Celebrating 40 years of Welsh excellence
2023 marks St. David’s Hall 40th birthday. Over these years, the concert hall has become renowned for its incredible acoustics. The concert hall was included in the world’s Top Ten concert halls for acoustics in the Journal of Acoustical Society of America. This positions the venue ideally for recording and broadcasting live classical concerts, as the BBC regularly does.
The main concert hall can accommodate just under 2000 attendees at full capacity. Guiding us through the venue’s story is Assistant Programme Manager Joanne John, who has been working at the venue for over 16 years now.
Installing Yesplan: A family affair
Before Yesplan was introduced, St. David’s Hall used an outdated system with a limited number of licences. “Only so many people could be logged in at the same time. Whenever you wanted to edit information about an event, you had to write it down, call a colleague on the other side of the building, ask them to log off and only then log in yourself to make the edits,” Joanne says.
However, Yesplan allows an unlimited amount of licences, so the choice to switch was quickly made.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Joanne set up Yesplan together with her husband, who also works for St. David’s Hall. “It became a sort of family project actually. Amid lockdown, we both worked from home, trying to set up the ideal event planning system catering to the venue’s needs,” Joanne recalls.
Events on pause, Yesplan in motion
She and her husband carefully implemented Yesplan step-by-step. After which they introduced it to the rest of the team incrementally. First came the Programming Team, after that the department heads and then it was rolled out to the rest of the colleagues.
“The Programming Team quickly started using Yesplan to manage cancellations during the lockdowns. The colour-coded calendar view was immensely helpful in distinguishing rescheduled and cancelled events,” Joanne tells us.
Clearer visibility with colour-coded statuses
The colour-coded system plays a pivotal role in indicating an event’s booking stage. In Yesplan you can assign a status to an event to show in which phase of the booking cycle the event sits. “Essentially, we use it as a queue. Because the British love to queue (laughs). It goes from a first reserve to a second all the way to being confirmed. The simplicity and clarity of this overview is what makes Yesplan amazing for me,” Joanne explains.
Another thing she appreciates about Yesplan is the terminology being used. “The previous system used terminology that held no relevance to events or shows whatsoever. However, even Yesplan’s basic setup uses the words prevailing in the Arts & Culture Industry. It feels as though Yesplan was developed by people who truly understand the industry.”
Inside pictures by Gareth Griffiths and outside picture by Kieron Ridley.
