Build a micro-app to automate event ops without a dev team (7-day workflow)

Stop juggling spreadsheets, calendars and Slack threads — build a tiny app in 7 days that runs RSVP, staffing and logistics for your next event

If you manage events for a small business or operations team, you know the familiar bleed: RSVPs living in a sheet, last-minute staffing changes in Slack, and manual reminder emails that eat hours. This guide gives you a hands-on, 7-day no-code micro-app workflow that produces a usable MVP for RSVP management, staffing coordination and basic logistics — no dev team required. We use modern no-code platforms plus AI assistants (ChatGPT, Claude) to accelerate design, automate ops and make the result repeatable.

Why micro-apps for event ops matter in 2026

By late 2025 and into 2026, three forces changed how ops teams build tools:

• LLM copilots and agent orchestration let non-developers translate requirements into working automations and UI wireframes in minutes.
• No-code platforms offer robust backends (Airtable, Google Sheets), user interfaces (Glide, Softr, Retool), and plug-in automations (Zapier, Make, n8n) that integrate securely into corporate stacks.
• Micro-app thinking: teams are building small, event-centric apps designed to solve one workflow reliably and then iterate — lowering risk and speeding delivery.

"Micro-apps are short-lived, focused and cheap to iterate — perfect for event ops where requirements change by event."

That combination means an operations lead can prototype, test and launch an event app in a single week — and keep improving it as you collect real usage data.

What you'll have after 7 days

• A working micro-app (web or mobile) that captures RSVPs, collects required info (dietary needs, role), and automates confirmations + reminders.
• A simple staffing dashboard where managers assign shifts, confirm availability, and generate shift rosters.
• Automations that add calendar invites, send SMS/email reminders, and log check-ins.
• AI-assisted copy & templates for invites, volunteer instructions and escalation messages.
• Clear acceptance criteria and next-step handoff notes for scaling or handing to a developer.

Tools & prerequisites (non-developer friendly)

• Data backend: Airtable (recommended), Google Sheets (budget), or a small SQLite via Retool.
• Frontend / micro-app builder: Glide, Softr, or Retool for internal dashboards. Choose Glide or Softr for attendee-facing flows.
• Automation: Zapier, Make (Make.com), or n8n for event-triggered flows (emails, calendar invites, Slack notifications).
• Communications: Google Workspace (Gmail + Calendar), Twilio for SMS, SendGrid for higher-volume mail.
• AI assistants: ChatGPT (GPT-4o or later) and Claude 3 for prompts, copy, decision logic and test-case generation.
• Optional advanced: Pinecone or Chroma for RAG if you store event SOPs and want searchable docs; private LLM instances for sensitive data (2026 trend).

Before you start: define one clear MVP

Pick one event type (example: 200-person workshop). Define 3 essential flows — RSVP, Staff Shift Assignment, and Day-Of Check-in. Anything outside those goals is scope creep. Use this acceptance checklist:

• Attendees can register and receive confirmation + calendar invite.
• Staff can claim shifts and managers can assign backup staff.
• Automations send reminders 72hr and 2hr before, and update a live check-in log.
• Basic dashboard displays counts: registered, checked-in, staff on shift.

7-day hands-on workflow (day-by-day)

Day 1 — Rapid discovery & wireframe (2–3 hours)

Goal: Clarify workflows and produce a 1-page wireframe per user role (attendee, staff, manager).

1. Run a 60–90 minute kickoff with stakeholders. Ask: what is the one pain we must remove? Capture metrics (current manual time/week, no-show rate, staff confusion incidents).
2. Sketch three flows: Attendee registration, Staff scheduling, Manager dashboard. Keep inputs minimal: name, email, ticket type, dietary needs, t-shirt size, role.
3. Use an AI assistant to translate requirements into a concrete data model. Prompt example for ChatGPT: "Given an event registration flow for 200 attendees, produce an Airtable base schema with field names and types for attendee, staff, shift, and check-in tables."

Day 2 — Build the backend (Airtable or Sheets)

Goal: Create your canonical data source and form endpoints.

