# Rachel Ferreira, Director of Events at Crestline Marketing Group — read of event-collaboration-ai, May 20, 2026 > 11 years coordinating corporate events, currently managing a team of 5 and about 70 events per year for mid-market B2B clients. We're at 18 people total, Chicago office. I take the Metra in every day, about 40 minutes each way. Twin 4-year-olds at home, which means I do not have patience for anything that wastes my time. ## How I got here Someone dropped this link in the Corporate Event Planners Network group on Facebook with the comment "has anyone tried this?" No other context. I clicked on my lunch break because we've been in Asana plus five Google Sheets plus a client portal frankenstein that I built myself and I'm tired of it. I was hoping this was another Honeybook or Dubsado competitor that actually understood event timelines. I had maybe 7 minutes. ## What I clicked first The hero subhead: "Event teams waste hours moving information between email, Slack, and spreadsheets." That's accurate. That is my literal Tuesday. Then I saw the feature list and thought okay, someone actually did the research. Vendor Portal, Conflict Detection, Client Hub. Those aren't generic project management features, those are event-specific pain points. I kept reading. ## Where I paused The Conflict Detection feature. "AI flags double-bookings, missing vendors, timeline mismatches, and budget overruns before they become crises on event day." I paused here for a while. That would actually be valuable. I've had a florist ghost me 36 hours before a gala because I missed a confirmation email in a thread with 240 messages in it. If this thing actually catches that class of problem, that's real. That's not just a project management tool, that's something that thinks like an event planner. But I had no idea if it actually does that or if it's just a feature bullet. ## What I distrusted Two things, one small and one enormous. Small: "Join 800+ event professionals who shipped better events in 2025." That number has no texture. 800 meaning 800 paying subscribers? 800 people who started a free trial? 800 email signups? No logos, no names, no "Priya at Bloom Events uses this to manage 40 weddings a year." Nothing. Enormous: Buried partway down the page is this line: "Honest disclosure: we don't have live customers on this idea yet." I had to re-read it twice. So this is not a software product I can sign up for. This is a studio that built a strategy document and some code templates, and they're selling me the research. The $99/month "Starter" pricing in the middle of the page is the pricing they PROPOSE for the product someone else would build. The $5 unlocks a dossier. The $99 to $199 gives you "the working code starter." I am an event planner. I am not a software developer. This entire page looked like a SaaS tool until it didn't. ## What would convince me If this were a real product: one video walkthrough showing an actual event in the tool. Not a demo with fake data named "Spring Gala 2025," but a real coordinator walking through a real event. Show me the Vendor Portal from the caterer's side. Show me what the conflict detection alert actually looks like when it fires. Show me the budget tracker reconciling an invoice from a florist. That specific. If this is the idea-selling product it actually seems to be: just say that clearly above the fold. "We built the blueprint and the code. You build the company." I would actually respect that. But don't dress it in $99/month pricing cards and social proof numbers when there are no live customers. That's the part that loses trust fast. ## What I'd ask in an email reply 1. Is there a working product I can log into today, or am I buying a document and a code repo? I genuinely could not tell from the page. 2. If the product exists: how does the Vendor Portal work for vendors who are not tech-savvy? Half my florists are 55 and barely use email. Does "one-click invite" mean they get a link and no login, or do they have to create an account? 3. If the product does not exist yet: who is the target builder for this? Because if it's me, the event planner, I am not the right person. And if it's a developer who wants to build event software, why does the marketing speak entirely to event planners? ## Verdict: on-the-fence The feature set is the clearest description of my actual problems I have read on any tool page this year, and I mean that. But the page is selling two different things to two different buyers simultaneously and hoping neither notices. I do not know if I am looking at a product or a prospectus. --- *Memo by skeptic persona, generated 2026-05-20. Studio breaks own self-grading loop.*