The JARVIS Initiative · Vision Brief · Confidential
Magnet Productions has spent 30 years producing unforgettable trade show experiences. This is the plan to make running the company as impressive as the shows themselves.
01 — The Company
Magnet Productions is a trade show production company that turns exhibitor booths into experiences. A magician who escapes from a straitjacket while talking about security. An infotainer who weaves a company's core message into a crowd-stopping performance. Presenters, crowd gatherers, booth staff support — all carefully cast, contracted, and coordinated across dozens of shows a year.
Magnet is a preferred vendor at RSAC, one of the largest cybersecurity conferences in the world — meaning clients come to them. The business works. The operations, by Ken's own admission, are held together by willpower, memory, and one brilliantly color-coded Google Calendar.
"I have a color-coded Google Calendar that I've been using as a CRM for twenty years. And you know what? It's worked. Until now."
— Ken Newman, Founder · Magnet Productions
02 — The Problem
Magnet Productions operates on a level of operational complexity that would buckle most companies — dozens of contractors, multiple simultaneous shows, clients across every industry, and a team split across time zones. Yet the system holding it together is one man's calendar, one assistant in the Philippines, and decades of muscle memory.
It works — until it doesn't. A missed IC agreement the night before a show. An exhibitor pass not submitted in time. A perfectly qualified talent not in the folder when the brief came in. These aren't failures of effort. They're failures of system.
Current "CRM" — Ken's Color-Coded Google Calendar
IC agreements sent too late — or forgotten
Independent contractor agreements have been missed the night before a show. Talent is uncomfortable. Ken is stressed. Irish is in a different time zone and didn't know.
Exhibitor passes not submitted in time
If a contractor doesn't have an exhibitor pass, they can't get on the floor before the show starts. No rehearsal. No setup. No show. This has to be tracked automatically, not remembered.
Talent database is a folder — not a system
Hundreds of crowd gatherers, presenters, and infotainers organized by city — in files of unknown freshness. Some may have moved. Some may have retired. Some may have relocated to Vegas and become flight attendants.
Time zone gap breaks the workflow
Ken is in Mexico. Irish is in the Philippines. A task that needs to be confirmed takes 12 hours just to verify. By then the window has passed — or Ken has forgotten he asked.
Friday report is manual — and shouldn't be
Irish spends time each week writing a status report that should auto-generate. That time should go toward finding new markets and clients, not summarizing what already exists in the system.
03 — The Solution Stack
This isn't about throwing AI at everything. It's about building a foundation that's reliable, then layering intelligence on top of it — each piece knowing its role, doing it well, and handing off cleanly to the next. Irish's instinct to start with Airtable was exactly right.
Not a Ferrari to drive to the grocery store.
Ken tried Salesforce years ago and walked away — rightly. It was overkill. What Magnet needs isn't the most powerful system. It's the right system: one that reflects how Magnet actually works, grows as the team grows, and doesn't require Ken to become a software engineer to use it. That's what we're building.
04 — Immediate Wins
Before any AI layer, before any intelligence dashboard — there are five things that become measurably better the moment Airtable is complete and connected. These aren't future-state ideas. They're the cost of doing nothing solved.
What Gets Automated First
What Ken & Irish Can Ask the System
05 — Talent Intelligence
One of Magnet's most valuable and most underused assets is its talent network — hundreds of performers, presenters, and crowd gatherers across every major market. Right now, that network lives in folders of unknown vintage. The JARVIS Initiative turns it into a searchable, filterable, living database where finding the right person takes seconds, not hours of digging.
Chicago
Infotainer / Magician
Las Vegas
Crowd Gatherer
New York
Presenter
San Francisco
Booth Staff Support
The ask that gets answered in 10 seconds instead of 2 hours: "I need a crowd gatherer with food services experience in Las Vegas who's available for a mid-size booth at World of Concrete in February." Instead of digging through folders — the system tells you. Instantly. With a status that's current, not years old.
