Events & exhibitions · Hong Kong
An events & exhibitions company
From sign-up to settlement — one workflow across the whole event.
This company runs corporate galas, product launches and large exhibitions. We built an automation layer across their whole event lifecycle — registration and check-in, supplier coordination, a guest WhatsApp concierge, live budget tracking and automatic post-event reporting — so the team stays calm even at peak season with several events running at once.
The challenge
In peak season, three planners each juggled four to five events at once. Sign-up lists were scattered across Excel, email and WhatsApp groups; guest dietary needs, seating and change requests kept slipping through the cracks. Supplier (venue, catering, AV, décor) quotes and contract dates lived in people's heads, so budget overruns only surfaced after the event. Writing each client's settlement report took one to two days.
The solution
We built one operations hub — Airtable as the single source of truth, n8n as the workflow engine and Claude as the writing and conversation core — wired into the client's own WhatsApp Business and email. Guests register through a custom link; data syncs to Airtable and generates a personal QR code. Supplier files and quotes are managed centrally with automatic reminders. Each guest can check transport, seating, run-of-show and catering through a WhatsApp concierge. Every expense flows into a live budget dashboard, and when the event ends the system compiles attendance, budget and supplier performance into a written client report draft.
The workflow we built
- Registration & check-in. Guests register via a custom link; Claude parses dietary and special requests, syncs everything to Airtable and issues a personal QR code; on the day, a scan updates attendance live.
- Guest WhatsApp concierge. Answers transport, seating, run-of-show, dress-code and catering questions in natural language, and can update a guest's attendance or meal choice — handing off to a person when it can't.
- Supplier coordination. Venue, catering, AV and décor quotes and dates are centralized in Airtable; the system sends confirmations, follow-ups and deadline reminders automatically.
- Live budget tracking. Every supplier expense or change is logged to a budget dashboard in real time; crossing a set threshold alerts the project lead.
- Post-event reporting. The system compiles attendance, guest feedback, final-vs-planned budget and supplier performance, and Claude drafts a written client report for review.
Tools we used
The results
- Post-event client reports went from one to two days down to about three hours — fully drafted, needing only a review.
- The same team now runs eleven to twelve events in peak season instead of four to five, with no new hires.
- Guest catering and seating errors dropped from around 9% to under 1%, so events run smoother on the day.
- Live budget alerts caught overruns mid-event, avoiding a combined HK$120,000+ in over-spend across three events.
Representative example — figures illustrative, client anonymised.
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