For event organisers · Contingency planning

When it happens, the plan is on sheet 14 of 22 — on somebody's laptop.

Contingency Planner is the tool for what the risk register only points at: what you actually do when a risk realises. One plan per risk — scenarios, numbered response steps, owners. The tracker writes itself, and the Status Board shows in one screen what's confirmed and what's still a gap.

Test it free — no account → Own it · €99

Built from real contingency plansOlympic venues, world championships, city events

25+ years of event workBonacube · Finland

Event operations team at work during a live event

A contingency plan is a decision you made in peace, executed in noise.

The problem

You know this workbook.

One sheet per plan. A tracker sheet at the front, maintained by hand. It was serious work by serious people — and the tool fought them the whole way.

Twenty-two sheets, one plan each. The steering group asks "how many of these are actually confirmed?" — and the answer is opening twenty-two sheets.
The tracker is a second sheet, typed by hand. It drifted out of sync with the plans the same week it was created. Status lives in two places; both are stale.
The response steps are numbered 1, 2, 6, 7, 9, 11. Someone deleted rows. On the radio, "go to step 6" points at nothing. I have the file.
Copy-pasted scenario blocks with the template still showing through — "Type here", empty rows — in the document you'd hand to an authority.
On event day, the one plan you need is buried in a workbook on one person's laptop. It was needed in minutes. Finding it took longer.

A file you may recognise

A3.Contingency_plans_ALL_FINAL.xlsx

KindExcel workbook · 22 sheets

Sheet names20. Storm · 31. Noro · 36. Stands full…

Tracker sheetLast matched the plans in week one

Steps on sheet 361, 2, 6, 7, 9, 11

Every plan in it was written by someone who knew exactly what to do. The workbook just couldn't say it out loud when it mattered.

Response, ready to run

Picture the same moment with plans that answer for themselves.

One plan per risk, same ID as your risk register. Risk 14 has a plan 14 — everyone can follow the thread.
Response steps number themselves and stay numbered — add, remove, reorder, the chain holds. "Go to step 3" always means step 3.
The tracker is generated from the plans. There is no second sheet to maintain, so it cannot drift.
The steering meeting opens with the Status Board: confirmed, in review, gaps. One screen, whole answer.

The thinking was never the problem. The workbook was. Keep the discipline, replace the tool.

The product

Contingency Planner.

A contingency plan system with an engine. Each plan holds the header an authority expects — lead function, responsible manager, decision owner, communications lead, impacted functions, stakeholders — plus the fields that make a plan real: an activation trigger ("stand at 90% and 500+ ticket holders inbound"), the first 15 minutes, key contacts, resources, stand-down criteria. Per scenario, the numbered response steps: who does what, in what order, under which procedure. The tracker and the readiness numbers compute themselves from the plans.

Start from your risk register: paste its rows and every risk becomes a plan stub with its ID, title, lead and owner carried over. Or start from the plan library — the classic event contingencies, pre-drafted with scenarios and steps.

The structure follows contingency plans used from Olympic winter venues to the Lahti 2017 World Championships — including one that was activated on a sold-out Saturday, and held.

Contingency Planner.Ready 5/8 · 63%▶ STATUS BOARD

ID	Plan — what has happened	Activation trigger	Lead	Steps	Readiness	Status
14	Venue parking runs out on peak day	85% fill, arrivals at forecast	Transportation	7	Ready	Confirmed
16	Below −20 °C on competition days	07:00 reading −20 °C or below	Operations	3	Ready	Under review
36	Stands full while ticket holders arrive	Section at 90%, 500+ inbound	Security	7	Ready	Confirmed
39	Sales and payment systems go down	POS down > 10 min venue-wide	Sales	2	1 gap	In progress
62	Air traffic disruption delays teams	—	Transportation	—	3 gaps	Open

Why it works

Six problems from real contingency workbooks. Six fixes.

A tracker that writes itself

The overview is generated from the plans — plan count, scenarios, steps, status, readiness. There is no second sheet to maintain, so it cannot go stale.

Steps that stay numbered

Response steps renumber themselves when you add, remove or reorder. The chain someone reads out on the radio always matches the chain on the screen.

