The Problem
Planning and managing an event involves much more than coordinating the day itself. Event planners have to keep track of clients, vendors, tasks, budgets, invoices, expenses and deadlines—often across spreadsheets, messaging apps and separate tools.
As an event grows, keeping everything in sync becomes increasingly difficult. Financial information gets scattered, follow-ups can be missed, and it becomes harder to see the overall health of an event at a glance.
EventDesk brings these workflows together in one place, giving event planners a centralized system to manage their events, teams, clients, vendors and finances from planning through completion.
The Product
EventDesk brings the core workflows of event planning into a single workspace. Planners can manage events, coordinate tasks, work with clients and vendors, track budgets and expenses, and handle invoices without jumping between disconnected tools.
Event & Task Management
Plan each event, assign tasks, track progress and keep deadlines on schedule.
Budget & Financial Management
Manage budgets, expenses, bills and invoices throughout the event lifecycle.
CRM for Clients, Leads & Vendors
Manage leads, clients and vendors alongside the events they're connected to.
My Role in Building EventDesk
I designed and built EventDesk end-to-end.
From product architecture and data modeling to frontend, backend, authentication, authorization and deployment, I owned the engineering across the entire product.
Product Architecture & Engineering
- Product Architecture
- Designed the overall application architecture and technical foundations.
- Frontend
- Built the product UI and workflows using Next.js, React and TypeScript.
- Backend
- Developed server-side logic, APIs and business workflows.
- Business Logic
- Built the core workflows for events, tasks, budgets, expenses, invoices, leads, clients and vendors.
Data, Security & Multi-tenancy
- Database
- Designed the PostgreSQL data model and persistence layer using Prisma.
- Authentication
- Implemented user authentication and account management.
- Authorization
- Designed access control around users, organizations and application resources.
- Multi-tenancy
- Implemented tenant isolation using PostgreSQL Row-Level Security (RLS).
Infrastructure & Operations
- Integrations
- Integrated the external services required to operate the SaaS product.
- Deployment
- Set up production deployment, environments and application infrastructure.
- Observability
- Implemented analytics, error tracking and operational monitoring.
EventDesk Architecture
EventDesk is built as a modern full-stack SaaS application, with a Next.js application at the core and PostgreSQL as the primary data layer.
The application follows a clear separation between the user-facing application, data access layer and database, while integrating specialized SaaS services for authentication, payments, email, analytics, monitoring and customer support.
- Next.js
- Application layer, combining the React frontend with server-side logic and APIs.
- Prisma
- ORM and data-access layer between the application and database.
- Neon PostgreSQL
- Primary database for tenant and business data.
- PostgreSQL RLS
- Provides database-level isolation between tenants.
- Clerk
- Handles authentication and user management.
- SaaS integrations
- Stripe, Resend, PostHog, Better Stack and Tawk.to provide specialized platform capabilities.
The architecture keeps the core product logic within the application while relying on proven services where they provide a clear advantage.
Engineering Challenges
Building EventDesk involved solving problems well beyond implementing CRUD features. As the product evolved, the engineering challenges moved from infrastructure and database architecture to security, third-party integrations and increasingly complex product interactions.
Technical Decisions
Building EventDesk required balancing development speed, security, scalability and the realities of building a SaaS product with a small engineering team.
Outcome
EventDesk is now a working SaaS application that I designed and built end-to-end.
The product brings event planning, task management, budgeting, finance and CRM into a single workspace for in-person event planners. The application has been taken from an initial product idea through architecture, implementation, deployment and ongoing iteration.
Building EventDesk gave me the opportunity to work across the entire product lifecycle—from designing the system and data model to solving production infrastructure, multi-tenancy, security and complex product workflows.