One record. Every role. Nothing manual twice.

Six systems, one spreadsheet

Right now, one spreadsheet is doing the work of six systems: guest intake, ops tracking, accreditation, session logistics, shuttle coordination, and guest communication, for delegates across multiple countries and languages, with no single source of truth.

Every downstream need, the dashboard, the accreditation list, the shuttle manifest, is hand-derived from the same raw sheet, every time, by a person. That person's time is the scarce resource that should be going to brand and client relationships instead.

One core, many views

One data core, exposed as role-scoped views. No duplicate entry, no re-keying between spreadsheets, and adding a new role later means a new view, not a new system.

Your dashboard doesn't need to be checked, it pushes only when something needs attention: a conflicting record, an incomplete profile, an unfilled shuttle seat. Everything else, it stays quiet.

Yours to start, every time

You or Grant create every event yourselves, directly in the system. No call to us, no waiting on anyone. Enter the name, dates, and venue, submit, and the rest builds itself:

Sent by the system, not the coordinator

Change-triggered, not manually sent, split by purpose rather than preference:

• SMS, the default for time-critical logistics (shuttle pickup, gate changes, check-in reminders). Works without an app, data connectivity, or opt-in friction, which matters given the delegate base spans Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Botswana and beyond.
• WhatsApp, rich content: QR codes, agenda links, documents.
• Escalation by time-to-event, channel selection shifts to SMS automatically as an event approaches.
• Correction loop, a guest reply ("wrong flight") auto-flags their record for review, using the same channel that sent the reminder.

Prepaid, not a subscription

The AI processing and SMS/WhatsApp messages behind the notification engine aren't a fixed monthly fee, they work like prepaid airtime. You load an amount, the system draws down a little each time it sends a message or processes something automatically, and it stops the moment the balance runs out. There's no debt to run up, only a balance to top up, and only with your say-so.

Think of it as a direct event cost, the same category as catering or name badges, a small per-delegate cost that scales with headcount, not overhead sitting on top of the build fee.

We'd start with a small, capped pilot float rather than a full commitment, something in the region of R500 to R1,000. You'll always be able to see the balance and what it's been spent on, and it only ever gets topped up with your approval, never automatically.

To size the float properly

Guessing this number is exactly how spend becomes hard to defend. To quote it honestly rather than roughly, we need:

• Delegates per event, roughly how many guests a typical event carries.
• Events per year, how often this runs, since that's what turns a per-event cost into an annual one.
• Delegate countries, which countries your guests typically travel from. We can start from the Southern Africa Human Rights Conference data as a baseline, but confirm if that's representative or unusually broad.
• A starting float amount you're comfortable piloting with, R500 to R1,000 is our suggestion, but it's your call.

Consent, not assumption

Passport images and health or accessibility data are collected across multiple jurisdictions. The intake wizard carries explicit consent language for automated messaging, rather than treating consent as implied by a submitted WhatsApp number.

The same treatment, for your team

You assemble a different team per event, that gets the same treatment as delegate data, not a bolted-on afterthought.

• Crew records mirror the delegate architecture: one core, role-scoped views, applied to a second population.
• Time-bound access, a crew member's permissions activate on assignment and auto-expire when the event closes. No manual revocation step, no standing access risk from past freelance staff.
• Same device, one more job, the accreditation tablet already scanning guests also handles crew check-in on event day.

A design system for Melted Workx

These tokens are read directly off your live site, the blush pink frame, the charcoal overlay, the gold "Solutions" highlight, the rounded sans headline, the brush-script wordmark. Not a proposed direction this time, your existing identity, carried into the product.

Gold marks the same thing it marks on your site, the highlighted, active choice: a menu item in focus, a primary action. Charcoal carries structure and text. Blush stays the warm frame around the content, used sparingly inside the product for calm or resolved states rather than as a background.

What it could look like

Four screens from the Phase 1 scope, styled in the direction above: creating a new event, a guest's intake step, your exception-only dashboard, and the shuttle message a delegate actually receives.

Want to click through this yourself? Try the interactive demo, sample data, no sign-up.

How this rolls out

From build to trusted at a real event

A system isn't useful the day it's finished being built, it's useful once you trust it enough to run an event through it. So rollout happens in three stages, each with its own purpose. Here's what each one actually means:

What training actually looks like

Two decisions already built into this proposal do most of the work here, worth explaining directly rather than just reassuring you about it:

• One screen, not the whole system. Because each role only sees its own view, you only ever see your own dashboard. Guests use the intake wizard, staff use accreditation, delegates get SMS, you were never going to be trained on all of it, just your own corner.
• Your screen is designed to show almost nothing. It only speaks up when something needs attention. There's no dense admin panel to master, most of the time, there's simply nothing to look at.

Training itself: a 30–45 minute walkthrough using your real upcoming event's data, not a generic demo, timed to land right before the shadow run so it's used immediately rather than half-remembered weeks later. No manual, no course, one thing to recognise: when something's amber, tap it.

What this costs

A first estimate, built bottom-up from the Phase 1 scope above, not a final quote. Rates reflect current Cape Town freelance market bands for this level of work.

Phase 1 investment: R49,000 to R58,500. The final number depends on two confirmations already flagged below, VIP/media segmentation and the delegate country breakdown, once those are locked, so is the price.

Ongoing retainer

Since you're open to one: three tiers, hosting and support only. The usage float above sits outside all three, billed separately at cost plus a stated margin.

Pending Grant's input