SMARTDRAW IN EVENT PLANNING:

SmartDraw Sets the Stage for Elton John, Bryan Adams Concerts

Lost in the Crowd
A United Kingdom events planner, Hartley Slann is charged with providing floor plans for major events to Britannia Stadium's safety advisory group and other organizations.

He needed a tool that would help him quickly design comprehensive layouts for upcoming events with a wide range of crowd capacities, including concerts for recording superstars such as Elton John and Bryan Adams.

Hartley tried Visio^® and AutoCAD, but neither program worked to his satisfaction. "Visio^® wasn't much use, and AutoCAD was overly complicated," said Hartley. "Besides, I'm not an architect, and I didn't want to pay the high price for those programs."

He had also used CorelDraw and Photoshop, but found that they were overkill for what he needed to accomplish. "I still found myself looking for that ultimate product," said Hartley.

Hartley decided to search Google for a drawing and design program, and he found SmartDraw's free trial.

Standing Room Only
Hartley immediately realized that SmartDraw was the right tool for the job at hand: fast and easy to use, he had his first drawing completed with SmartDraw within a couple of hours.

SmartDraw offers drag-and-drop drawing, and thousands of symbols and templates. This includes specialized architectural element symbols, fire and safety graphics, and templates for special events, floor planning, and more.

SmartDraw also includes detailed tutorials that walk users through the steps of creating any type of floor plan, from start to finish, ensuring that even first-time users will enjoy professional results.

"SmartDraw is really easy to come to grips with, and the tutorials are quite helpful," said Hartley.

In addition, Hartley took advantage of SmartDraw features such as Layers, which enable users to create complex floor plans and drawings with, for example, building outlines on a specific layer, kept separate from text or other objects.

"I also loved how SmartDraw allowed me to set my own scale," he said, referring to SmartDraw's built-in ability to automatically scale drawings to a user-determined size.

Encore!
So far, Hartley has created stadium floor plans for many major events, including concerts for Elton John, Bryan Adams, Blue, Busted and more. In fact, SmartDraw is setting a new standard for the stadium's safety advisory group.

"I seem to have set a bit of a precedent," said Hartley. "My SmartDraw plans have been recognized by the police, fire professionals, paramedics, health and safety officials, stadium management, and many others."

Britannia Stadium's safety manager has purchased a copy of SmartDraw, and every contractor involved with an event at Britannia Stadium gets a copy of plans made in SmartDraw, according to Hartley.

Hartley will use SmartDraw for planning layouts for all future venues. But the biggest benefit by far, according to Hartley, is time savings. "SmartDraw is so fast, it allows me to spend more time at home with my family," said Hartley. "Well done, SmartDraw!"