For event organisers · Capacity & crowd planning

Seventeen thousand people on site. And the number that proves it lives in column AG.

Venue Population estimates how many people are at your venue during every sub-event, and who they are: spectators, teams, media, broadcasting, staff. Your customer groups become the columns, every row totals itself, % of capacity is computed live and the peak is flagged. Security dimensions gates with it, catering counts mouths, the city reads it before signing the permit.

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

Built from real modelsWorld championships, World Cups, city events

25+ years of event workBonacube · Finland

Every function asks the same question: how many, and when?

You know this file

The model grew to 349 columns. The groups lived in a second file.

You typed sub-group 1.1. — Excel filed it as the 1st of January. Sub-group 3.8 is now the 3rd of August. In the sellable template, too.
The Media total was =SUM(L5:V5) — quietly summing the team columns as well. Nobody caught it, because nobody dared touch row 5.
Every row's grand total is a slightly different formula. Row 7 skips five groups; row 9 doesn't. Which rows do you trust in the safety meeting?
The customer groups live in a separate file — v1.3, v1.6, backup_31052026 — and the population model still uses last year's list.
Start and end estimates for every group, every row: by year three the file was 349 columns wide. Somewhere in there was the only number that mattered — the peak.

📄 VOP-1.4. Venue Population model 2026.xlsx

📄 2027VenuePopulationModel_ver1.xlsx — title inside: "2025 MAIN EVENT"

📄 backup_1.3. Customer Groups_31052026.xlsx

Columns in the 2026 model349

Sub-group "1.1." after Excel autocorrect1 January

Media total formula=SUM(L5:V5) — includes the teams

Assumptions sheet references#REF!

Level of confidence, column S"arvaus" — a guess

The other way

Picture the same safety meeting with a population model that holds.

One tool instead of two files. The groups are defined once and become the columns everywhere. The math is computed, not typed — so it is never wrong in a different way on every row.

Customer groups and sub-groups flow straight into the venue sheets
Row totals, group subtotals and % of capacity — computed, always
The peak flagged on every day; gold at 90%, red over the line
Every estimate has an owner, a source and a confidence level

What it is

Two old templates. One tool.

The Customer Group Matrix and the Venue Population Sheet — the pair that always drifted apart in Excel — merged into one mini app. The 🗂 Customer groups tab is the master list: main groups and sub-groups, owners, sources, confidence. Every sub-group automatically becomes a column on every venue sheet. Add a column on the sheet, and the group list updates. No hard rules, no copy-paste between files.

Rows are your days and sub-events: delivery window, training, gates open, competition, ceremony. Type the headcounts; the totals, subtotals and % of capacity compute themselves. One tab per venue, each with its own capacity.

It runs in the browser — laptop, tablet, phone — and the logic comes from models that ran world championship weekends, genericised.

Venue Population. Stadium · max 19 500 Estimated 100% ▶ Peak Board

		Total	% cap	SpectatorsFOH			TeamsBOH
Time	Sub-event			Tickets	VIP	Σ	Athletes	Σ
SAT 21.3. · COMPETITION DAY 1 DAY PEAK 19 599 · 101%
10:30–11:45	Gates open	2 604	13%	1 000	50	1 250	160	551
11:45–13:00	Sprint qualification	6 011	31%	3 000	100	3 700	160	561
13:15–14:00	Team sprint	13 819	71%	10 000	150	11 200	160	561
14:15–16:05	Sprint finals	PEAK19 599	101%	16 500	250	18 150	100	496
16:05–17:30	Prize ceremony & egress	11 293	58%	9 000	150	9 950	80	355

Why it works

Six problems from the real files. Six fixes.

Groups become columns

The customer group list and the population sheet were always meant to feed each other — the link was manual copy-paste. Here they are one thing. Define a sub-group once; the column exists on every venue sheet, automatically.

Math that can't break

The old file summed a different range on every row. Here the totals, subtotals and % of capacity are computed — there is no formula to overtype, stretch too far, or quietly include the wrong columns.

