The return of South by Southwest (SXSW) after the pandemic pause was a powerful symbol of recovery for the global events industry. But restarting a massive festival encompassing Film & TV, Music, and Innovation requires more than just big names and sold-out badges – it requires thousands of dedicated, organized, and motivated volunteers.
Rebuilding a community post-covid
The challenge facing the SXSW team was monumental: how do you rebuild and scale a volunteer community that had been dormant through situations beyond your control , while simultaneously improving the efficiency of the entire operation?
The answer lay in adopting a purpose-built volunteer management platform: Rosterfy.
Rosterfy provided SXSW with the modern, scalable solution needed to not only help them recover its volunteer base but to make the entire process more automated for the organizers and more engaging for the volunteers themselves.
Automating the engine: Operational efficiency at scale
Managing thousands of volunteers – each with varying roles, different time commitments, and required training – was previously a labyrinth of manual processes.
Rosterfy’s automation capabilities were instrumental in streamlining the operational management of the program:
Workflow automation: The platform drastically reduced administrative burden. A standout example was the integration with Adobe Sign, which automated the sending and signing of mandatory volunteer agreements. This replaced a time-consuming manual process of emailing and chasing down signed documents, creating immediate administrative relief.
Simplified check-in and tracking: For an event spanning multiple days and dozens of locations, rapid and accurate attendance tracking is vital. Rosterfy simplified the shift check-in and check-out process, providing accurate data for reporting while ensuring volunteers met their required commitments.
Data synchronization: Using Rosterfy’s robust API, SXSW could seamlessly pull volunteer data directly into their registrant badge printing application, ensuring that volunteer status and badge access were synchronized, further eliminating manual data entry and potential errors.
Replacing multiple systems with Rosterfy
"Using Rosterfy provides a uniformed experience, it's not working out of multiple applications to try and achieve the same goal."
Sage Fly
Vice President Information Technology, SXSW
Creating connection: A more engaging entry point
For volunteers, the experience begins the moment they decide to sign up. Post-COVID, making that entry point attractive, flexible, and empowering was key to successful recruitment and retention. Rosterfy achieved this by introducing a self-service model:
Volunteer-led scheduling: The single greatest change for the volunteer was gaining the power to pick their own schedules. Instead of waiting for volunteer managers to assign shifts, Rosterfy’s interface allowed individuals to easily view available roles and times across the festival, allowing them to truly build a schedule that fit their life. This autonomy creates ownership and significantly boosts satisfaction.
Streamlined recruitment: Rosterfy provided fully branded volunteer portals, ensuring a seamless, professional experience from the first click. This streamlined process reduced drop-off rates and made joining the SXSW community appealing.
Targeted communication: Managers gained the ability to instantly view shift demands were being met, and pinpoint and promote shifts that needed filling. This allowed for highly targeted recruitment drives and communications, ensuring that all logistical holes were plugged quickly and efficiently.
The results: A growing community
The combination of sophisticated automation on the back end and a highly engaging, self-service experience on the front end proved to be the winning strategy for SXSW. The operational efficiency freed up staff time, and the improved user experience brought the volunteers back.
The success of the partnership is best summarized by those on the front lines:
Rebuilding our volunteer program post covid
"Rosterfy has helped us rebuild our volunteer base post Covid. We've been able to steadily increase it every year using Rosterfy. So I think that's helped immensely."
Trevor Weede
Volunteer Operations Manager
By empowering its volunteer community with modern tools, SXSW not only scaled its workforce but also solidified its program as a world-class example of volunteer management in the post-pandemic events landscape.
About Rosterfy
Rosterfy is a global volunteer and workforce management platform helping organisations recruit, train, engage, and retain volunteers at scale. Trusted by nonprofits, events, and government programmes worldwide, Rosterfy empowers impactful volunteer experiences through automation, compliance tools, and powerful integrations.
SXSW significantly scaled and streamlined its volunteer recruitment, scheduling, and management using Rosterfy’s automated volunteer management platform, boosting operational efficiency and volunteer satisfaction while rebuilding and growing its volunteer base post-pandemic.
