Event Control Room
The Event Control Room is a live operational view for event managers and administrators during an event. It shows a grid of every staff member with their current status, surfaces anyone running late, lets you broadcast or send direct messages to staff, log incidents as they happen, and silently jump into an online meeting if you need to check in. It is built for the busiest part of running an event, when you need a single place to see what is going on without bouncing between pages.
When to use it
The control room is most useful while an event is actually happening, but it is also a good place to do a final dry-run the day before, or to debrief after the event has wrapped up. You can open it on any date for an event you have set up, so the staff grid will simply show "off today" for staff whose schedule has not yet started or has already finished.
Opening the control room
- Open the event from the Events menu.
- Click Control Room in the event navigation.
The control room opens in a focused, full-width view that is designed for use on a tablet, laptop, or large second monitor in your event hub. There is a light or dark theme toggle in the top-right corner, and the page remembers your preference between sessions.
What the page shows
The control room is split into a header strip, a utilisation summary, the staff grid, and a side panel with messages and the incident log.
Utilisation summary
The strip across the top of the page shows a live count of how many staff members are currently in a meeting, on a break, free, not yet started, finished for the day, or off today, along with a count of anyone running late. It refreshes every ten seconds, so you can tell at a glance whether your event is humming along or whether several staff members need a hand.
Staff grid
The grid is the main view, and lists every staff member taking part in the event. Each card shows the staff member's name, current status, what they are doing right now, what their next booking is, and how their day is going overall. Staff are sorted so that the people who need attention float to the top, with anyone running late or about to start a meeting shown before staff who are free or finished.
The status of each staff member is one of:
- In meeting - currently in a booked time slot
- On break - on a scheduled break
- Running late - has past bookings that have not been marked as completed or no-show
- Free - between bookings but inside their working window
- Not started - their first booking of the day is still upcoming
- Finished - all of their bookings for the day are done
- Off today - they are not scheduled on the current date
Running-late detection is based on whether a staff member has finished marking their bookings rather than on a fixed countdown, so a staff member whose last meeting overran but who is still meeting with the right family will appear as "running late" until they catch up on the My Day console.
For online bookings, a button on the active card lets you jump into the staff member's meeting room as a silent observer (described below).
Messages
The Messages tab on the right of the page lets you send a quick update to staff without leaving the control room. You can either broadcast to All staff at once, or pick an individual staff member from the dropdown. Each message has an alert level:
- Normal - a routine update, such as letting staff know that bookings are running on time or that there is fresh coffee in the staff room
- Critical - reserved for messages that need immediate attention, such as a fire drill, an evacuation, or a major schedule change
Messages appear in the staff member's My Day console as a banner with a chime, and stay visible until the staff member dismisses them. Sent messages are kept as a permanent audit trail for the event so you can review what was sent and when.
Incidents
The Incidents tab is for capturing things that go wrong during the event so you can review them later. Logging an incident records a free-text description of what happened and, optionally, the staff member it relates to. You can mark an incident as resolved when it has been dealt with, and reopen it later if you need to.
Incidents are kept after the event has finished, including through the standard 90-day anonymisation process, so you have an honest record of what to fix or improve next time. The full incident log is available as a separate Incidents page from the event menu after the event has finished.
Jumping into an online meeting
For online bookings that are currently in progress, the control room offers a Join silently button on the staff member's card. Clicking it opens the staff member's video room in a small overlay with your camera and microphone turned off, so you can check that everything is running smoothly without interrupting the conversation. Your name appears in the participant list as your name followed by your school name in brackets, so the staff member knows you are observing rather than mistaking you for a participant.
This is a useful way to check in on staff who have flagged that they are nervous about running an online conference, to confirm the audio is working without the staff member needing to leave the meeting, or to deal with a complaint by reviewing what is happening in the room directly.
Even though you have joined with your camera and microphone off, your name is visible to everyone in the room. Treat this as you would walking into a classroom during a lesson, and let the staff member know in advance that the feature exists so it is not a surprise the first time you use it.
Tips for using the control room well
- Run the control room on a separate device. Keep it open on a tablet or second screen at your event hub so it does not clash with whatever else you are doing
- Use the broadcast feature sparingly. Staff are dismissing banners between meetings, so save broadcasts for things that genuinely affect everyone
- Log incidents while they are fresh. A two-line note during the event is easier to act on later than a longer write-up the next morning
- Do a rehearsal pass. Open the control room the day before, mark a couple of test bookings as completed, and confirm that messages flow through to the My Day console as expected