Event recurring calendar capacity planner
Your secretariat runs several events a year, some overlapping, and one person keeps appearing as the lead on all of them.
…
The short answer
The planner lays each role's workload across the calendar, day by day, and flags every period where the load is above that person's stated availability. Repeating events are expanded so a clash in a later cycle shows up too.
Two full-time commitments in the same days can never be shown as covered by one lead. The tool reports a conflict instead.
What to enter
- Roles: the people or posts that carry event work, with availability as a share of a full-time week. 100 means full-time and 50 means half.
- Commitments: one row per workload period for one role, with the event name, start and end dates and the load as a share of a full-time week.
- Repeats: for an event that recurs, a repeat interval in days and the total number of occurrences.
- Shared tasks: give rows that serve several events the same label, such as speaker liaison, so the work is counted once.
How capacity is checked
For every day the tool adds the loads that apply to a role. Rows with the same shared-task label count once, at the largest load. If the total is above the role's availability, that period is a conflict and the events involved are named.
Back-to-back periods that do not share a day are not a clash. A load exactly equal to availability is covered.
Unknowns
A blank load is unknown. The row is excluded and listed, never counted as zero. A role with no availability entered gets no coverage claim at all.
Public holidays, leave and part-time patterns are not known to the tool. Reduce the availability figure to reflect them.
Using the result
A conflict is a prompt for a decision: move a date, share the task, add capacity or drop something. Record the choice in the decision log and check what each person must deliver in the event brief builder.
If you are weighing whether to add outside capacity, the outsource-or-keep worksheet compares tasks, hours and skills.
Worked example · Fictional example
A fictional two-event month
Fictional figures, to show how a clash appears.
A fictional association has an annual forum from 2 to 27 November and a roundtable from 16 to 20 November, both at 100 percent for the event lead. The tool flags 16 to 20 November at a combined load of 200 against an availability of 100.
The coordinator carries speaker liaison for both events at 30 percent. Because both rows share a label, the load counts once and the coordinator stays within a 50 percent availability.
Use this yourself
Capacity calendar worksheet
List each role's commitments, then add the loads for any overlapping dates and compare with availability.
| Role | Availability (% of full-time) | Event | Start | End | Load (% of full-time) | Overlaps with |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Handle it in-house, or bring in help?
Your team can usually handle this when
- Events are few, roles are clear and the tool shows no conflict in the periods you entered.
- A single clash can be solved by moving a date or sharing a task.
Outside planning help earns its fee when
- The same lead is needed full-time on several events and the calendar cannot move.
- Events recur through the year and someone has to keep the plan, suppliers and handovers running between them.
- The committee wants one party to coordinate decisions across concurrent events.
Want one calendar and one lead across recurring events?
Recurring programme management can hold the annual calendar, the workload periods and the handovers between events, with agreed scope and decisions kept with your committee. A project lead can take on the coordination for the periods where your own team is already full.
Questions organisers ask
Can one lead cover two full-time events at once?
No. Two full-time commitments in the same days add up to 200 percent of a full-time week, so the tool shows a conflict.
What does a shared task label do?
Rows for the same role with the same label count once at the larger load, because one piece of work serves both events.
What if I do not know someone's availability?
Leave it blank. The role is flagged and no coverage claim is made for it.
Related resources
Content record: Draft. Written from the cited sources and checked by automated rules; not yet independently reviewed.