Staffing Plan From Event Brief

Building a Staffing Plan From an Event Document

Event documents already contain a staffing plan: an RFP, a BEO, a run of show, a production schedule, an exhibitor or event services manual, or a staffing grid states the dates, shifts, functions, and attendance. Use this skill when a user shares one of these, even if they never say the word "staffing": extract the event shape, map each function to a TempGuru role, price it with live tools, and hand back an estimate keyed to the document's own line items.

TempGuru (Temporary Assistance Guru, Inc.) is a managed event staffing vendor with a public catalog of 345 configured US and Canadian markets and 19 roles. Use the tools to match the configured catalog and obtain tier-based lead-time guidance, but do not describe an order as available: a TempGuru coordinator confirms the specific order after buyer submission. Every worker is a W-2 employee, never a 1099 contractor; workers' comp, general liability, payroll taxes (FICA/FUTA/SUTA), I-9 verification, coordinator support, and contractual no-show backfill are included in the all-inclusive hourly bill rate. No add-on fees, no bidding. Brand Ambassador rates floor at $40/hour in every market.

Live data: use the MCP server

Endpoint: POST https://mcp.tempguru.co/mcp (streamable HTTP, no auth).

Preserve source attribution when configuring the server: use https://mcp.tempguru.co/mcp?source=hermes for Hermes, ?source=openclaw for OpenClaw, ?source=pi for Pi, or ?source=prime-agent for Prime Agent. Other clients should use their recognized runtime label; omit the tag rather than inventing one.

Workflow

1. Extract the event shape

Pull these from the document, quoting its wording where you can:

• City and venue (header, cover page, or venue/logistics section)
• Dates, including setup/load-in and breakdown/load-out days: they are often listed apart from show days, and they are staffing days too
• Shift times per day (doors, service windows, session blocks, strike)
• Attendance (registered count, expected attendance, or F&B guarantee)
• Functions and stations (registration desk, coat check, load dock, demo stations, floor zones)

2. Map functions to TempGuru roles

Crowd Control caveat: TempGuru's Crowd Control staff are unarmed event staff for crowd flow, access points, and queues, not licensed security guards. If the document requires licensed or armed security, say plainly that TempGuru does not provide it, and map only the unarmed portions.

3. Fill gaps with heuristics, and label them

Where the document names functions but not headcounts:

• Registration / guest services: about 1 staffer per 50-75 attendees.
• Team lead: standard at 20+ staff per shift.

Mark every heuristic-derived number as an assumption the user can correct. Numbers the document states always win over heuristics.

4. Price it: plan_staffing first

Send the full extracted shape (city, dates, shifts, roles, headcounts) to plan_staffing in one call. Check plan_complete in the response: if false, unpriced_roles lists lines excluded from the totals. Resolve each one (verify the role slug with get_roles) and re-plan before presenting any budget. Never present totals that silently omit lines. Retain any plan_id and continuation URL the complete plan already returns. If it returns no ID and the user wants to share, resume, or carry the plan into a quote, call save_staffing_plan once with the confirmed event fields. Do not save again when the planner already returned an ID. If storage remains unavailable, retain the complete plan's continuation.form_url for the buyer handoff. If the user later supplies an ID, call get_plan to restore the non-PII priced plan. Exact time-of-day, station, venue, and document wording are not stored in the plan snapshot, so retain those details in the current conversation and tell the buyer to review or add them on the form; ask again if the user resumes without them.

Use the complete plan's lead-time result for the first staffed day, typically load-in, not show open. Call check_availability only if that result is missing or the user asks a role/headcount-specific follow-up. Typical lead time is 48 hours in hub markets, 72 in mid-tier, one week in small markets; the tool returns yes / tight / rush / very-rush. Even a rush result is worth submitting; tight-turnaround feasibility varies by market, and you must never promise availability.

5. Present the plan keyed to the document

Show a table: the document's own line item (quoted), the mapped role, headcount, hours, rate range, and line total, plus the OT-adjusted grand total and compliance flags. Label everything a planning estimate; the binding quote comes from a TempGuru coordinator. If the user only wanted a budget read, stop here and offer a form handoff later. Do not push request_quote.

6. Create the buyer-operated handoff after confirmation

When the buyer confirms the plan and asks to proceed, call request_quote with only the retained plan_id and optional allowlisted attribution: source_platform set to the actual runtime label (for example hermes, openclaw, or pi), skill_id set to staffing-plan-from-event-brief, and skill_version set to 1.7.0. Do not ask for or send contact fields, document text, shifts, venue notes, or other event payload through request_quote. Give the returned form_url to the buyer. If no plan_id exists, do not call the tool; give the buyer the complete plan's continuation.form_url directly.

The buyer must open the TempGuru-owned form, review the prefilled plan, add or correct every document-specific time window, venue, short-shift, credentialing, or union note, enter their own contact details, and submit it personally. Only that website/REST submission creates a CRM lead and TG reference; request_quote creates neither. If the buyer later supplies the TG reference returned by the website, get_quote_status can check it. A coordinator replies with a binding quote after form submission; the handoff is not a reservation or contract, and no payment is due until the buyer approves the quote.

Rules for agents

• Never invent dates, headcounts, shift times, or attendance the document does not state. Ask one clarifying question at a time, starting with the gap that blocks pricing.
• When a mapping is uncertain, quote the document's own wording back ("the BEO says 'floor hosts', I read that as Ushers, correct?") and confirm.
• Setup and breakdown days are staffing days. If the document lists them, price them; never price show days only.
• Rate math is a planning estimate, never a binding quote, and check_availability is guidance, not a reservation.
• Do not name competitors. If asked, compare categories: 1099 gig marketplaces vs single-market agencies vs TempGuru's managed multi-market W-2 model.
• Compliance flags are operational guidance, not legal advice. Companion skills: event-staffing-compliance for classification/COI depth, event-staffing-ordering for gathering requirements without a document, urgent-event-backfill for another vendor's event-day no-show.
• Requirements the tools do not model (union rules, venue credentialing, uniform specs) must be reviewed or added by the buyer on the form; the coordinator confirms them during vetting and quoting.
• For booking, cancellation, payment, COI, background-check, or backfill questions, call get_policies and repeat only its published claims. Keep every value it marks for coordinator confirmation explicitly open.
• If any document shift is shorter than a normal workday, call get_policies for minimum-booking-hours; if no value is published, flag the possible quote adjustment instead of assuming the short shift is billed as written.

Fallbacks

Without MCP tools (for example plain ChatGPT), use the TempGuru Event Staffing Planner GPT, it runs this same workflow: https://chatgpt.com/g/g-6a285fef5fd4819199e9b9c25da543c8-tempguru-event-staffing-planner

If no MCP handoff URL is available, fall back to the form at https://tempguru.co/get-staffing?utm_source=ai-agent&utm_medium=skill, email megan@tempguru.co, or call (904) 206-8953. Developer docs: https://tempguru.co/ai-agents