Peaks flagged, thresholds visible

Every day's biggest row carries the PEAK tag. At 90% of capacity the number turns gold; over 100% it turns red. The one number the safety meeting needs stops hiding in column AG.

One tab per venue

Stadium, team compound, media centre, fan zone — each fenced area gets its own tab and its own max capacity. The old answer was one more copy of the workbook; this one stays in the same file.

Estimates with names on them

Every group has a data owner, a source and a confidence level, from guess to confirmed — the Data Owners sheet of the old model, built in. A population model is estimates; the honest ones are owned.

Reads like the original

Days as navy rows, sub-events under them, groups across the top — the shape your colleagues already know. Exports to the same wide CSV, prints A3 landscape. Minus the 349 columns and the ditto formulas.

The second life

The Peak Board: capacity, on one screen.

Full-screen view for the safety and security meeting: every sub-event as a bar against venue capacity, the 90% line in gold, the capacity line in red, the peak flagged. Front of house and back of house split at the top — because security cares who is inside the fence, not just how many.

Below the bars: who is on site at the peak, group by group. Pick a venue, pick a day, or show the whole event. Print it as an A4 capacity report for the authorities, or send a view-only link that opens straight into the board.

See it in the free test →

Peak Board. Stadium · Sat 21.3. 14:37:02

Max capacity 19 500 EVENT PEAK 19 599 · 101% FOH 18 150 BOH 1 449

SAT 21.3. · COMPETITION DAY 1

10:30–11:45Gates open2 604 · 13%

11:45–13:00Sprint qualification6 011 · 31%

13:15–14:00Team sprint13 819 · 71%

14:15–16:05Sprint finalsPEAK19 599 · 101%

16:05–17:30Prize ceremony & egress11 293 · 58%

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.

Venue Population exists because I kept this model for World Cup weekends and a world championship. By its third season it was 349 columns wide, the customer groups lived in a second file that was always one version behind, and the Media total quietly summed the team columns. The logic was right for ten years. The files fought us for ten years. This tool keeps the logic and loses the fight.

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 — a four-day World Cup weekend, two venues, five customer groups, every number in place. Everything works, nothing saves. When you want your own event saved and shareable, one payment.

Venue Population · Full version

€99 one time · no subscription

Unlimited events, venues, days and customer groups
Groups flow into columns automatically — add-ons welcome
Totals, subtotals and % of capacity computed on every row
Peaks flagged; gold at 90%, red over capacity
Group library: structures from real events, one click
Data owners and confidence per group
Peak Board with A4 capacity report · view-only share links
A3 sheet PDF · wide Excel/CSV export · all updates included

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

Pairs with Daily Runsheet: the runsheet says when you're open, the population model says how many people are inside. Ten tools in the toolbox.

Questions

Asked before buying.

Do I need to install anything?

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

Where do the population numbers come from?

From you and your functions — ticketing data, entry lists, accreditation, the volunteer rota, partner sales. The tool doesn't invent numbers; it makes your estimates visible, owned and comparable. Every group carries its data owner, source and confidence level, so the safety meeting knows which numbers are ticketing data and which are still a guess.

How accurate is a venue population model?

As accurate as its sources — it's a planning estimate, not a people counter. That's the point: you dimension gates, catering, toilets and transport months before anyone can be counted. The model gives every function the same numbers to plan against, and the confidence column tells you where the soft spots are. If you need live turnstile counts on event day, that's a different tool.

Our venue has zones — stadium, compound, fan zone. One model?

One tab per fenced area with a capacity, all in the same event. The customer groups are shared across tabs, so a sub-group defined once works everywhere. The Peak Board shows one venue at a time — pick the one the meeting is about.

How is this different from Daily Runsheet?

Same rows, different question. The runsheet answers "when are we open, and when do we need to be there." The population model answers "how many people are inside while we are." Daily Runsheet times the operations; Venue Population counts the people. Serious events run both.

What does "free test" mean exactly?

The full tool on an example event — a four-day World Cup weekend with two venues and every estimate in place. Change a headcount and watch the totals, the % and the peak move. Nothing saves — 100 people can test at once and never see each other's changes.