EventPilot

Bring the people, we'll handle the spreedsheets

Comment

Inspiration

Cal Hacks takes a team of 40+ organizers months of emails, spreadsheets, vendor quotes, permit forms and card requests. Most of that know-how is never written down, so every new logistics lead starts from zero. We wanted one person with one prompt to run an event that size.

What it does

EventPilot is an AI event-ops crew. You describe the event in plain English, for example "Cal Hacks 13.0 at the Palace of Fine Arts, Oct 23, 36 hours, 2,000 hackers, $500k".

  • Plans it. A Coordinator agent turns the prompt into a brief and hands it to seven specialists: Venue Scout, Budget Analyst, Scheduler, Logistics, Comms, Permits and a Critic. You watch their reasoning and tool calls stream live. The output is a complete plan: ranked venues, a budget that adds up exactly, a multi-day run-of-show, ops sizing, a permit checklist with file-by dates, invite copy, and a risk score.
  • Runs it. In Autopilot, a Shopper compares 6 quotes per vendor category. A Negotiator haggles with each vendor, using competing quotes as leverage. A Payments agent pays deposits under a spend mandate you set (caps, category allowlist, single-use virtual cards, idempotency keys). Vendor and permit emails go out for real, and replies are read and negotiated automatically.
  • Asks you only when it matters. Anything over your approval line is texted to you over iMessage through Photon. Reply YES 1, PICK CATERING 3, NEGOTIATE VENUE TO 1700 or STATUS, or just ask "why this caterer?" and get an answer grounded in the plan.
  • Shows its work. Every pick explains its trade-offs. Every agent and human action goes into a hash-chained audit log that the UI verifies. An independent CREAO agent reviews each booked plan.

How we built it

  • App: Next.js 15 (App Router), React 19, TypeScript and Tailwind v4, designed in Paper.
  • Model: StepFun step-5-preview drives each agent through an OpenAI-compatible client. Every agent also has a rules-only fallback, so the demo runs fully offline.
  • Integrations: live weather from Open-Meteo, Photon 2.0 for iMessage, Gmail SMTP/IMAP for vendor email, the CREAO API Trigger for second-opinion reviews, and a Fetch.ai uAgent that lists EventPilot on Agentverse/ASI:One.
  • Agent structure: a bounded graph modeled on how Cal Hacks is actually run. Exec scopes, a Logistics lead assigns category agents, then a Finance gate, a Verifier and Exec approval.

Challenges we ran into

  • Keeping the model away from money. Budget math, caps, approvals and payments are plain code. The model can read the plan and suggest, but only an explicit command moves money.
  • Making texts safe. Replies are deduplicated, ambiguous ones ("yes" with two items open) get a clarifying question, and counter-offers far from the vendor's price need a CONFIRM.
  • Holding up without a model. A rules-only path for every agent kept the demo working with no key or bad Wi-Fi.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • One prompt produces a 2,000-person, 36-hour hackathon plan that reconciles to the dollar.
  • The agents act, not just plan: quotes, negotiation, emails, permit drafts and deposits.
  • CREAO's review caught real gaps (unbudgeted permit fees, a double-counted venue cost, contingency under 10%), and those checks are now enforced in code.

What we learned

  • Trust comes from guardrails in code, visible reasoning and a human approving anything big. Better prompts alone don't get you there.
  • Texting is the right interface for decisions. Organizers don't want another dashboard during event week.

What's next for EventPilot

  • Swap the simulated payments for Visa Intelligent Commerce: tokenized cards and network-level spend controls.
  • Add a day-of operations console (live run-of-show, incident reports, meal headcounts, prize tracking, post-mortem) and finance workflows (reimbursements, budget requests). Both are already built in the codebase but not yet connected to the app.
  • Pilot it on Cal Hacks 13.0 logistics.

Built With

Share this project:

Updates

Submission history