1. Implement the schema: tables for Events, Attendees, Staff, Shifts, Check-ins, and Communications (log).
2. Set primary keys and views: Active Registrations, Pending Confirmations, Past Events.
3. Enable form submission (Airtable Form or Google Form) for public RSVP. Add data validation for emails and phone numbers.

Day 3 — Build the front end (Glide / Softr / Retool)

Goal: Publish a simple UI for registrants and a staff-facing dashboard.

1. Create an attendee-facing page: registration form, event details, FAQ and venue map (embed Google Maps).
2. Create a staff app view: available shifts, claim button, staff profile and contact buttons (tel/mail).
3. Design a manager dashboard: counts, recent activity, quick actions (send reminder, reassign shift).

Day 4 — Automations (Zapier / Make / n8n)

Goal: Wire automations that trigger on new registrations, staffing changes and check-ins.

1. Automation #1 (Registration): When a new row appears in Attendees -> create a Calendar invite (Google Calendar), send confirmation email (SendGrid or Gmail), and add a 72hr reminder scheduled task.
2. Automation #2 (Staffing): When a staff member claims a shift -> update the Shifts table, notify manager via Slack, and send a shift confirmation to the staff member with check-in instructions.
3. Automation #3 (Check-in): When check-in is logged -> mark attendee as checked-in and update counts in the dashboard view. Optional: print a label using a Zebra printer integration or send data to badge-printing service.

Day 5 — Add AI helpers and input templates

Goal: Use ChatGPT/Claude to create templates, automate responses, and generate test scenarios.

• Generate copy: Use ChatGPT to produce confirmation emails, SMS reminders, volunteer instructions and escalation messages. Prompt: "Write a 2-line confirmation email for an attendee that includes a calendar invite, a short venue note, and a link to update their RSVP."
• Create AI assistant actions: small flows that answer common attendee questions (parking, accessibility) — use a knowledge base from your SOPs and connect via a RAG tool if available.
• Generate test data and edge cases: Ask Claude for a 50-row synthetic attendee list with varied dietary restrictions and timezone anomalies to test automations.

Day 6 — Test, pilot and iterate

Goal: Run a closed pilot with staff and 10–25 friendly attendees; fix logic and edge cases.

1. Run through these tests: duplicate registration prevention, calendar invite correctness, SMS deliverability, timezone handling, and staff reassign flow.
2. Collect feedback in a short form; adjust fields and automations accordingly.
3. Use AI to summarize pilot feedback and generate prioritized fixes: "Summarize these 12 pilot responses and produce a 5-item fix plan for our automations."

Day 7 — Launch, monitor and set KPIs

Goal: Open registration publicly, monitor the first 48 hours, and set a simple dashboard of metrics.

• Live checklist: ensure forms are public, calendar invites include correct timezones, and Twilio/SendGrid are verified to avoid deliverability issues.
• Set KPIs: registration rate (per day), no-show projection (and baseline), automation failure rate, and manual intervention hours saved.
• Schedule a 1-week retrospective to review data and decide whether to iterate in-product or hand off to devs for custom features.

Example: 200-person workshop — quick numbers

To make this concrete, here’s a compact example of impact you can expect during your first event:

• Time to build MVP: ~20–30 staff-hours across the week.
• Typical manual time saved: 6–12 hours per event (email reminders + roster management automated).
• Expected reduction in no-shows with auto-reminders: 10–25% (depending on audience).
• First-week automation failures: plan for 1–3 minor issues (calendar timezone mismatch, email bounce) and a quick hotfix.

