After over 10 years at Yesplan, Wim Casier decided to go on a solo expedition to elevate the Yesplan experience for theatres and concert halls. As a comfort coach, he optimises and streamlines their digital processes. Why comfort? “If you put the comfort of users first in a digital process, the rest will follow.”
Wim earned his stripes in the Arts & Culture industry over two decades ago in Ghent-based Arts Centre Vooruit (now VIERNULVIER), where he was responsible for production. At that time they still worked with pen and paper to do their event planning.
“Together with a colleague, I managed to automate a part of the planning process using Excel. In the next phase, we convinced the coordinators, among them Wouter Vermeylen (now VP of Yesplan), to start using a digital event planning software,” Wim recalls.
They started looking at the different tools that were available at the time. Quickly they realised that venues had to comply with the rules of those event planning solutions, instead of the other way around.
In collaboration with a couple of software engineers, who were then working as researchers at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, a decision was made to develop an event planning system - a piece of software that would be able to perfectly cater to the needs of cultural venues. And so Yesplan was born, where Wim took on the role of Customer Success Manager.
In his role as an external consultant, Wim puts the comfort of people first in his mission to optimise the digital workflows of venues. Here is a step-by-step process that he recommends when taking on a new project involving Yesplan:
“Firstly I identify the issues that I want to solve together with the venue. In order to fully understand all the needs and wishes of the reorganisation, active listening is key during this phase of the process.”
“For the next step you have to pinpoint the right people to involve at every step of the project. This group of administrators will be vital for the inclusion of the rest of the staff.”
“Afterwards it’s time to start working with the actual software. Yesplan is like a box full of Lego pieces, where you decide what the end result looks like. As a consultant, it’s my job to build the house that the organisation has in my mind.”
“If you would have asked me this question a couple of months ago, I would have said Dataviews. But after Yesplan launched the Excel Add-In, it has become my top favourite. With this feature you can have a clear overview of the financial health of your venue. Calculating the break-even point or gaining insights into your ticket sales has never been easier.”
“When an organisation chooses to start using Yesplan, they also choose to review their internal processes. For this reason, it’s important that system administrators include as many colleagues in the process as possible and ask for opinions on certain changes,as well as risk factors.
Think about the workflows and how to optimise them. If you put the comfort of your colleagues first, the rest will follow. Doing so creates more goodwill in an organisation to make Yesplan a success story for everyone.”
Looking for someone to rethink your digital processes and workflows? A certain someone who places the comfort of you and your staff first? Take a look at Wim's LinkedIn page.
Yesplan is intuitive all-in-one event planning software that allows you take control of your event management. Care to experience it from up close? Join us during one of our webinars.
