With these tools, the OMR Crew Management organizes 12,000 employees

1. Without these tools, nothing works
2. Gamechanger among the must-haves
3. Never without my team 
4. These are the tools used by the OMR Crew Management

Over ten years ago, Philipp Westermeyer hosted the first digital fair in Hamburg. When the OMR Festival started its first round in 2011, about 200 visitors came to exchange ideas with like-minded people from the online marketing industry. A lot has happened in the following years: The companies gained prominence, the speakers became more famous and Hollywood stars like Ashton Kutcher and Quentin Tarantino were present. The OMR Festival has established itself as the largest event for digital marketing in Germany and now attracts around 70,000 visitors annually to the Hamburg exhibition halls. 

However, such a festival doesn't organize itself. The growth is due to a lot of work and a huge team - and that too needs to be organized. Paul Kalvelage, Head of Crew Management at OMR, tells us what tasks the OMR Crew Management takes care of, which tools it works with on a daily basis and which software the employees couldn't do without.

In our series „Tech Stack“ digital companies reveal which tools they use and why they chose these particular software solutions.

Without these tools, nothing works

The Crew Management manages the crew - logical. But what tasks does the team exactly take care of? "The Crew Management department deals with all concerns of internal and external personnel at our events. We plan, supervise and evaluate all processes and ensure for smooth service and support”, says Paul. The OMR Festival is growing year by year and so is the number of internal and external employees. While in 2019 about 8000 employees were part of the crew, at OMR23 it was already 12,000. 

In order not to lose track, such a large team is best organized with practical tools. Here are Paul's must-haves: 

Airtable: Our central recruitment and shift planning hub.
sipgate: Our reliable telephone exchange. 
Helpscout: Our email support tool - always there when someone needs help.
Google Sites: The ultimate crew portal, where everything comes together.
Slack: Our digital living room, where all team communication takes place.
Zapier: Our automation wizard who creates seamless connections between our tools.
HubSpot Marketing Hub: For targeted and effective e-mail campaigns.
Customer.io: Our e-mail automation specialist.
PandaDoc: For fast and secure contract management.
Google Workspace: Our daily bread for all office tasks.
Miro: The digital whiteboard that brings ideas to life.
Asana: Where tasks are born and done.
Global Event Technologies: Cashless payment, access control and also important for us: timekeeping. 

Gamechanger among the must-haves

Each of these tools has its own advantages and solves specific problems. However, one stands out: "Our All-Star is definitely Airtable. It serves as a bridge between our main database and myOMR, our specialized in-house database. This allows us to control many processes without tying up valuable development resources. We particularly appreciate the 'shared views', the 'interfaces', the 'forms' and the smart automation functions. The numerous extensions are a real gamechanger for us", explains Paul. Especially in combination with the other tools, Airtable is the absolute favorite of the team. "It gives us the agility, to quickly react to changes and create a customized system for our special requirements - all without enormous costs or additional effort", Paul adds.

Overall, the crew management is happy with the listed tools, if it weren't for this one small wish: "Our tools are great, but the holy grail would be a platform that integrates all communication channels. This would enable us to track every single contact and provide our crew with even more comprehensive service", Paul says.

Never without my team 

With a growing festival, the need for efficient processes within the team increases. And the handling of tools must also be adapted to the increasing number of employees. Here, practical automations help: "We love tools that allow us more quality time with our crew, because we want to take every opportunity to get to know our fantastic team even better. With Zapier, we connect our tools and save on annoying and potentially error-prone work", Paul reveals the secret behind the collaboration.

The OMR Crew Management is very familiar with the challenges of a constantly growing team and now knows exactly how to handle them. Finally, we want to know from Paul if he has a tool tip for different team sizes. However, since #crewlove is very important, Paul's tip is different than expected: "The most valuable 'tool' is still an excellent team. Technology aside: great people make the difference." Nevertheless, he doesn't want to withhold his tool tip from you: "To be specific: The combination of Slack and Asana has proven to be unbeatable for us, even though there are alternatives that are just as excellent. But for us, they are just right." 

These are the tools used by the OMR Crew Management

Here is a list of all the tools used by the OMR Crew Management: