Event Production Weekly: Chaos, Budgets, Wedding Planners, Tool Sprawl and AI
Five ideas from this week in event production: chaos as a strategy, honest budgets, wedding planners, tool sprawl and where AI fits. From the founders of Lavori.
Every day this week I posted one idea on LinkedIn about how events actually get made. Here are all five in one place.
1. Chaos is not a strategy (https://lnkd.in/p/eaa2KMSz)
Every production company says some version of the same thing: “We just figure it out.” I’ve run plenty of events that way myself.
It sounds like competence. Usually it means someone stayed up until 2am building the run of show, finishing the quote and finalizing the creative deck. It means the person running the show can never take a week off.
Live events will always have some chaos. The goal is to stop calling it a strategy.
Where Lavori fits: the run of show, the quote, the tasks and the files live inside the project, so the whole show isn’t stored in one person’s head.
2. The $20K budget and the $50K idea (https://lnkd.in/p/eMmHuqv5)
A client shows up with $20K and a $50K idea. You can say yes and quietly cut corners, or say no and lose the job.
There’s a third answer. Build the quote for the full idea, walk the client through it line by line, and ask what matters most to them. It’s okay to show someone what everything will cost, even when it’s outside their budget. Partnership starts when you find a way for them to win and for you to win. It takes more time, and more often than not it earns you more events with that client.
Where Lavori fits: budgets and quotes sit in the same project. Line items, markup and margin are visible before you send anything, and quotes go out with e-signature.
3. Wedding planners are some of the best operators in events (https://lnkd.in/p/ewyMKNxM)
It’s usually one planner with a dozen vendors who don’t work for them. The client is often a younger couple spending more than they ever have, on a day they only get once, with their families and friends watching. There’s typically no production manager and no second set of hands until the week of.
On the corporate side, managing everyone with opinions about an event can be someone’s whole job. Wedding planners do it on top of everything else.
Where Lavori fits: vendors and contacts, tasks, the timeline, quotes and invoices for each wedding live in one place. Contractors and viewers are always free.
4. Running an events company on 8 different tools (https://lnkd.in/p/e8JiVvHB)
Projects in Monday.com. Budgets in a spreadsheet. Crew in Deputy. Invoices in QuickBooks. Files in Dropbox and Drive. Notes in Notion. Contacts in a phone. Everything else in Slack.
None of them were bad. Each one did its job, but the work in between was chaotic, and I was the one holding it together. So Collin Rucker and I built Lavori. I knew the problem, and Collin designed and engineered the platform to fix it.
Where Lavori fits: one workspace for the project, the crew, the budget, the quote, the invoice, the files and the conversation about all of it, with Threads keeping the team chat next to the work.
5. AI should support the tools, not replace them (https://lnkd.in/p/e8JiVvHB)
Planners are split on AI. A January 2026 VenueNow survey found 49% of planners weren’t sure they’d use AI this year. The 2026 Future of the Meetings Industry study found nearly 70% already use tools like ChatGPT to source destinations.
My take: when we started building, I didn’t want an AI product. I wanted real backend software that gets projects, crew, budgets, quotes and invoices right. AI works best on top of a system like that, because the real data is already there.
Where Lavori fits: the AI assistant answers questions and creates or updates records from your actual workspace data, and Lavori also connects directly to Claude and ChatGPT. AI supports the work. It isn’t the work.
The thread through all five
Events run on people, money and timing. When those live in eight places, someone pays for it, usually the team. Lavori is event management software built to keep them in one place.
Want to see it? Book a free 30-minute call with a founder at lavori.io.
Frequently asked questions
What is event management software? Software that runs the business side of events: projects, tasks, crew scheduling, budgets, quotes, invoices and client communication. Lavori combines these in one workspace for event producers, wedding planners, production managers and creative agencies.
What software do wedding planners use to manage vendors and budgets? Many use a mix of spreadsheets, a CRM, an invoicing tool and group texts. Lavori puts contacts, timelines, quotes and invoices for each wedding in one project.
Can one tool replace Monday.com, QuickBooks, Deputy and Slack for an events company? Lavori covers project management, crew scheduling, budgets, quotes, invoices, file storage and team messaging in one platform. You can try it alongside your current tools first.
Does Lavori use AI? Yes. An AI assistant works across your workspace data, and Lavori connects to Claude and ChatGPT. The core is event management software; AI supports it.