Chronosoft were engaged by the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras to deliver their Chronicler software to the 2021 Mardi Gras event.

Due to Covid restrictions, the Mardi Gras was held inside the Sydney Cricket Ground, a first for the event in its 43-year history. The challenges were to consider the layout for the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras, to modify the event control processes, and introduce control room software.

The Mardi Gras control room had previously used spreadsheets and paper-based processes and procedures. Chronosoft was brought in to adapt the paper-based processes and procedures to the Chronicler software processes and ensure that the control room operators were trained in these processes quickly.

Despite the challenges moving into a new venue and the addition of COVID-19 protocols, the team at SGLMG were quick to adopt and adapt to the Chronicler Incident Management system.

Chronosoft were able to include all of the key COVID requirements for the Mardi Gras into the system. Working with SGLMG, we were able to consider the marshalling areas for each float, the internal stadium processes and the egress and dispersion considerations. Being able to include all of this into the software assisted the control room to manage both the event and COVID regulatory requirements.

With additional alert messages created, senior event producers could be made aware of any COVID issues the moment they arose, allowing the team to action and resolve before they became a problem.

In the initial scope of works, the possibility of border restrictions was recognised. In anticipation of this, training and roll out of the system was conducted remotely, with training and onboarding sessions completed in the days leading up to the event. During the event, the Chronosoft team provided remote support to the control room ensuring that we were on hand to answer any questions.

Chronosoft was proud to support the return of the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras in 2021 and look forward to working with the team on such an important and amazing event in future years to come.