Propared is our love letter to the industry.
Here are some love letters from you.
Theatre & Performance
American Conservatory Theater
Producing Theater, San Francisco, CA, USA
“Before Propared we created:
- 6 unique calendars for EACH main-stage show (Equity Actors Calendar, Production Load-In Calendar, Crew Call Calendar, Show Performance Calendar, etc.).
- A monthly company calendar (created in excel)
- A yearly company grid calendar (also in excel)
- Venue management calendars for our 8 studios (using outlook)
Now, with Propared, we only enter data once, and can filter it any way we want. We can create a lot of unique calendars using the same information. We also don’t print calendars anymore, and we’ve eliminated all version confusion. When we make a change in Propared it pushes to everyone who has a link to the calendar.”
– Robert Hand, Associate Production Manager
Read the full A.C.T. story here.
Alley Theatre
Producing Theater, Houston, TX, USA
“When I took over institutional calendaring, I knew we needed to change our process away from Calendar Creator to something more modern, but I was skeptical that I could get the institution to make such a big commitment when other companies were quoting us 20k – 60k and a years-long implementation process.
Then we had a Propared demo with Ryan where he said we were looking at a fraction of the price of similar systems, and I could be set up in a day. I knew we had a solution everyone in the company would be happy about.
It was a dream to work with Ryan and the Propared team as we got started. Initial conversations were helpful in getting my GM excited about the program and laying out the basic structure for other key stakeholders. Onboarding was painless. The program is user-friendly so there’s not much need for onboarding anyway, but the video tutorials were a helpful guide to starting up and the articles about rolling the program out to our staff were invaluable.
Now that we’re up and running, we’ve saved immeasurable time by having a central set of data. One change in Propared and countless calendars are updated for easy viewing and distribution.
We used to get an email every week with a new calendar. There was very little information about what had changed in each calendar, and it was for the full year. Many people printed out that calendar, wasting tons of paper and toner each week.
Now, with our staff working from home due to the pandemic, we see even more value of having Propared as a central, web-based calendar keeping our staff aligned as we try to figure out a new way to work. The reliability of Propared being a web-based system and not tied to a local server has also proved valuable with power outages during our recent winter storm.
Ongoing support is very personal. I almost always get immediate attention from someone at Propared to answer my goofy questions. They always answer my questions quickly, and I usually have a solution or I know that it’s something that’s in the works.”
–Julie Ann Arbiter, Associate Production Manager
Arts Brookfield
Producing & Presenting Organization, New York, NY, USA
“I used to spend tons of time cross-referencing Google calendar to create a printable calendar for our main property. I had to input each event manually, choose its background color and make sure the text color contrasted enough to be seen. The software we were using was ancient and not supported by its developers anymore. Creating our calendars was a chore that took longer with each passing month.
I love that Propared automatically displays everything in our various master calendars. The ability to save templates, duplicate events, assign tasks, auto-generate calendars and work calls, and the ability to look at projects both individually AND as part of a larger whole makes Propared worth every single penny to me.
We also love the one-on-one support. Propared’s customer service, starting with initial conversations and throughout onboarding and consistent use of the product, feels like white-glove concierge service. Your concerns are heard and addressed quickly, and Ryan and the team are great at coming up with out of the box solutions for new challenges that aren’t pre-solved by the software.
It’s so great to have built-in support available via the chat function. It’s become a constant refrain in meetings – ‘just chat with Ryan!'”
–Emily Rolston, Production Manager
Garden Theatre
Producing Theater, Winter Garden, Florida, USA
“Propared is a great season planning tool. We use it to program our theatrical season, movie series, city responsibilities, rentals, and education. Propared allows us to see conflicts early enough that we have time to shift and juggle internally rather than have have to search search for an emergency rental space at the last minute.
Onboarding was great. A chance to talk in person was an extra bonus. The video how-to’s are good and covered everything I needed. Their responses to issues are quick and thorough.
Overall, it’s been worth every penny, especially in a time of minimized income.”
-Jason Golinsky, Production Manager
Performing Arts Centers & Venues
The Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts
Performing Arts Center, Raleigh, NC, USA
“We use Propared to schedule crew labor for a busy multi-venue complex. I wanted to see if we could find a way to calculate the value of Propared now that it’s in full use here at our facility.
To do so, we calculated the money spent on billable labor hours in a given month and similarly, the total crew hours worked.
Before we adopted Propared we saw somewhere between 2-5 schedule ‘mistakes’ in any given week. This translated to roughly 1-4% of the scheduled work hours being botched in some fashion – entire missed calls, or someone showing up an hour early or an hour late.
Our estimated costs for lost or misplaced hours could be as high as $8,400 per month!
Now, with Propared, our schedule problems now are effectively 0%. The schedule webpages for our crew are a huge hit. And we love how much more accurate our attendance is.
Propared saves us money every month, making the subscription cost a no-brainer.
– Paul Marsland, Production Manager
Texas A&M University Corpus Christi
Performing Arts Center, Corpus Christi, TX, USA
“A little less than a year ago I was extremely overwhelmed with our planning process. Our team plans over 300 events a year. With all of our information and event logistics spread across several programs, I found it hard to keep everything organized. I stressed over event execution and found it hard not to micromanage our staff out of fear of forgetfulness, miscommunication, or last minute client changes. And we were letting details slip through the cracks!
