Going Paperless: Digital Sign Plans for Modern Events
There's a ritual at most large event installations: someone prints out the sign plan, laminate it, and hands it to a contractor who folds it into their pocket and promptly loses it by mid-morning. Meanwhile, three updates to the plan have been emailed to an inbox nobody is checking from the field.
Paper sign plans are a relic. Here's why digital is better — and how to make the switch without pain.
What's wrong with paper sign plans?
They're instantly out of date
The moment you print a plan, the clock starts ticking on its accuracy. A sponsor changes their logo. A venue moves a barrier. A sign is added to cover a new emergency exit. On paper, none of that makes it to the contractor.
They create information silos
Different contractors have different versions. Nobody knows who has the latest. The organiser has their copy, the site manager has theirs, and neither matches what was actually installed.
They don't capture progress
A paper plan tells you where signs should go. It doesn't tell you where they've been installed, which ones have issues, or whether a contractor is running behind.
They create no audit trail
If something goes wrong — a sign is placed incorrectly, a sponsor's branding isn't displayed, an emergency exit is obscured — a paper plan gives you no record of what actually happened.
What a digital sign plan looks like
A digital sign plan is:
- A map — either a venue site plan or a real-world map with pins for each sign location
- A linked sign list — each pin connects to a sign record with all relevant details
- Live status — each sign shows its current installation status (pending, installed, approved)
- Accessible on mobile — contractors see the plan on their phone, with their assigned signs highlighted
When something changes, you update the digital plan and contractors see the update immediately.
How to make the transition
Start with your next event. Don't try to convert historical plans. For your next event, build the sign list digitally from the start.
Import your existing spreadsheet. Most digital signage tools allow CSV import. If you already have your sign list in a spreadsheet, you're 80% of the way there.
Get contractors on the mobile app before installation day. Send access instructions the week before, not the morning of.
Drop the paper entirely. The hardest part of going digital is trusting that the phone will be sufficient. It will be. If contractors are used to paper, give them one event to adjust.
The result
After one event with a digital sign plan, most teams don't go back. The combination of real-time progress visibility, photo evidence, and instant updates makes everything run more smoothly — and leaves you with a clean record for the post-event report.
Signplanr is built around this workflow. See how the map editor works or start a free trial.