Event templates

If you run the same kind of event over and over (Saturday weddings that all start with a 9am hair-and-makeup call and end with a midnight pack-down, or quarterly sales kickoffs that follow the same six-hour shape every time), typing the same run of show / runsheet from scratch every event is a slog. Event templates fix that. You build the timeline once, save it as a template, and the next time you create that kind of event you stamp out the structure in a single click.

This article covers how to make a template, the two ways to use one, what is and isn't copied across, and the small rules that keep templates tidy.

What a template actually is

In 1pm a template is a run of show plus event defaults. It holds three things:

• The run of show. Every item in order, with its start time, duration, title, Details, Where field, label, and the crew member assigned to it. A venue template can pre-wire your regular team this way.
• Event notes. The notes panel everyone on the event sees. Standing instructions ("Loading dock closes at 4pm", "Kitchen needs final numbers 72 hours out") belong here.
• Event settings. The typical headcount, the Space and zone, default start and end times, the client or organizer if it's a repeat booking, the BEO fields (service style, setup style, menu, bar package, dietary summary, AV notes, access from and vacate by), your branding, your crew wording, and the display options such as RSVP and check-ins.

A template doesn't hold a status or a value. It isn't a booking, so every event made from one starts as a Lead with no price, and you set both on the event.

It also doesn't hold files, links, tasks, requests, internal notes or crew share links. None of those are copied into new events, so the planner doesn't show them on a template. To reuse those, use the tools built for each:

• Requests: save the set once as a request pack and add it to each booking, or point a lead type at it so it's added for you.
• Tasks: save the steps as a workflow and drop it onto a task on each event.

Templates live under their own Templates tab on the events list, with a count badge, so they don't clutter your real bookings. The list shows each template's default times instead of a date.

Creating a template

Every template starts from an event you've already built. You've just run a wedding that flowed well, and you want the same shape for the next ten. Open the event. In the planner header, click Save as template.

A small modal asks for a name. Name it for the shape of the event rather than the event it came from: "Standard Saturday wedding", "Corporate one-day conference", "Two-day intensive workshop". You'll be picking templates by name later, so a name that describes the kind of event is more useful than the client's. (Leave the name blank and 1pm uses the event's name with " template" added.)

Click Save. 1pm copies the run of show, the event notes and the event settings into a new template and opens its planner page. From here, prune anything that doesn't belong: a one-off "Pickup of cake from Lisa's parents at 2pm" probably isn't reusable, while the standard ceremony block is.

There's no button for a blank template. If you want to start clean, build a throwaway event, shape its timeline, save that as a template, then delete the throwaway. In practice a template that has never been through a real event is usually missing the rough edges you only learn by running one, so saving from a real event is the better habit.

An account can hold up to 200 templates.

Editing a template

Open a template from the Templates tab with Edit template. The planner works the way it does on an event: add, delete, reorder and retime items, assign crew to items, and write the event notes. Template settings opens the same form as an event's settings, without the status and value.

Start times matter on a template. Items are copied into events at the times the template holds, so set them to when things really happen.

Changes to a template never reach events you've already made from it. Using a template is a one-time copy, not a live link.

Starting a new event from a template

This is the quickest way to use one, and it copies the most.

1. On the events list, click New event.
2. In Start from template, pick the template. The form fills in with the template's settings: headcount, Space, times, client, BEO fields, branding and the rest. Everything stays editable.
3. Type the event's name and date, adjust anything that's different this time, and save.

The new event opens with the template's full run of show and its event notes. A multi-day template keeps its length: a two-day template gives you a two-day booking.

Inserting a template into an existing event

Use this when the event already exists, or to add one template's items to another's.

1. In the event's planner, click Insert template in the row of buttons above the run of show.
2. Pick a template and click Insert items.

1pm copies every item into the event at the template's start times and sorts them in among any items already there. Nothing on the event is removed or changed, and the event's settings and notes stay as they are. Only the items come across.

There's no undo for an insert. If you insert the wrong template, delete the items it added, or delete the event and start it again from the right template.

How the dates line up

Each item keeps its day relative to the event date. An item on the event day lands on the new event's day. An item the day before (a Friday load-in for a Saturday wedding, say) lands on the day before the new event. So a template made from a Saturday wedding with a Friday load-in, used for a wedding on Saturday 10 October, puts the load-in on Friday 9 October and the ceremony on the 10th.

Tidying up the template after the first few uses

A template often only reaches its useful form after two or three real events. The first save copies whatever was on that particular event; later edits trim the parts that were specific to it.

After running an event from a template, open the template and ask two questions: did anything go into this event that should now be part of the template, and did anything in the template not fit? Over time the template settles into the shape the event really runs in.

What you cannot do

• Save a template as a template. Save as template doesn't appear on a template's planner page.
• Insert a template into another template. A template is the source, not the destination, so Insert template doesn't appear on a template.
• Share a template's run of show live. A template has no crew watching it, so it has no share links. Share the event you make from it instead.
• Share a template with another 1pm account. Templates belong to your account. A colleague on another account builds their own from one of their events.

Plan limits still apply. If inserting a template would push an event past the per-event item limit, 1pm tells you how many items fit. Trim the template, trim the event, or pick a smaller template.

Sensible naming

A naming convention pays off once your list grows past four or five.

• By event shape, not by client: "Standard 1-day wedding" beats "Smith wedding standard".
• By count or duration when that varies: "Half-day workshop", "Two-day conference".
• By style when it meaningfully changes the shape: "Backyard wedding (compressed)", "Hotel ballroom wedding (elaborate)".

Template pickers sort alphabetically, so a short prefix keeps related templates together: "Wedding / standard", "Wedding / small", "Wedding / destination".

When templates earn their keep

Templates suit a similar event shape with different clients, crew and dates. Weddings are the obvious case, along with quarterly corporate events, repeat clients with the same brief every year, and touring shows. Anywhere you find yourself typing the same timeline items week after week.

They don't help with bespoke one-off events where every run of show is different, such as a festival or a conference with a new agenda each year. Nothing gets reused, so the template is wasted effort.

Deleting a template

Open Template settings from the Templates tab or the template's planner, click Delete Template, and confirm. Events you've already made from the template keep their own copy of everything, so deleting it changes nothing on them. Deleting a template doesn't notify anyone.

If templates aren't showing up

• You've never saved one. The Templates tab shows a "no templates yet" message until you do. Open an event, click Save as template, and it appears there.
• You're on a template rather than an event. If the planner header says Template under the name, Insert template is hidden, because templates can't have other templates inserted into them. Open a real event and try again.