Duplicating an event

"Can I duplicate this event?" is one of the most common questions on the support inbox, and the honest answer is: not directly, but the thing you actually want is a template, and templates are usually a better fit anyway!

This article explains why 1pm doesn't have a one-click duplicate button, what to use instead for the three common reasons people ask, and the small bag of tricks for the cases where templates aren't quite right.

Why there is no "Duplicate" button

It seems like an obvious feature, and we thought about adding it. The problem is that "duplicate this event" means six different things to six different venues, and a single button can't do all of them well.

The annual conference planner wants every timeline item copied across, but with new dates and new crew assignments. (That's a template.)

The wedding planner wants every timeline item copied across, but the original event is for the bride and groom, and the duplicate is meant to be a different couple in a different venue. (That's a template.)

The corporate operations manager wants to copy yesterday's gala dinner because tonight's is the same shape but with a slightly different running order. (That's a template, with light editing.)

The venue that made a typo on event creation wants to throw away the original and start again. (That's just edit the existing event.)

The venue that has built a complex run of show for client A and wants to clone it as a starting point for client B. (That's a template.)

The venue that needs the exact same event to happen on a second date with the same crew, same venue, same details. (That's the closest thing to a true duplicate, and even then the crew assignments would almost certainly want a sanity check before you sent the links.)

Every one of these is best served by templates, which strip the time-specific bits (date, crew assignments, briefing fields tied to that particular run) and leave you with a clean reusable shape. A naive duplicate would copy yesterday's date forward, copy the booked crew who aren't available tomorrow, and force the planner to undo all of it before the event was usable.

Use a template for "I want this shape again"

Templates are the supported path for almost every duplicate-event scenario. The flow:

1. Open the event you want to base the new one on. Click Save as template in the planner header. Give it a name that describes the shape ("Standard Saturday wedding", "One-day conference plenary", "Two-day intensive workshop"). Click Save.
2. Create a brand-new event the normal way: New event button, set the name, set the date, save. You're in a fresh planner with an empty timeline.
3. Click Insert template. Pick the template you just saved. Click Insert. The timeline fills in with the saved structure (every item, every time, every Where field, every Details block).
4. From here you assign crew, fill in the BEO/briefing fields specific to this client and venue, and you're off.

What is copied: every timeline item with its title, start time, duration, Where field, and Details text.

What is not copied: assignments to specific crew members (the crew available for the next event are not the same as the crew available for the last one), the date, the briefing fields like PAX/space/client/organizer, any attached files, link to the live share view, requests, or execution state from the original event.

See the Event templates article for the full walkthrough, including how to manage templates over time and the difference between saving from an event and building one from scratch.

Use a template once and discard, if you just want this event copied

If you have a one-off "I need this exact event again" case, you can still use the templates flow. Save the source event as a template, create the new event, insert the template, then delete the template if you don't expect to use it again. No harm done.

This is also the approach for the "moved my event to a new date and want to keep everything" case. Save as template, create the new event on the right date, insert. The timeline is identical to before, with the times intact and the date refreshed.

What about the briefing fields

Briefing fields (the BEO data: service style, setup style, pax_guaranteed, dietary summary, menu summary, bar package, AV notes, access from, vacate by) live on the event itself, not the timeline. Templates do not copy them, because they tend to be event-specific: a 150-pax plated dinner template is unhelpful if the next event is a 600-pax stand-up cocktail.

If the briefing details are the actually-stable part across your events (you always run plated dinners with the same dietary summary), you can still pre-fill them quickly. The autocomplete on service style, setup style, and other free-text BEO fields is per-owner, so as you fill these in on subsequent events, your previous entries appear in the autocomplete and you can pick instead of retyping.

What about crew assignments

Crew assignments are deliberately not copied across, even when you insert a template, because crew availability changes by the day. The risk of accidentally sending a share link to last quarter's photographer for tonight's event is real and unpleasant. Better to leave assignments blank and re-pick.

That said, if your team is internal and stable (e.g. you always have the same banquet manager running plated service), assigning them on the new event after inserting the template is fast: open the timeline item, pick from your crew list, done.

If you genuinely want crew assignments to come across, save the assignments separately as part of your own process. A short list of "standard internal crew for a Saturday wedding" pinned in your notes app outside 1pm is faster and less error-prone than trying to make templates do this automatically.

Edge cases

• Same event, two days. Save as template, create the second event on the second date, insert. The same applies if you need the same event repeated weekly for a month (make four events from one template).
• Recurring monthly. 1pm doesn't have a recurrence engine. Use the template pattern manually each month. If you find yourself doing this often for a true recurring series, email [email protected] we'd want to hear about it.
• Backed up wrong, need to re-do. If you've made a mess of an event and want to start over while keeping the original as a reference, save the messy event as a template (even half-finished work makes a fine template), create a fresh event, and insert. You now have a clean slate. The original event is untouched.
• Want to share an event with another planner. Templates are private to your account. You can't directly export a template to share with someone else's 1pm account. If you have a use case for this, email [email protected].

When templates aren't enough

The genuinely hard duplicate case is when you want a one-click copy of every aspect of an event including crew, briefing, files, links, requests, and history. We haven't built that because the cost of getting it wrong is high (links sent to the wrong people, briefing fields copied from a different client). If you have a strong reason to want this, email [email protected] with the specifics; the more concrete the use case, the more usable the feature will be if we do build it.

A small workflow note

The biggest unlock for "I keep duplicating events" is investing fifteen minutes the first time to build the template properly. The second time you use it, you'll save twenty minutes. The fiftieth time, you'll save hours. Treat the template as the durable artifact and the events as disposable.