I waited ten years for someone to build this

For most of my career as an event planner, the hardest part of the job was not the planning. It was finding the people.

Every planner builds their own book of suppliers from scratch. You meet a caterer at one event, a florist through a friend, a lighting crew because someone passed on a number. Over the years that book becomes the most valuable thing you own, and it lives in your phone, your inbox, your DMs and a notebook you hope you never lose. I always wondered why it had to be so scattered.

The cost shows up at the worst moments. A client calls with a short lead time, the supplier you trust is already booked, and your list runs out. I have paid far more than I should have, simply because the only person available was on the other side of the city. And there have been bookings I could not take at all, because the people I needed were not in my book.

The other side of the same problem

At the same time, I have watched brilliant small businesses do everything right and still go unseen. They post beautiful work on Instagram, price fairly, turn up on time, and then wait for an algorithm or a lucky referral to put them in front of someone who needs them. Talent and fair rates should be enough to be found. Too often they are not.

Planners who cannot find suppliers, and suppliers who cannot be found. It is the same gap, seen from both ends.

Why I stopped waiting

Platforms have come and gone over the years. Some list venues and nothing else. Some charge suppliers for leads that go nowhere. None of them ticked every box for the way events actually come together.

I said for years that someone should build it. Then I realised that the person who understands the problem best is probably the one who should. Why wait for someone else to do what you can do now? I had already waited ten years.

Why wait for someone else to do what you can do now?

What EPlanit is

EPlanit is one place to find, check and book event suppliers, starting in London. Suppliers show their prices up front, can be verified, and never pay to be found: we only earn when a booking is made. Payments go through the platform, so the balance is held until the event has happened, and the supplier knows it is coming. And because I am a planner, planners can be listed too.

We open to the public on 11 November. If you are a supplier who has been waiting to be found, join us as a Founding Supplier. If you are a planner who has ever run out of names in your phone, this was built for you.