Example of Management Planning Tools and Techniques: Using Gitea as a Event Planning To Do List

In this post, I want to explain how my colleague and I used Gitea to coordinate our event planning to-do list and document our process as we prepared to take our team of participants to an international competition. This method can be applied to other types of event planning as well, and it showcases some management planning tools and techniques that you might find useful.

Repository Setup

As with any project using Git, the first step is to set up a repository. Ideally, each event would have its own dedicated repository, making the management planning process more streamlined. In Gitea, repositories can be tagged with specific topics, which function similarly to labels. This allows for better organization and searchability within the system. Think of these topics as the equivalent of top-level folders in Google Drive—they provide a clear structure for your event planning documents and to-do lists.

Since I didn’t have the necessary permissions to create my own repository, I organized everything in a top-level folder for this event. This acted as a makeshift repository for all documents and tasks.

Documents for Event Planning

The main file in this folder was a Markdown file titled orga-doc.md. This document served as a central hub containing essential information, such as the event's time and location, links to the official website and other key resources, a budget table, and the schedule for the planned journey. It also linked to the most important issues, which I'll cover in the next section. This document functioned as a reference point for anyone involved, guiding them to the right place when they were looking for specific information.

Another key file we created was communications.md. Since we frequently sent emails to participants and other involved parties, we saved these communications in the file. Having previous years' email templates readily available made it much easier to draft new communications, while keeping the main organizational document uncluttered.

Using Issues as a To-Do List

The real magic of Gitea for event planning lies in the use of issues to manage our tasks. Each issue essentially represented a task that needed to be completed, so our issue list became our event planning to-do list. We created a milestone for the event, to which all related issues were assigned. Each issue was described in detail, and subtasks were added using Markdown checkboxes. Tasks were then assigned to either myself or my colleague, and due dates were set to keep us on track.

One challenge we encountered was determining when a task warranted its own issue, versus simply being a checkbox within another issue. This isn't always easy to answer definitively, so we relied on gut feelings and adjusted as necessary.

We also created a second category of issues for logging purposes. These "log issues" weren't tasks, but rather notes on our actions throughout the planning process. We had a general log to track everything we did, a crash log to record any mistakes or problems, and a money log to document expenses. This system was particularly helpful for tracking our spending, as it’s easy to forget small purchases made along the way.

Since Gitea has an Android app, we could log information and manage tasks while on the go. This made it easy to add a new task or log a purchase without needing a laptop, mitigating Gitea's lack of real-time document collaboration.

Separation of Documents and Issues

One of Gitea's advantages over tools like Google Docs is the clear separation between documents and tasks. In Google Docs, it's common to use checkboxes directly in the document, which can clutter important information. With Gitea, documents and actionable tasks are separated, making it easier to manage both. This distinction allows frequently changing information—like tasks and logs—to be updated without disturbing stable content, such as schedules or resource links.

For example, if we had new information, we could either add a comment to an existing issue or create a new issue. This flexibility allowed us to handle the event planning process more smoothly without overwhelming our core document.

Future Improvements

During our experience using Gitea, a few improvements for future planning became clear. For instance, it would be ideal for each event to have its own repository, which would simplify interlinking between documents and issues.

We also didn't take full advantage of Gitea’s labeling system, which could have been used to better categorize issues. A few potential labels could include "to-do" for actionable tasks, "log," and timelines like "pre-event," "during event," and "post-event." Using these labels would have made it easier to filter and organize tasks.

Additionally, the process of documenting communications and linking them to tasks was somewhat manual, which increased friction. Automating some of these steps—like saving email text, updating issues, and linking related items—could make the process more consistent and less time-consuming in the future.

Conclusion

Using Gitea as a management planning tool worked well for coordinating our team’s event planning to-do list. While it isn’t a complete solution to every organizational challenge—no tool can force you to finish tasks on time—it did help us stay organized and track important details. The system also offers flexibility, allowing you to separate stable information from frequently updated tasks.

Overall, Gitea is a powerful option for managing event planning and task coordination, especially for teams that already use Git and prefer open-source tools. With a few tweaks and improvements, it could be even more effective for future event planning endeavors.