From Paper Schedules to Standing Ovations
A major aerospace manufacturer needed to coordinate dozens of executives across international trade shows. We built a cross-platform app in under 30 days that replaced their paper-and-Outlook system — and had people literally bowing in gratitude at the first event.
"Everyone was thrilled with the app. I'm not exaggerating when I say I had people literally bowing down to me saying, thank you so much. This is awesome."
The Challenge
This aerospace manufacturer participates in major international trade shows throughout the year, where coordinating complex schedules across dozens of executives, partners, and customers is critical. Think meetings with foreign delegations, transportation logistics, conference room assignments, and last-minute changes. All happening simultaneously across multiple time zones.
Their existing process was paper schedules and Outlook calendars. The operations team was doing a massive amount of manual work: printing schedules, tracking down attendees for changes, copy-pasting email threads into calendar entries. When schedules changed — which they always do — nobody had the current version.
Their previous software vendor had caused ongoing headaches. The IT team described it bluntly: "There's always been troubles where they gave us issues with providing apps and versions and things expiring, and it in general wasn't a great experience."
Before: What the team was dealing with
- ✗ Printed paper schedules distributed to each attendee at every event
- ✗ Operations lead maintained two calendars simultaneously (Outlook + paper) — "It's very tedious. And there's that much more room for error."
- ✗ No way to push schedule changes to attendees in real time
- ✗ Manually prefixing event names with division codes because the system couldn't distinguish them
- ✗ Previous vendor delivered unsigned app files requiring manual workarounds in Xcode
What We Built
We designed and shipped a cross-platform event management system in under 30 days — a native iOS app for participants in the field and a web admin portal for event coordinators.
Native iOS App
- Personal schedule view per attendee (iPhone)
- Master schedule with sidebar filters (iPad)
- Color-coded events by type and importance
- Push notifications with deep linking to specific events
- PDF attachment downloads with offline caching
- External participant contact details for quick reference before meetings
- Multi-show support — switch between active trade shows
Web Admin Portal
- Event creation with conflict detection (people + venues)
- Multi-dimensional filtering: region, division, event type
- Participant and location master lists (reusable across shows)
- File attachments (briefing docs, agendas, up to 50MB)
- Role-based access control (admin vs. read-only)
- Two-factor authentication
- Timezone-aware scheduling across international events
The web admin portal and native iOS schedule app
"This all came together in like one month or less. And everybody was just thrilled with it. They relied on the app more than they relied on their Outlook."
The First Deployment
The app launched at one of the world's largest aerospace trade shows. The stakes were high — dozens of executives, meetings with international delegations, and a schedule that changed by the hour.
It worked. The operations lead reported that "everybody was wanting it on their phone right away" — from junior staff all the way up to the company's founder. The program manager put it simply: "Less than thirty days. And you put it on the chairman's phone."
The team organically stopped checking Outlook. The app became their primary source of truth for the entire event — everyone had what they needed in their pocket.
Another business division within the company wasn't originally part of the rollout. But when they saw the app in action, they wanted in immediately — they started asking for our phone number to set up their own instance. We had to ask them to wait until the next phase.
After: What changed
- ✓ Zero printed schedules — real-time updates on every phone
- ✓ Conflict detection prevents double-booking people and venues
- ✓ Push notifications keep everyone updated as the schedule evolves
- ✓ Role-based access prevents sensitive briefing materials from being misassigned
- ✓ Used at 10+ international events across 4 continents and counting
"You guys sincerely hit it out of the ballpark. Everyone was so excited and so happy. I'm bowing down to you right now."
What Happened Next
Phase 2 was planned before Phase 1 was fully deployed. The success at the first show created immediate demand for new capabilities: a master participant list, location management overhaul, admin access controls, and support for additional business divisions.
The client moved from a one-time project contract to an ongoing time-and-materials relationship. The app is now used at every major trade show the company attends — from the Middle East to Europe to the United States.
Technical Details
Built with a modern stack designed for enterprise reliability and international use:
Stack
- iOS: Native Swift / UIKit
- Web: Next.js 14, React 19, TypeScript
- Database: PostgreSQL (Supabase)
- Notifications: Firebase Cloud Messaging
- Hosting: Vercel + Supabase Cloud
Architecture
- Atomic database transactions for data consistency
- Timezone-aware scheduling (UTC storage, local display)
- Row-level security policies
- Offline caching for unreliable trade show WiFi
- 37 incremental database migrations
Related Work
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