

Another example was wonderfully specific to the Pacific Northwest: a reminder to reserve a ferry ticket ahead of a San Juan Island event. A small, predictable dependency became a scheduled reminder instead of something to remember during a busy week.

The benefit David described included both time and relief from last-minute staffing panic. A calmer operating picture made it easier to focus on work that truly needed him.

Let Good Information Travel Further

The proposal project also revealed an opportunity beyond the original request. Liz explained that the scope of work contained information needed in planning timelines, production materials, and client meeting documents. Once the services checklist was structured, that information could support several outputs.

The team already had strong processes, giving the automation clear decisions and information to build on. A computer cannot reliably produce the right planning timeline if nobody has defined how the selected services should affect it.

This is a useful way to expand a successful project. Follow the information downstream and identify where people are recreating an answer that the business has already established.

Choose One Handoff To Improve

The panel covered document generation, integration, and a custom staffing platform. Your first step does not have to resemble all three. Choose a recurring handoff and ask:

• What information is already known at this point?
• Where does someone have to re-enter, reformat, or chase it?
• What needs a person’s judgment, and what follows a repeatable rule?
• How would we know the change helped: faster responses, fewer corrections, fewer open shifts, or less coordination time?

Then keep the successful parts of the process and improve the connection around them. As these operators showed, better systems can make room for more attentive client service, more deliberate decisions, and a working day with fewer avoidable emergencies.

For a step-by-step framework and a demonstration of this approach, read Sync Or Swim: Bridging The Gap With Automation.