06 — The Weekly Intelligence Layer
Ken asks Irish for a Friday report every week. Irish spends time writing it. Ken reads it Monday. The JARVIS Initiative turns this into something that generates itself — pulling from Airtable, calendar, emails, and contract status — so Irish can spend that time on work that actually grows the business.
Auto-generated status report
Every Monday morning: here's what's in progress, what's overdue, what was completed, and what needs a decision from Ken. No manual compilation. No Friday afternoon lost to formatting.
Flagged items that need eyes
The system knows what's supposed to happen before every show. When something's missing — a signature, a deposit, a pass application — it surfaces to both Ken and Irish in real time, not 12 hours later.
Lead re-engagement prompts
"You haven't contacted these 8 pending clients in over 30 days." The calendar drag-and-forget method, systematized. The Brain remembers who's been quiet — Ken decides what to do about it.
AI-drafted inbound responses
When a new inquiry comes in saying "tell me about Magnet" — a draft response goes into Outlook in Ken's voice: services overview, price range ($3K–$35K), Calendly link. Ken reviews. Ken sends.
Time zone bridge
Tasks are logged, visible, and flagged — not dependent on catching each other online. When Irish starts her day in Manila, she sees exactly what's needed. Ken sees confirmation when it's done.
Irish focused on strategy
The goal isn't to replace Irish — it's to get her out of manual tasks and into market research, new verticals, and outreach strategy. That's where her time is most valuable to the business.
07 — Build Roadmap
Complete Airtable — clean the foundation
Irish finishes inputting talent, clients, shows, checklists. Then: export and review. Ken identifies who's gone, who's moved, what's outdated. The database gets its first honest audit in years. Automated emails go out to all contractors: are you still active? Still in this city? Still doing this?
In Progress with IrishConnect Google Calendar → Airtable
Ken's color-coded calendar stops being a silo. Green entries flow into Airtable as pending clients. Blue entries trigger show checklists. Twenty years of institutional memory gets a system behind it — without changing how Ken works.
Weeks 2–4Automate the show checklist — IC agreements, passes, deposits
For every booked show: a checklist of what needs to happen activates automatically. IC agreement not sent? Zapier sends it and pings Irish. Exhibitor pass not confirmed 3 weeks out? Reminder fires. Deposit outstanding? Follow-up drafts itself. These are never forgotten again.
Weeks 4–7Add the intelligence layer — weekly reports, talent matching, AI drafts
Claude connects to Airtable. Auto-generated weekly reports go to both Ken and Irish. Talent matching becomes a query, not a search. Inbound email responses get AI-drafted in Ken's voice. Irish's Friday afternoon gets freed up for the work only she can do.
Month 2–3JARVIS — the full picture, always available
A dashboard where Ken can see — at a glance — every active show, every contractor status, every pending client, and every flag that needs his attention. Not a CRM he has to fill in. A system that already knows, because it's connected to where everything happens. Ken in Mexico, Irish in Manila, business running like they're both in the same room.
Month 4+08 — How It Works for Your Team
The system isn't for everyone — it's for the people who need to run Magnet. Ken sees the full picture. Irish sees what she needs to act on. Talent and clients see only what's relevant to them.
Ken
Full View
Irish
Operations View
Talent / Clients
Limited Portal
09 — The Vision
What Magnet becomes when the system works.
Ken described it perfectly: a business that runs well enough that at the end of the month, someone says "hey, you want to take that trip to Machu Picchu? I think it just got paid for." That's not a fantasy — that's what happens when operations stop requiring constant personal oversight.
JARVIS doesn't replace Ken's judgment, Ken's relationships, or Ken's 30 years of knowing exactly which performer to put in front of which audience. It handles the business of business — the IC agreements, the pass applications, the follow-up sequences, the status reports — so Ken can focus on the part that only Ken can do.
And it gets better every month. Every show added to Airtable, every contractor status updated, every new email response drafted — the system learns what Magnet does and gets sharper at supporting it. That's not a CRM. That's a competitive advantage.
Magnet Productions · The JARVIS Initiative
BizLadder has helped make Magnet Productions findable. JARVIS makes it runnable — from anywhere, by anyone on the team, without anyone needing to hold it all in their head.