Since we started using Propared, planning has become a seamless, stress-free process for both our full-time staff, part-time staff, and students. Propared provides a single hub for all information and cuts down on the time I spend communicating with everyone. I am now able to relax and trust in the team knowing that they have everything they need.
Overall, working with Propared and the Propared team has proven to me that the planning process can be your friend with the right system in place. I want to personally thank Ryan and his team for providing us with a fantastic planning software that is clear and easy to use. We are in awe of the level of customer service they provide us.”
–Alexandra Simons, Operations Manager
Festivals
Spoleto Festival USA
Performing Arts Festival, Charleston, SC, USA
“Propared has unequivocally made scheduling more efficient for our team. The value the platform has to offer is immeasurable and saves us not only time and money but countless headaches.
We’ve actually been able to eliminate an entire position since we started using the system. There are some other operational changes we made to make this achievable, but I don’t think we would have been able to even consider that as an option before having Propared in our lives.
From our initial demo call with Ryan through training and ongoing support, the entire team at Propared continue to be an incredible resource and provide a superior level of customer service that I truly have not experienced with any other software platform.
In addition, they are constantly working to further expand the platform and are eager and interested in feedback from their users. It certainly helps that the team has a thorough understanding of the industry and is from the industry and created Propared due to a lack of sufficient scheduling tools in our industry.
I can’t speak highly enough about Propared and count myself lucky to have found it!”
–Leah Gordon, Production Operations Manager
Moab Music Festival
Music Festival, Moab, Utah, USA
“Propared saves loads of time with communicating all things schedule related during the festival. The artists really enjoy being able to check their own schedule right through their phones, which in turn means many less emails/texts/phone calls with questions.
The support that is offered by the Propared team is wonderful and invaluable. I’ve always been amazed at how reachable and responsive they are.”
– Adrian Rosas, Artistic Coordinator
Event Production
ArchiteX
Production Management Company, Virtual Events, Denver, CO, USA
“We use Propared to build out all our production calendars for virtual events. We save so much time with Propared’s web-based calendars since we don’t need to send new versions each time we have a change. The fact that the calendar comes in a web page open to anyone without needing a password or to log in helps keep the important information easy and accessible and makes sure people actually refer to it!
The value of the software is exponential. We have two calendar creators but unlimited viewers. This workflow keeps control of the production schedule in our hands and facilitates conversations about possible changes without having too many cooks in the kitchen. It’s also a big money saver to have the cost based on users/editors and not on viewers; it enables us to share the calendar far and wide and make sure everyone on our team and our client’s teams are on the same page without needing to add a cost for sharing.
Propared has gold level support, any time we have had a question about how to do something or a new feature, we can get an answer from a real person (or puppy!) in five minutes or less.
A few months ago, I mentioned wanting to be able to view calendars by day, and gave a few examples of how I like my onsite daily schedules to look when I make them. Low and behold, a few months later, we have day view calendars for each event! Propared’s software development seems singularly responsive to users needs and wants.
– Greg Cornell, Owner
Bombshell
Production Company, Miami, FL, USA
“We never had scheduling software before Propared; which is hard to even comprehend now. Propared keeps the company grounded and focused on the appropriate priorities. It shows you what’s next, what’s due, and what’s on the horizon. Having all that information at everyone’s disposal without having to do much digging around saves a whole lot of time, and we know time is money.
– Herman Montero, Production Manager / Lighting Designer
Nel Shelby Productions
Video Production Company
“I began using propared to help my video team at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. We have a huge number of events to film and videos to make. In using Propared my team now knows what they are doing day-to-day. They feel organized and at the end of the day we can just focus on getting our work done as opposed to constantly discussing logistics.
I am constantly in the know of what is going on with my team and myself. Not to mention that Ryan is there to answer a quick question or share a new way to put Propared to work for me.”
– Nel Shelby, Owner
Education
Azusa Pacific University
University Theatre Department, Azusa, CA, USA
“Propared speaks the language of theatre and events. We have standardized communication and paperwork for productions throughout an entire season with efficient scheduling and tracking of department tasks. Propared empowers managers to do their work quickly and with more confidence. Ryan and the Propared team offer excellent customer service and respond to our needs with frequent updates.”
– Marc Ameel, Technical Director
Texas A&M University Corpus Christi
Performing Arts Center, Corpus Christi, TX, USA
“A little less than a year ago I was extremely overwhelmed with our planning process. Our team plans over 300 events a year. With all of our information and event logistics spread across several programs, I found it hard to keep everything organized. I stressed over event execution and found it hard not to micromanage our staff out of fear of forgetfulness, miscommunication, or last minute client changes. And we were letting details slip through the cracks!
Since we started using Propared, planning has become a seamless, stress-free process for both our full-time staff, part-time staff, and students. Propared provides a single hub for all information and cuts down on the time I spend communicating with everyone. I am now able to relax and trust in the team knowing that they have everything they need.
Overall, working with Propared and the Propared team has proven to me that the planning process can be your friend with the right system in place. I want to personally thank Ryan and his team for providing us with a fantastic planning software that is clear and easy to use. We are in awe of the level of customer service they provide us.”
–Alexandra Simons, Operations Manager