EventRack is a curated event directory for professionals, business owners, and creatives across Ireland, focused on showcasing tech, startup, business, and design events. The idea began as a personal tool: a Google Sheet I built to keep track of high-quality events I was attending to meet potential design clients.
As I traveled and networked more, I realized this was a widespread pain point. There was no central, well-designed, actively maintained directory of professional events. EventRack was my answer — a living, breathing digital resource that evolved through four key iterations:
I wore every hat, primarily researcher, designer, curator, and builder. Refining the product based on feedback, analytics, and social engagement. What started as a personal tool became a widely followed community resource.
💥 Key Pain Points
The seed for EventRack was planted when I struggled to find high-quality, relevant events in Ireland. Eventbrite was too cluttered, often filled with filler or outdated listings. LinkedIn had far more valuable events, but finding them required digging through dozens of posts, pages, and shares.
There was no unified place to check for what was happening, what mattered, and what I was missing. Once I began networking at the very events I was manually tracking, I realized others were experiencing the same frustrations.
🧪 Research Approach
Given the lightweight nature of the product in its early form, traditional UX research methods like interviews or surveys weren’t necessary at the start. Instead, I leaned into rapid experimentation and passive observation:
As EventRack grew, the feedback became more focused. I started weighing what truly added value to the community — and the metrics made it clear: LinkedIn was where the users lived.
💡 Key Insight
Despite investing in a website that was updated regularly, I discovered that organic LinkedIn posts performed significantly better. They were less structured, less polished — but more visible, more timely, and more human.
This insight reshaped how I thought about content, UX, and user habits. In this case, frictionless access (even if it meant chaos) beat polish.
🛠️ First Concepts
The first version of EventRack was as raw as it gets: a Google Sheet with just the essentials — event name, date, location, and a link. Occasionally, I added personal comments to flag the events I really didn’t want to miss.
The next version moved to Webflow, offering a cleaner layout with visual elements like event images or organizer logos. But while it looked better, the functionality was limited. There was no filtering, no automation, and every update had to be done manually.
🔁 Testing & Refinement
Refinement was driven primarily by direct feedback. While analytics confirmed trends, the strongest indicators came from conversations — people replying to LinkedIn posts, sending DMs, or mentioning EventRack at events. These signals helped me iterate on format, frequency, and content style.
It became clear: EventRack worked best when it felt like a conversation, not just a database.
🔄 Key Decisions & Pivots
One of the biggest pivots came when I migrated from Webflow to Softr + Airtable. This unlocked:
But perhaps the most important shift wasn’t technical — it was strategic. When analytics and engagement pointed to LinkedIn as the true hub, I leaned all the way in. I turned EventRack into a conversation — a recurring, high-value post in people’s feeds — not just a static website.
📦 What Launched
EventRack officially launched as www.EventRack.eu, supported by a regularly updated LinkedIn presence. While additional channels like a Beehiiv newsletter and an Instagram page were briefly started, I quickly narrowed focus to LinkedIn and the site — the channels that showed the most traction.
📣 Community Reception
The website averaged 20 daily active users, and LinkedIn posts reached 300+ weekly impressions. But more telling than the metrics was the real-world recognition: I became known at events as “the EventRack guy,” a clear sign that brand association and community value were resonating.
🏆 Highlights & Wins
💡 Lessons Learned
Echoing Steve Jobs’ philosophy: if you poke life, something will happen. With EventRack, I found that consistency was everything. Yes, I adapted, tested, and iterated — but the real traction came from showing up every single day behind the scenes, and every single week in public.
🔁 What I’d Do Differently
I wouldn’t change much in terms of execution. I would stay at it longer however. The project’s growth curve was undeniable, but I paused for another opportunity (HubBook) right when EventRack was gaining momentum. The biggest cost was momentum lost due to distraction.
🧠 UX Takeaways