EventSpace

A Spatial Canvas for Visual Event Coordination

If you’ve ever managed an event on the ground, you know that the reality of the day rarely looks like the spreadsheet you planned it on.

A few months ago, I was watching my girlfriend navigate the chaos of event coordination. She was constantly translating between linear, top-down checklists and the actual physical reality of a venue. Managing an event means juggling a dozen things at once – confirming table layouts with Facilities (FM), testing lapel mics with the Audio/Visual (AV) team, and making sure the Catering (CT) hasn't run out of coffee.

The core problem she faced was twofold: First, standard task managers are too rigid. They don’t let you spatially map out dependencies or group vendor contacts right next to the floor plan. Second, when you are actually on the event floor, pulling out a laptop to update a checklist or type out a friction log is impossible.

Coming from my day job in media and video production, I’ve always approached problems visually. A timeline or a storyboard makes sense to me. I realised my girlfriend didn't need another to-do list app; she needed a spatial canvas.

So, I built EventSpace.

The Approach: Thinking Spatially

EventSpace is designed from the ground up for visual thinkers. Instead of rows and columns, you start with an infinite, freeform spatial canvas.

Need to track a vendor? Drop a Chaser Block. Need to keep the stage layout handy? Drop a Picture Block with a high-res image. Need to jot down some briefing notes? Toss in an Info Block. You can drag, drop, and connect these blocks in a way that visually maps to how your brain (or your venue) is actually organised.

Because certain logistics apply to almost every event, I built in overarching, persistent department checklists for FM, AV, and Catering that live pinned to the top of the workspace.

The Solution: The Mobile Companion

A desktop canvas is great for planning, but my girlfriend needed something for execution. The solution was to build a dual-interface system.

EventSpace includes a dedicated Mobile Companion app. By tapping the settings gear on the desktop canvas, you get a secure PIN to pair your phone. Once paired, the mobile app strips away the complex canvas and gives you an ultra-fast "Quick Capture" interface built for the event floor:

• Snap & Sync: Tap the Picture block on your phone, snap a photo of the actual room setup, and it instantly drops onto the desktop canvas.
• AI Voice Memos: No time to type? Tap the Audio block, record a quick voice briefing, and the app uses on-device AI transcription to automatically generate a bulleted summary of action points.
• Cross-Device Sync: Everything happens in real-time, backed by a lightning-fast SQLite database.

Built for the Homelab

As someone who relies heavily on Unraid and Docker for my own self-hosted setup, it was critical that EventSpace be trivial to deploy.

I engineered the entire platform – the React Web Canvas, the touch-first Mobile Companion, and the Express REST API – into a single, unified Docker container. It all runs beautifully on a single port. You just spin it up, point a Cloudflare Zero Trust tunnel at it, and you have a secure, production-ready event management platform accessible from anywhere in the world.

Available Now

EventSpace v1.0 is officially live. If you're running Unraid, the template will be hitting the Community Apps store shortly. If you want to spin it up right now via Docker CLI or Compose, you can pull the image directly from Docker Hub (donotknock/eventspace:latest).

You can check out the full documentation and source code over on GitHub.

If EventSpace helps bring a little order to your next chaotic event, consider dropping a tip in my Ko-fi. Happy planning!