THE JOB, NOT THE FEATURE LIST
Find the one that sounds like your week.
Every operation thinks its mess is unique. It usually is, in the details, and completely familiar in shape. Here are twelve shapes we know well, what goes wrong in each, and what Bloop does about it.
A three-day greenfield festival
25,000 capacity · 1,400 accredited · 40 supplier companies · 6 gates
WHAT GOES WRONG
Build week runs on a matrix that changes daily, forty suppliers email their crew lists in forty formats, and the site has no signal past the production compound.
WHAT BLOOP DOES
Each supplier fills its own allocation against a quota you set. Zones open as the site does, so a rigger who could reach the arena on Tuesday cannot on Friday. Scanners hold the full list locally, so the lane keeps moving when the mast does not.
A 900-capacity club, five nights a week
250 show nights a year · 30 to 60 on the list each night · 1 door
WHAT GOES WRONG
The guest list arrives at 18:00 by WhatsApp from four promoters, the door works off a printout, and nobody can say afterwards who actually came in.
WHAT BLOOP DOES
Promoters and artists submit their own lists to a deadline you set. The door works from one live list on a phone. Turn the room over and next week starts from the template, not from a blank sheet.
An arena with a resident team and visiting crews
120 event days · a permanent staff of 80 · a different touring party every week
WHAT GOES WRONG
The building has its own zones and its own rules, but every incoming production brings a new crew list and expects a laminate by lunchtime.
WHAT BLOOP DOES
The building is a template: zones, roles, approval chains and door sheets stay put. Each incoming show inherits it and fills in only the people. Setting up night 40 takes minutes.
A stadium changeover, sport to music
48 hours between fixtures · pitch protection · two entirely different access maps
WHAT GOES WRONG
The same building needs two access matrices in the same week, and the stewarding brief for one is dangerously wrong for the other.
WHAT BLOOP DOES
Two events, two matrices, one building template. Door sheets and scanner rules swap with the event, so nobody is reading Saturday's brief on Tuesday.
A touring production, twelve cities
12 venues · a travelling party of 60 · 12 local crews · 12 sets of house rules
WHAT GOES WRONG
Every venue wants the crew list in its own format a fortnight out, and the advance is one person re-typing the same 60 names twelve times.
WHAT BLOOP DOES
The touring party is entered once and carries between dates. Local crew are added per venue. Export in whatever shape the building asks for without re-keying anyone.
A two-week exhibition
300 exhibitor companies · 4,000 stand staff · tenancy, build and open phases
WHAT GOES WRONG
Three hundred exhibitors each want badges for people whose names they will not know until the night before, and build access must not be open access.
WHAT BLOOP DOES
Exhibitors self-serve against their stand allocation, right up to the deadline. Build passes expire when tenancy ends. The hall reads one list, not three hundred emails.
A brand activation on the road
8 cities · a core team of 12 · local staff hired per city · client observers throughout
WHAT GOES WRONG
The client wants to walk in with guests at no notice, the local staffing agency sends names late, and every city has a different site owner with different requirements.
WHAT BLOOP DOES
Client and guest access is its own pass type with its own rules. Agency staff are invited by the agency and approved by you. Each city is a copy of the last, with the names swapped.
A conference with a paid delegate list
1,200 delegates · 90 speakers · 40 crew · a green room that must stay a green room
WHAT GOES WRONG
Delegates come from the ticketing platform, speakers come from the programme team, crew come from production, and the door has three lists that disagree.
WHAT BLOOP DOES
Ticketed delegates validate against the ticketing provider; speakers and crew sit on the accreditation list. One lane logic at the door, whichever kind of pass turns up.
A venue preparing for Martyn's Law
Standard tier · 400 capacity · a licensing authority that will ask
WHAT GOES WRONG
The requirement is not just to have procedures but to be able to show them, and the current evidence is a folder of PDFs and somebody's memory.
WHAT BLOOP DOES
Who was allowed where, who approved it, who was on site and who was refused, all logged as it happens. The file writes itself while you run the venue.
A build with forty contractors and one site manager
3-week build · 40 contractors · CSCS cards, RAMS and insurance for all of them
WHAT GOES WRONG
Compliance documents arrive by email, expire quietly, and nobody notices until an inspector asks for the one that lapsed.
WHAT BLOOP DOES
Documents are uploaded against the supplier, checked once, and flagged before they expire. A contractor whose insurance ran out does not quietly keep a working pass.
A site office that runs on radios and goodwill
Build, show and break · 9 departments · one WhatsApp group nobody can scroll
WHAT GOES WRONG
Snags are reported by shouting, tracked in a notebook, and closed when someone remembers. Nothing survives to the debrief.
WHAT BLOOP DOES
Anyone on site raises an issue from their phone with a location and a photo. It gets a reference, a clock and a department. The wallboard in the production office shows what is still open.
A production budget that only makes sense afterwards
£1.2m production spend · 6 departments raising POs · a finance office in another building
WHAT GOES WRONG
Costs land weeks after the trucks leave, the budget is archaeology by then, and the overspend was knowable in build week.
WHAT BLOOP DOES
Spend commits when it happens: a PO raised, a line committed. Budgets are live during the build, and Xero reads the same numbers without anyone re-keying an invoice.
Not on the list?
The shapes above cover most of what we see, but the useful conversation is about yours. Bring the event you are most worried about, not the easy one.