The City of Roswell has become a highly sought-after location for both special events and film production. To help event organizers and film companies more easily navigate the City’s permit application and event logistics processes, the City now uses online application tools: EventApp and FilmApp.
Special event and film production requests are facilitated through the City of Roswell’s Special Events Division, which coordinates with other City departments such as Police, Fire, Transportation, Sanitation, and Recreation and Parks to provide necessary services and use of facilities. EventApp and FilmApp enables staff to turn around applications more efficiently, bringing all the separate pieces of the permitting and logistics process into one online system.
“Organizations have realized how attractive and welcoming our City is to special events and how desirable Roswell is as a filming location,” said Christine Ward, Special Events Manager for the City of Roswell. “We wanted to make our process more user-friendly and provide an easy way to gather more detailed information from the organizers when vetting both event and film production applications. EventApp and FilmApp present us with a great opportunity to help streamline and centralize the permitting and event logistics process for outside organizations.”
Before the introduction of film app, paper applications for permits needed to be downloaded, printed and filled out by hand. The organizer either had to mail in their application with payment or physically come in and be walked down to their Community Development office in order to make the payment.
This lead to lost applications, lost payments and slow response time. It was also very laborious for the Special Events division, which consisted of only two people involved in processing all the applications
As soon as the software began to be used, the end to end process for issuing permits was drastically improved:
The turnaround time from the time the organizer submitted to the actual permitting was cut by 50%.
Event organiser and production manager feedback was 100% positive, as their processing time was reduced as well.
The team found it much easier to communicate with our organizers if for example they were missing a COI or a site map, all could be done within the app itself.
As Christine also adds, “The application process is completely user friendly and the tech help is just an email or call away. “
Roswell was the first City in Georgia to launch EventApp, through which event organizers can make an application online with the help of a live tool kit, providing step-by-step guidance. All supporting documents are uploaded and stored in one place. EventApp even helps the applicant and the administrators communicate with each other and with other stakeholders quickly and efficiently. Milestones are set to meet deadlines, and every action is tracked and recorded.
Movies and television shows are regularly in production in the metro Atlanta area, and Roswell has become one of the premier locations for these productions, as well.FilmApp provides an easier way for production companies to request necessary on-set services—such as Police presence, road closures, and use of facilities. The City of Roswell, the City of Decatur, and Dekalb County are all launching FilmApp and can leverage the success of the City of Atlanta’s FilmApp system, which was established in 2014. Many major film production companies are already signed up to use the Atlanta FilmApp system. The technology’s unified system of permitting across the metro Atlanta area will encourage productions to consider using locations outside the Atlanta city limits.
“We want event organizers and film production companies to know that the City of Roswell is ready and excited to host them—and EventApp and FilmApp are going to make it even easier to open doors to those opportunities,” said Ward.
