EQUINOX LAUNCHES CLEAN SKY INDEX

Equinox has launched the Clean Sky Index, an initiative that empowers clients to control how their travel impacts the environment. The effort allows travel buyers the choice to favour private and commercial aircraft operators when it comes to booking, thus taking concise action towards reducing their travel’s environmental impact.

Through its private charter and fullservice travel management units, the UK travel company will demonstrate to clients how prospective operators perform within two specific criteria. The first is net zero initiatives towards emission mitigation from Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) use to offsetting efforts and future tech investment). The second is flight operations toward emissions minimisation, including flight procedures, in-flight performance, and efforts to reduce non-CO2 emissions. “Beyond carbon offsetting, some of our clients, the end users, are unsure how they can support sustainable flying,” stated Elliot Bottomley, Managing Director of Equinox Charter. “The Clean Sky Index provides our clients continually updated information to support their choices. By choosing sustainable operators, those that are making real and accountable efforts, our clients are empowered to make an immediate impact on greener travel.

“Empowering client choice is paramount,” he added. “Not all operators are the same and simple differences between them, including how the aircraft is operated, can make a major difference. Every kilo counts!”

Thanks to a combination of publicly available information and active discussions with operators, led by Equinox’s Sustainability Consultant, Douglas Corbett, Equinox found that there are substantial and reliable results for commercial operators. Airline operators including easyJet and Air New Zealand top the commercial assessment, demonstrating strength in a clear mission objective, use of Sustainable Aviation Fuels, future technology investment and flight operations procedures and initiatives. Business Aviation assessments demonstrated in general, some ground to cover. Yet, the work of companies like VistaJet and Air Charter Scotland in this segment is encouraging and is beginning to set the standards for others to follow.

The Clean Sky Index forms part of several sustainable travel assessments useful to travellers and buyers of travel, under Equinox’s Enhanced Sustainability Initiative (EESI). www.equinox-charter.com www.equinox-travel.com

Words: Jacob Waite

Photos: tourmanagement.com and Jokko - Joris Bulckens

In a bid to prevent tour managers from frantically sifting through their inbox to find that one important email with guest list information, a promoter contact, or a parking plot, tourmanagement.com – a platform developed by touring professional, Roeland Veugelen and fine-tuned by over 200 bands and crews – allows tour managers to focus on what is really important when on the road: creating memories for concertgoers with the fewest headaches possible.

While touring with Belgian singer-songwriter Milow in 2008, Veugelen began developing an online tour calendar that could do the planning of individual band and crew members and centralise call sheet information. “My goal, from the beginning, was to replace the tour book – ‘the book of lies’ – with accurate and real time information distributed to an entire travel party, which is also available to access on their laptops and phones,” he explained. “Although I initially made it for myself, local promoters became interested in it.”

Based on the positive feedback of dozens of tour managers using the self-made software, Veugelen made the decision to develop a fully-fledged commercial iteration of tourmanagement.com in 2013. “We began to offer it as a Software as a Service (SaaS) model, so people could start using it.”

As time passed and uptake increased, additional features were added. “What we tried to do with that first version was to make a centralised space for all tour-related information,” he explained. “Everything from a tour calendar to timesheets, setlists, venue, hotel, and travel information, easily accessible, and more importantly, all in one place.” The platform allows end users to organise their events, add detailed timings for shows, rehearsals, and promo days, as well as a personal calendar for artist and crew members, integrated with laptops or smartphones.

Tourmanagement.com also boasts an extensive location database with the ability to add additional GPS coordinates. Tour managers can calculate artist fees, based on ticket sales, costs, bonuses, etc, and keep track of artist and crew passports, visas, personal data, and travel preferences.

It c an also manage guest lists for shows by allowing band members to add their own guests directly into the system; centralise hotel, travel, flight, promo and other information; and distribute set lists to artist and crew camps, as well as PRS agencies.

