A Belgian scheduling partner for Cactus Music Centre

Cactus Music Centre, Bruges' concert and festival organiser, faces the busiest period of the year in April, as it does every year. Besides a well-filled calendar at the Cactus Club, they are already organising the Cactus Festival in the Minnewater Park for the 39th time on Friday 7, Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 July 2023. We asked Felix, in charge of music programming and volunteers, what organising such a festival entails.

During the three-day Cactus Festival in the heart of the city of Bruges, a lot of volunteers are called in, for example as stewards or bar staff. "Setting up a festival like this requires good preparation and many helping hands, for which we can call on a team of more than 700 volunteers. There are a lot of people who volunteer every year, but there are also many new faces at every edition. Anyone who wants to, can sign up via our website, that way all the details go straight into our Beeple database." explains Felix.

Digital planning

"Since last year, in fact, the entire planning process has been done online. Volunteers create a profile and apply for the shifts we have created. Thanks to Beeple, we can make shifts visible only to people with the right profile or responsibilities." he continues.

By fully digitising the planning process, follow-up has been greatly simplified. Planners now have a good overview of the status of the planning so they don't schedule volunteers two shifts in a row, for example. Felix: "We start scheduling volunteers at the beginning of April. Those who have already worked a shift at one of the previous editions will first get a chance to pass on their preferences. Registrations will open for everyone in mid-April. As soon as I receive registrations, I can assign staff to shifts and the volunteers only have to confirm that they accept the shift, so no more endless mail traffic and a lot less chance of no-shows."

Also in need of a planning tool to schedule your volunteers?

A Belgian scheduling partner

"When our previous partner ceased to exist, we were forced to look for an alternative. Beeple was recommended to us by another festival organiser. The fact that Beeple is a Belgian tool with a lot of experience in supporting events and festivals was the deciding factor for us. Beeple can do a lot - sometimes even too much for us - but thanks to the support of our Customer Success Manager at Beeple, we managed to find a way of working that makes our planning process much more efficient."

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