Tools & guides

Concurrent activity and crew planner

Two things you care about happen at the same hour, in different rooms, and one photographer cannot be in both.

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Short answer

List each activity you want covered with its start, finish, location and travel time to the next place. The planner highlights overlaps and tight moves, and shows the lowest number of people needed to cover everything. It then gives you questions to settle with the team, because the result is a lower bound, not a staffing promise.

What this planner does

It finds the points where your programme asks a photographer to be in two places. You list activities with their times and locations, and it draws an overlap map. Where two must-cover items collide, it flags the clash. Where the gap between two places is shorter than the move, it flags that too.

How to use it

  1. Add each activity you want covered, with the start, end and location.
  2. Mark every item as must-cover, good to have or flexible.
  3. Enter the time it takes to move between each pair of places, with a margin.
  4. Press the button and read the overlap map, the minimum crew figure and the questions list.

Reading the result

The minimum crew figure counts how many people would be needed at the busiest moment if nobody moved. It is a lower bound. A real plan also depends on who is where, whether someone can cover one room and then the next, and which moments you would rather keep.

When two must-cover items overlap, you have four options: add a person, shorten one item, move one item or accept lighter coverage of one. Our guide to choosing between planned activities that overlap walks through the trade-offs. If you add a person, read what an additional photographer costs in our guide on budgeting for an additional photographer and simultaneous venues or rooms.

What to do next

Check the total window with the coverage hours planner. If a group portrait is among the clashes, the group photograph planner shows how long it needs. For the wider picture, see our guide to run sheets, priorities and staffing.

Assumptions and limits

The planner works only from the times and places you enter. It does not know how a venue is laid out, how crowded it will be or who is available on your date. Guest numbers are context, not a rule. Crew is confirmed by us in writing for each booking. Your answers stay in your browser unless you choose to save them on this device.

Send us the overlap map and tell us which activities are flexible. We will reply in writing with how we propose to cover them, or what compromise we suggest.

Confirm our crew for these overlaps

Common questions

Does the result mean I must book that many photographers?

No. It is the smallest number that could cover every listed activity without moving between them. You may choose to drop, shorten or shift an activity instead. The team confirms crew in writing for your event.

How should I treat travel time?

Enter your own estimate for moving between places, and add a margin for crowds or lifts. The planner does not estimate travel for you, because it depends on your venue.

Does guest count change the answer?

Only as context. A large group in one room may need more attention than a small one, but the overlap calculation uses time and place, not headcount.

What if an activity is flexible?

Mark it as flexible. The planner then shows which overlaps could be removed by moving that item, so you can raise it with the organiser.

Confirm our crew for these overlaps

Send us the overlap map and tell us which activities are flexible. We will reply in writing with how we propose to cover them, or what compromise we suggest.

What happens next: You send your event details on WhatsApp. Our team reads the brief, asks what is missing, then confirms in writing whether the date, venue and coverage can be booked, with a quotation. Opening WhatsApp does not send anything, and a message is not a booking until both sides confirm.

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