THE TALE OF CNS PRODUCTIONS
Schedule 30x more
events with a
single tool
“LASSO solves a problem you didn't realize you had until it's fixed because you think manually is the only way — until you see that there's a tool that can do it for you.”
— Colby Collier, Owner and President
CNS PRODUCTIONS
Customer profile
EVENT PRODUCTION
OKLAHOMA, OK
8 YEARS IN OPERATION
6 FT EMPLOYEES
Clients include: Oklahoma City University, Oklahoma City Thunder, Fields & Futures
The challenge: Juggling manual processes and multiple sources of truth
While CNS Productions had an event production workflow in place, it relied heavily on manual processes and required significant effort to avoid human error. And when it came to complex corporate, musical, and university events, their typical tools — Flex and Google Calendar — were siloed and messy, and weren’t capable of tracking or scheduling the way CNS needed them to.
How CNS consolidated production into one system with LASSO
Crewing all positions for every project, including complex multi-day, multi-site events that could easily turn into an illegible web of spreadsheets.
Tracking time of both employees and freelancers to make sure future job costing is accurate and allows for adequate margins.
Automating travel booking and sending itineraries directly to freelancers for more cost effective events and better crew experience.
💬 Straight from the source
Listen to what Colby Collier, the Owner and President of CNS Productions, had to say about the freelancer experience with LASSO Travel and scheduling multi-day events.
Crew experience with LASSO Travel
Headache-free travel with LASSO
Scheduling multi-day/site events with LASSO
“It empowers us to plan ahead and schedule things in a meaningful way. With just a glance, I can see what lies ahead tomorrow, and I have full confidence that the information is accurate and reliable.
This is a significant departure from the uncertainty of spreadsheets, where I might be the only one with access, rendering it meaningless.”
“We handle a multitude of complex, multi-day events with varying sizes, and LASSO Scheduling helps us navigate this complexity seamlessly.
I know that everyone involved, from our schedulers to our techs and freelancers, sees the same information. That's where the real value lies.”
"The hero instance for us is multi-day, multi-site events, like university commencements. There's one for each college, several per day, in different venues, we have to stagger setups to make it work and certain sites even have a backup rain plan.
It can become a web, but it's very clear when we look at the schedule in LASSO."
“It’s not coming in and replacing one existing tool for us. It's a new thing that we didn't realize we needed, but it is a new thing that's filling a gap.
Our workload has not increased as we have scaled up. We use the same workflow with the same people going from 10 events per year to 300 events per year.
LASSO solves a problem you didn't realize you had until it's fixed because you think manually is the only way — until you see that there's a tool that can do it for you.”
“We have LASSO Time Tracking set up in a way that gives us a clear understanding of how much time our full-time employees devote to job sites — the office, the warehouse, or on specific shows — compared to our freelance workers. This data is essential for our business analysis and provides valuable insights for future jobs.”
“When our team schedules someone for a local event or when we bring in an out-of-town freelancer, we follow a clear workflow. We tag it as "ready to book travel," and I personally take charge of making the actual bookings. It's all in my hands.
I love it because it's a consistent workflow for me. It keeps the information in the right spots and tied together in just the right way.
It's very headache free compared to choosing the website of the day that I'm gonna book travel through.”
“Freelancers lose their minds over LASSO Travel — having all of the information clearly packaged and sent directly to them.
It's incredible how frequently, after someone completes their first travel-related job with us, I receive emails or texts expressing their excitement. They often say something along the lines of, ‘Hey, this is amazing! Nobody else does this!’
There's no mystery or confusion when they arrive at the hotel's front desk. They don't have to wonder whether to identify themselves as me or as Bob. It's the transparency we provide that truly makes a difference for them.”
“Dealing with AmTrav is great. They are very responsive and they jump in and fix any issues.
Even if I’m only changing a name or shifting the schedule by a day, the process is incredibly simple. It's amazing that I no longer view it as a problem or something that requires my constant attention.”
“Communication is better because there's a central place where the information live. So we rarely rarely have scheduling errors that occur because there's that master location. If we mess it up now, it's because there was an error internally, not because the information wasn't available to all of us.”
“I personally spend less time worrying about the problems that it solves for me. It's having everything in one place where I click and see a calendar for the month or I can dive in and see a view of today and I can see, in bright colors, what's booked at 100% versus what still has needs.
And I know the information that's in there is available to everybody. The visibility our team has now means I don't feel like I need to have my hand in everything all the time. But if I want to jump in and see what's happening, I can.”