Speaks risk register

Paste rows straight from Risk Register's Excel export — or any list. Each risk becomes a plan stub with its ID, title, lead and owner carried over. Plan 14 answers risk 14.

A library of classic contingencies

Parking full, power out, stands at capacity, workforce no-show — 16 plans pre-drafted with scenarios and response steps from real events. Add one, then make it yours.

Readiness you can defend

A plan is ready when it has an activation trigger, a decision owner, a lead, a responsible person, a scenario and steps. Gaps are flagged and counted — and plans nobody has reviewed in 90 days flag themselves stale.

The authority-ready sheet

Any plan prints as the classic A4 contingency sheet — header, scenarios, numbered steps. The tracker prints A3 landscape. View-only links for the steering group, no accounts needed.

Status Board

The view that answers the only question that matters.

"Are we ready?" Full screen: plans by status, confirmed counts, the gap list. Click a status to see its plans. Toggle to gaps only and you're looking at the exact to-do list between today and event week.

Print it as an A4 status report for the board and the authorities. Twenty-two sheets never answered this question. One screen does.

Open the demo and press ▶ Status Board

Plans 8Confirmed 3Ready 63%Tested 5/8⚠ Gaps 3⚠ Stale 4

3 Confirmed

2 Under review

2 In progress

1 Open

62Air traffic disruption delays teams ⚠ 3Open

43Fireworks fall into the crowdUnder review

36Stands full while ticket holders arriveConfirmed

14Venue parking runs out on peak dayConfirmed

Jesse Kiuru walking through an event hall during build-up

Who built this

An event director. Not a software company.

I'm Jesse Kiuru. I help event organisers and host cities bid, plan and run better events. Event director of the Lahti 2017 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships. Currently structuring the Winter World Masters Games 2028.

Contingency Planner exists because I wrote these plans for a sold-out world championship — 22 of them, one workbook — and one of them got activated on the busiest Saturday of the event. The plan held. The workbook nearly didn't. This tool is the version I wish we'd had open in the operations centre.

270,000spectators, Lahti 2017

3,000workforce coordinated

25+ yrschampionships to conferences

Pricing

Test first. Buy when it earns its place.

The free test runs on a full example event — eight plans in different stages. Everything works, nothing saves. When you want your own plans saved and shareable, one payment.

Contingency Planner · Full version

€99 one time · no subscription

Unlimited events and plans
Activation triggers, decision owners, first 15 minutes, stand-down criteria
Scenarios with self-numbering response steps
The tracker that writes itself — status, readiness, gaps
Tested & last-reviewed flags that keep plans alive
Paste risks straight from Risk Register or any list
Plan library: 16 classic contingencies with suggested triggers
Status Board meeting view with the gap list
View-only share links · A4 plan sheets · A3 tracker PDF · Excel export
All updates to the current version included

Get Contingency Planner · €99 → or test it free first — no account, 2 minutes

Pairs with Risk Register: the register says what might happen, the planner says what you do when it does. Three tools in the toolbox — any three for €199.

Questions

Asked before buying.

Do I need to install anything?

No. Contingency Planner runs in the browser — laptop, tablet or phone. Your events save automatically to your account.

Does it work with Risk Register?

Yes, by design. Export your register to Excel/CSV, paste the rows into 📋 Paste risks, and every risk becomes a plan stub with the same ID, title, lead and owner. It also takes any plain list, one risk per line — you don't need Risk Register to use it.

Does the steering group or the authority need accounts?

No. You send a view-only link — the tracker, or the Status Board directly. Or you print: any plan as the classic A4 sheet, the whole tracker as A3 landscape.

We already have contingency plans in Excel. Do I start over?

No. Paste the tracker list to create the plan stubs in one go, then move each plan's steps over as you review it — the review was due anyway, and this time it sticks.

What if we never activate a single plan?

Then the event went well. Most plans are never activated — you will probably never look at them again. Write them anyway: the one time a plan is needed, it is needed in minutes, by name, with numbered steps.

What does "free test" mean exactly?

The full tool on an example event with eight plans. Open them, edit steps, check the Status Board, print a plan sheet. Nothing saves — 100 people can test at once and never see each other's changes.