Customers to date include Scooter, a-ha, Moderat, Tame Impala, Matt Simons, Hooverphonic, Racoon, Triggerfinger, Caro Emerald, Selah Sue, Simply Red, The Bosshoss, Milow, Ictus, Kamelot, Within Temptation and Scorpions, among others.

“We have roughly 200 productions active on the platform, ranging from small local Belgian bands and Dutch artists, right through to the likes of Simple Minds, Simply Red, Scorpions, Nick Cave, Chrissie Hynde, Andre Rieu, Lorde –the list goes on,” he remarked.

Almost two years ago, given the swing in uptake, Veugelen decided to revamp the website, which he declared as a “costly undertaking and substantial investment”, but equally “rewarding” in the long term.

“W hile we centralised all this tour-related information, we wanted to implement the ability to really assist end users and make their work on the road easier, from suggesting rooming lists to warning you when a visa or passport is set to expire, to sending specific notifications for an upcoming soundchecks or push notifications for last-minute changes. We implemented APIs to get flight information, and data on currency exchange formats, as well as improving our database and providing venues an option to use the platform as a technical venue writer. Bands can verify that information in partnership with the venue.”

The software update was based on things both Veugelen noted during eight years of operation and feedback from end users. “For example, we always had a guest list function on the platform, however for larger bands, due to the demand for guest list spots, they often require a few layers of approvals,” he said, adding that additional layers of user specific permissions to the platform is one of the key requests. “With our latest update, a member of the band or touring camp can request a guest list spot, which then must be approved by the powers that be.”

Developing new features costs time and effort in tourmanagement.com’s pre-existing framework, so Veugelen decided to go from scratch to explore the possibilities and remits of a totally new product, based on elements of the old model. “We want to offer our end users the best experience,” he said. “Our philosophy aligns with mid-size touring acts upwards, and I believe we are the best solution. There is some all-round band management software on the market, which include touring planning elements but focus on marketing, internal band account, website presence, as opposed to the nuts and bolts of touring.”

Of paramount importance was presenting a customisable platform that can adapt to the challenges and fluidity of a modern touring production. “The offset of COVID-19 and the subsequent economic crisis presents new challenges for touring productions with budgets more limited, less crew and equipment available. With a platform like ours, there’s a lot of opportunity to make it easier for tour managers by making the organising of administration as centralised and efficient as possible, so they can focus on the big picture – and that’s having a great show in the best possible circumstances.”

Since the invention of mobile phones and emails, touring has been a “last-minute industry”, according to Veugelen. “Navigating admin is now more fragmented than ever. Lead times are extended and, in my opinion, this has only got worse since the pandemic because supplies are limited, but crews are also wary of postponements or cancellations due to a variety of reasons, whether that is ticket sales, supply chain worries or otherwise,” he noted.

“Working with a team of external software developers, we want to make it easier to organise a tour. Instead of dozens of Microsoft Excel sheets, we’re looking to provide an intuitive platform which was not only built by someone who has toured for decades but retains the ethos and values of those ageold methods. After all, it would take years to understand what end users require without having that hands-on experience,” Veugelen stated, explaining that some UK touring crews rely on what3words’ proprietary geocode system to navigate backstage, so he and his developers are building-in specific functionality upon request.

“This is a logical and next step in professionalising touring practices, as things on the artist side have developed when it comes to advanced security measures and huge leaps have been made on the technical side. I’m amazed to discover mammoth productions still operate on an archaic administration structure,” he stated, underlining his goal to save time for tour managers and wide production crews and artists.

“In the long term, it would be nice to create a community for people to use our platform to exchange knowledge and data among them and with other partners relevant to their tours,” he said, looking to the future. “This is something we can do at a faster pace, but until then our hope is to double in size to 500 active bands, with growth areas in Europe and the UK.”

The latest version of the software launches on 23 January. Prospective users can sign up to a free trial of the platform or explore subscriptions at: www.tourmanagement.com