Sample Airtable schema (fields you can copy)

• Events: event_id (PK), name, start_time, end_time, venue, capacity
• Attendees: attendee_id (PK), event_id (link), name, email, phone, ticket_type, dietary_restrictions, check_in_status, registered_at
• Staff: staff_id, name, email, phone, role, prefer_shift_times
• Shifts: shift_id, event_id, role_required, start_time, end_time, assigned_staff (link), backup_staff (link)
• Communications Log: comm_id, event_id, recipient, channel, message_snippet, status, sent_at

Plug-and-play ChatGPT and Claude prompts

Copy these prompts into ChatGPT/Claude to accelerate tasks:

• Generate email confirmation: "Write a short confirmation email for [EVENT NAME], including a calendar invite, parking instructions, and a single CTA to update RSVP."
• Staff shift message: "Create a 3-step shift confirmation message for staff including reporting time, check-in location, and emergency contact."
• Test generator: "Produce 50 synthetic attendees with realistic names, two contact methods, and randomly distributed dietary restrictions for testing."
• Edge-case analysis: "List 10 edge cases that would break event check-in automations and propose fixes."

Common pitfalls and how to avoid them

• Duplicate registrations: Use email + event_id as a uniqueness constraint and add an AI-generated friendly duplicate-merge routine.
• Timezone mixups: Always store timestamps in UTC and render in the user's timezone at display. Test with pilot users in different zones.
• Email/SMS deliverability: Verify sending domains, use verified Sender IDs, and monitor bounce reports in Day 1–3 of launch.
• Data privacy: If you include PII, use secure storage (Airtable Pro with SCIM/SAML where available) or private LLM options for AI processing.

KPIs to measure success

• Registration conversion rate: visits→registrations
• Automation reliability: percent of automations that run without manual intervention
• No-show rate
• Time saved per event (manual hours avoided)
• Staff satisfaction with scheduling (survey)

Advanced strategies and scaling (post-MVP)

Once the micro-app delivers value, consider these 2026-forward strategies:

• Agent orchestration: Use LLM agents to triage attendee requests, escalate to humans when needed, and automate exception handling.
• RAG for SOPs: Connect your event playbooks to a vector store so on-call staff can ask natural language questions during setup or day-of.
• Modular templates: Convert the micro-app into a reusable template for different event types (meetups, workshops, trade shows).
• Handoff to devs: Prepare an export package (API docs, data model, automation flows) so engineers can convert the micro-app into a production service with SSO, payments and high-volume integrations.

Real-world example: Rebecca Yu's vibe-code approach (why it works)

Rebecca Yu's week-long micro-app experiment in late 2025 shows the mindset: build quickly, refine with users, and accept that the first version is ephemeral but useful. For event ops, that means you can deploy something reliable fast, measure impact, and iterate — rather than waiting months for a perfect product.

Acceptance criteria & handoff checklist for day-to-day ops

1. All forms are working and validation prevents invalid emails/phones.
2. Calendar invites are received and correctly show event timezone.
3. Staff can claim shifts and managers get notified within 2 minutes.
4. Reminders are delivered 72hr and 2hr before event start for >95% of recipients.
5. Communications log stores every outbound message for audit.

Final tips — be pragmatic

• Start with a single event type and reuse templates — scope is your friend.
• Use AI to generate content and test cases, but keep human-in-the-loop for final approvals.
• Iterate using real data: the fastest way to find requirements is to run an event and watch where humans intervene.

Actionable takeaways

• Day-by-day: plan Day 1 wireframes, Day 2 backend, Day 3 UI, Day 4 automations, Day 5 AI templates, Day 6 pilot, Day 7 launch.
• Use Airtable + Glide + Zapier (or equivalents) for the fastest path to a working MVP.
• Leverage ChatGPT and Claude for copy, test data and automation logic — save hours on manual drafting.
• Measure automation reliability and no-show rate to prove ROI internally.

Ready to try it?

If you run operations for events and want to stop wrestling spreadsheets, take this 7-day plan and run a sprint. Start by copying the Airtable schema above, pick Glide or Softr for the frontend, and run these prompts in ChatGPT to generate your first confirmation emails.

Call to action: Download our free 7-day micro-app template package (Airtable base, Glide starter app and Zapier recipes) at organiser.info/micro-apps — or book a 30-minute consult with our ops team to walk your first week. Build fast, validate faster, and let automation do the heavy lifting.

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