Event Butler 📅🤖

Real-time event coordination for teams and vendors. Separate workspaces for each part of an event, plus one Reminders timeline so nothing gets missed.

• Live demo: https://recipebutler.serverpod.space
  
• Demo video: https://youtu.be/pHJ4FsjsyPU
  

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💡 Inspiration

Last month I helped organize my company’s team outing.

We had:

• a shared notes doc
• a group chat with 200 messages
• three different calendar apps

We forgot a lot of things. It was chaos.

The problem was not “writing tasks is hard”. The problem was coordination: the plan gets split across tools, updates don’t reach everyone, and follow-ups slip.

That’s why I built Event Butler.

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🚀 What it does (demo flow)

Event Butler turns one messy plan into focused Workspaces.

1) Workspaces per event area

For a team outing, I create separate workspaces like:

• Food
• Games
• Venue

Each workspace has separate items, separate chat, separate collaborators so people only see what they need.

2) Sign-in that matches real sharing

I can sign in via email, Google, or guest mode, using Serverpod auth.

3) AI Butler to kickstart planning

Inside a workspace, I ask:

“Barbecue catering for thirty people, outdoor event.”

The Butler returns shopping suggestions and reminder suggestions. I add items like plates and ice packs with one tap, and they show up in the Shopping List tab.

4) Invite vendors into only what they should see

I share a join token with a caterer (example: Joe). Joe opens the app in a browser, signs in, and joins the Food workspace.

Now the vendor collaborates with us, but only on what they have to see.

No WhatsApp. No email chains. The vendor is in the list.

5) Reminders that run on the server

I set a reminder like “Confirm catering order”. It appears in the Reminders tab.

When it’s due, Event Butler sends an email automatically using Serverpod Future Calls (scheduled tasks on the server).

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🧩 Why this is different

Most to-do apps assume everyone is internal.

Real events include external vendors, and you can’t expose your full private plan to them.

Event Butler solves this with:

• Workspace isolation
• Vendor-safe collaboration
• One reminders timeline across all workspaces

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🛠 How it’s built

Frontend

• Flutter Web

Backend

• Serverpod (Dart framework)
  • Auth: email, Google sign-in (Firebase), and guest mode (Serverpod auth docs: https://docs.serverpod.dev/concepts/authentication)
  • Real-time: streams over WebSockets for live collaboration (streams docs: https://docs.serverpod.dev/concepts/streams)
  • Automation: Future Calls to schedule reminders and emails (scheduling docs: https://docs.serverpod.dev/concepts/scheduling)
  • Type-safe: shared models and generated client APIs (overview: https://docs.serverpod.dev/overview)

Deployment

• Serverpod Cloud
  • Deployed without managing Docker, servers, or a database manually (Serverpod Cloud docs: https://docs.serverpod.cloud/)

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🔄 The Pivot (Recipe to Event)

You may notice the demo URL is recipebutler.serverpod.space.

This started as RecipeButler, focused on catering coordination. While building it, I realized catering issues are usually a symptom of a bigger problem: the whole event plan is scattered.

So the architecture expanded into workspaces + vendors + reminders, and it became Event Butler. The URL stayed the same during the hackathon.

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🧠 Challenges & learnings

• Workspace permissions Vendors must be limited to their workspace, including real-time updates, so access checks had to be strict.

• First backend build I have strong Flutter experience, but this was my first full backend build. I learned server-side logic, schema changes, and real-time infrastructure.

• Structured AI output Getting consistent outputs that map cleanly into shopping items and reminders took iteration, but it made the UX much faster.

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🏅 Accomplishments we’re proud of

• Workspaces that reduce noise and keep collaboration focused.
• Vendor-safe access so external people only see what they need.
• Real-time collaboration for tasks and updates.
• A unified Reminders view that keeps deadlines on track.

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🔮 What’s next

• Agentic reminder workflows Reminders won’t just notify. When a reminder fires, Event Butler can run a server action using AI plus MCP-style tools to execute workflows.

• Integrated payments Let vendors send invoices and collect deposits inside their workspace.

• Blueprint templates One-click workspace sets for weddings, hackathons, corporate offsites.

• Calendar sync Push Butler reminders to Google Calendar and Outlook.

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🧰 Built with

• Flutter
  
• Dart
  
• Serverpod
  
• PostgreSQL
  
• OpenAI API
  

Built With

• flutter
• serverpod