I've been doing some workshops around efficiency and productivity using the AI prototype we are building in StageSwift. It's been really interesting and I'm learning a lot about the challenges that producers and tour managers face when planning and managing a tour.
I would like to share some of the insights that one of the contributors gave me; I'm going to call him Bill.
Bill is a producer at a small to mid scale touring theatre. He is keen to try new ways to do things in order to save time and money so he is currently trying one of the most popular software applications for project management together with spreadsheets and cloud software.
I asked him if the project management software has addressed some of the challenges he faces. He said that it is used by the core team but communication with freelancers is still done by sending out spreadsheets etc. via the cloud, so it is not perfect. He sounded less than satisfied with this and I asked him if there is anything that he would like to see improved. Ironically, although information is shared on the cloud, he is constantly being called to ask for that information as people can't remember the link or just haven't read their email.
He also said that sometimes something happens at the venue during the tour and those at the venue need to check the contract but it is hard to be sure if the contract or Deal Memo on Sharepoint is up to date.
StageSwift provides a central point of truth, everyone has up to date information. What's more, you can use it to write your show reports, saving information about the performances that you can refer to in years to come.
We're looking into how AI could be used to make things even easier. With all that information at your fingertips, what would you ask the AI to tell you?
Bill says, it would certainly save him time and about 4 meetings!