Lisbon, 2018. A festival was bringing together performance artists from around the world for a multi-day showcase. With an expected audience of 20,000, the operations team brought in several volunteers and booked the largest arena in Portugal for the event. As the event got closer, and the showtime logistics became increasingly complicated, a lingering question was on everyone’s mind: how do we keep track of several people across a large venue all at the same time?

The team had brought in many people, but wasn’t inclined to spend money on tracking software. The steps to prepare an artist to be on stage couldn’t be trimmed down (makeup is hard to skip), the artists spoke a variety of languages, and the volunteers could only be briefed on-site. So how do we make a tool that’s easy to use, easy to customize, and can be built for free? …