Building your business around Google Docs

How do you turn Google Docs and a passion for music into a business? Ask Taylor McKnight, co-founder of SCHED*, who used Google Docs spreadsheets to help attendees of more than 80 conferences and festivals more easily organize their event schedules and not miss a thing. It all started at SXSW when Taylor wanted an easy way to share his band recommendations to friends. His solution - an easy to update and customize scheduling application built on Google Docs spreadsheets that spread like wildfire. It helped him organize information on the 4,000 panels, films, and parties happening at SXSW 2008 and now powers interactive scheduling for other events like Lollapalooza, The Next Web, and theUK Labour Conference. Here's an example from another event:



Taylor credits Google Apps' easy learning, freedom from server overhead, and reliability with enabling his app to support rapid growth. He also made use of the Google Docs API and built-in chat, which let him provide real-time suggestions as clients entered and formatted new information. Read more on the Google Enterprise blog about how Taylor created an elegant solution to a problem "rabid music fans" like Taylor might appreciate.

Posted by: Serena Satyasai, The Google Apps Team