How Hayes Garden retired its Saturday morning triage
Margaux Devereaux on the loading-dock spreadsheet she ran for nine seasons — and what replaced it.
For nine seasons Margaux Devereaux ran Hayes Garden the way most venues run themselves: on a colour-coded spreadsheet, three group texts, and a clipboard at the front desk. The Wi-Fi password was on a Post-it. The freight elevator was double-booked roughly twice a quarter. The photographer, on average, arrived at the wrong floor.
What changed was small. The spreadsheet became a workbook. The group thread became three channels — venue, planner, vendor — each scoped to a single event. The Wi-Fi password stopped being a Post-it and started being a line in the brief that sent itself the moment a vendor confirmed.
“Saturday mornings used to be triage,” Margaux said. “Now the florists, caterers, and A/V leads arrive already knowing the dock is reserved through noon — and what door to use.”
The numbers, for the curious: 120 events a season, fourteen hours saved on a typical Saturday, zero group texts last quarter. The clipboard is still at the front desk; we could not bring ourselves to take it away.