The easy way to plan camping trips, picnics and meetups as a group: CrewMap

Planning a weekend camping trip or a beach picnic sounds fun, right up until the chat group fills with hundreds of messages, the meeting point gets shared three different ways and you find out at the last minute that nobody brought the gas canister. We built CrewMap to remove exactly that kind of chaos. In this post we explain how the app works and how to plan a group event from start to finish.

What goes wrong with group events?

Friends, families and communities usually plan events in general-purpose messaging apps. They are great for chatting, but they were not designed for organising an event:

• Information gets lost. The date, time and meeting point scroll out of view; anyone who joins late has to dig through a long history.
• Tasks are vague. Nobody is responsible for tracking everything people said they would bring.
• Location chaos. On the day, everyone shares their location separately and you have to open several messages to see where people are.

How CrewMap works

CrewMap treats every event as an "organization". Everything about the event lives inside it: details, participants, the to-do list, the map and the chat.

Create an organization

Give the event a name and a short description, pick the date and time, and mark the meeting point on the map. The home screen summarises your upcoming events, active organizations and open tasks.

Invite your crew with a code

Every organization has its own invite code. People you share it with join in one tap, and the participant list, including who the organiser is, appears on the details screen.

Live location map

During the event you can see where your crew is on a private, secure map. The meeting point is pinned and you can get directions there easily. Locations are shared with that event's members only.

Shared to-do lists

Add every task, from camping gear to picnic shopping, and assign it to your crew. Completed tasks update for everyone instantly, and "who was bringing what?" becomes a thing of the past.

Group chat

Event-specific chat keeps conversations separate from your general groups. Updates, last-minute changes and photos stay inside the event.

Example: a weekend camping trip

1. Monday: the organiser creates a "Weekend camping" organization and pins the date and campsite.
2. Tuesday: the invite code goes to the group and everyone joins.
3. Wednesday: the tent, gas, food and first-aid kit are added to the list and assigned to people.
4. Saturday morning: as everyone sets off, the map shows who is how close, so nobody waits around at the meeting point.
5. During the trip: the chat and list keep everyone coordinated.

Privacy first

Location sharing is sensitive. In CrewMap, locations are shared on a private map with the event's members only. Personal data and privacy settings on the profile screen stay under the user's control. You can read the app's privacy policy on its page on our site.

Free and Premium

CrewMap is free to download on the App Store. A Premium option is available for people who want more active organizations and an ad-free experience.

Tips for better events

• Always pin the meeting point on the map; sharing a pin instead of directions avoids confusion.
• Assign tasks a few days before the event, not on the day.
• For large groups, name one or two co-organisers.
• Keep finished organizations in your history; reusing the list next time saves effort.

Who is CrewMap for?

We designed CrewMap around a need shared by groups of all sizes: getting together in the same place at the same time. Some of the situations where it helps most:

• Groups of friends: weekend camping, hikes, concerts and festival meetups.
• Families: holiday visits, picnics and trips with several cars.
• Communities and clubs: cycling tours, running groups and volunteer events.
• Small teams: off-site team events and field meetups.

At festivals and crowded events

It is easy to lose your friends at a crowded concert or festival, and messages can lag when the mobile network is busy. In CrewMap, a meeting point pinned on the map in advance means anyone who gets separated knows where to go, while the live map shows where the group is gathering on one screen. Event chat gets short updates such as "meet at the entrance" to everyone without them getting lost in busy general groups.

Tips for organisers

Write complete event details

Putting the duration, what to bring and any important rules in the description stops the same questions being asked over and over in chat. Anyone who joins later finds everything on the details screen.

Share tasks fairly

Everyone can see who each task on the to-do list is assigned to. That transparency stops the load falling on a few people and ends arguments about who agreed to what.

After the event

When the event is over, the organization moves to the past tab. Using the previous list as a reference for the next similar event makes planning much faster.

Why a separate app?

Plenty of people say "we already do this in our messaging app". The difference is structure: the date, place, participants, tasks and locations each have their own place instead of being scattered across a chat. The bigger and longer the event, the more that difference is worth.

Conclusion

CrewMap takes care of the tedious part of planning so you can focus on the fun part. Our tagline says it best: plan it, map it, forget the rest. Download CrewMap free for iPhone on the App Store, and see the screenshots on its page on our site.