Building an Easy-to-Use Event Management System for Local Communities

Our story began during COVID, when we managed food deliveries with phone calls and spreadsheets. Even after the pandemic, we found ourselves relying on the same fragile tools for tutoring camps, park cleanups, and other community events. The problems didn’t disappear, multiple unorganized spreadsheets, volunteers missed shifts, and reporting was painful.

That experience inspired us to build a smarter, easier event management system designed to support local communities. We built anonymous event sign up features into our new platform, letting volunteers contribute without barriers and choose convenient public drop-off points like churches, schools, or parks. What started with food delivery in a crisis has now grown into a comprehensive, open-source solution for community service.

How Kiro Made It Easy

• Plain-language to production – Kiro transformed simple, non-technical requirements into production-quality software.

• Spec-driven approach – Automatically generated requirements, designs, and tasks directly from prompts.

• Built-in testing – Every task included unit tests and regression tests to ensure nothing broke as features were added.

• Spec mode & Vibe mode – Spec mode for structured development, Vibe mode for quick troubleshooting and iteration.

• Collaborative workflow – Each step included dependencies, allowing team members to work in parallel on different tasks.

• Speed with reliability – What would normally take months was delivered in days, with reliable testing and full traceability from requirements to working code.

How did we structure our conversations with Kiro? We started with our mission, not code. We described real-world problems: the volunteer who couldn't find their shift, Need for anonymous login, Admin dashboard for better planning. Kiro, our AI partner, understood the human needs behind the code. It didn't just wait for instructions; it collaborated with us, asking insightful questions about anonymous sign-ups and reporting. This mission-driven approach ensured every line of code had a purpose. We were pleasantly surprised by Kiro’s positive feedback from time to time if it was a good idea.

Most Impressive Code Generation

The most impressive generation was the entire multi-tenant backend architecture created from our specification. Kiro built the FastAPI service, SQLAlchemy models with Alembic migrations, and comprehensive API documentation—all in one pass. It translated our high-level requirements into a secure, scalable system capable of serving multiple nonprofit organizations, without us writing a single line of boilerplate code.

Agent Hooks and Spec-to-Code Development

We used agent hooks to automate important parts of our workflow such as Git commits, documentation updates, and testing at each step. Whenever a new API endpoint or service function was created, the hook automatically generated unit tests. This freed us from repetitive work and guaranteed at least 85% code coverage from day one. Each time a task was completed, we saw a checkmark appear, confirming its success.

Agent Hook Benefits We Experienced

• Automated Git commits and documentation updates

• Unit tests created automatically for new endpoints and services

• Consistent 85%+ code coverage from the start

• Visual confirmation with task completion checkmarks

• Automatic API documentation generation with OpenAPI specs

• Contextual code reviews with actionable improvement recommendations

• Automated database migration scripts for schema changes

• Cross-platform compatibility checks for deployment readiness

Spec-to-Code: Clear, Traceable Development

We turned real nonprofit challenges into a clear specification that served as our blueprint. Once we gave requirements to Kiro, it created:

• Requirements.md - Detailed functional and technical specifications

• Design.md - System architecture, database schema, and UI/UX wireframes

• Tasks.md - Prioritized development roadmap with implementation steps

Screenshots of Requirement, Design and Tasks given below.

Here is requirements we gave to Kiro:

Here is Technical design prepared by kiro:

Here are the Tasks created by kiro. Kiro gives us the opportunity to revise till everything looks right, before we start building it. 

With Kiro we created a comprehensive testing strategy that resulted in fewer errors while developing this application. Also this strategy will help us to maintain this application during feature enhancement in future. 

Event Management System DevOps Architecture

AWS CDK Infrastructure:

Deploys ECS Fargate containers, RDS PostgreSQL, S3+CloudFront for frontend

Staging/production environments with automated CDK deployments

Secrets Manager for credentials, VPC networking

Docker Containerization:

Multi-service docker-compose with PostgreSQL, Redis, FastAPI backend, React frontend

Observability stack: Prometheus, Grafana, Tempo, Loki

Production Dockerfiles with security best practices

GitHub Actions CI/CD:

CI Pipeline: Backend/frontend tests, E2E with Playwright, security scanning (Trivy/Bandit), SonarCloud quality gates

CD Pipeline: ECR container builds, CDK infrastructure deployment, database migrations, smoke tests, Slack notifications

Automated rollback on failures, multi-environment support

Windows Development Setup (run-project.bat):

Backend: Activates Python venv, runs uvicorn app.main:app --reload --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000 in separate window

Frontend: Executes npm run dev (Vite dev server) in separate window, serves on localhost:3000

Project Statistics Summary:

Total Files: ~800+ files

Event Management System contains approximately:

Backend (Python): ~25,000-30,000 lines

FastAPI application with comprehensive API endpoints

Database models, services, and utilities

Authentication, admin management, volunteer systems

Frontend (React/TypeScript): ~20,000-25,000 lines

React components with TypeScript

Comprehensive test suites

E2E tests with Playwright

Configuration & Infrastructure: ~5,000-8,000 lines

Docker configurations

AWS CDK infrastructure code

CI/CD workflows

Documentation: ~3,000-5,000 lines

Comprehensive README files

API documentation 

 Estimated Total: ~55,000-70,000 lines of code

Home Screen – Simple and Welcoming

Our home screen is designed with clarity in mind. Visitors can immediately view upcoming events, filter by type, and sign up in seconds

Easy Sign-Up for Volunteers

Volunteers can sign up using their Google account or by creating a simple email/password account.

• Google login simulation makes joining effortless.
  
  

• Email login ensures accessibility for everyone.
  
  

The anonymous sign-up option allows community members to help without creating an account.

Admin Dashboard – Control at Your Fingertips

Admins and organizers can manage everything from a central dashboard:

• Create Event: Add details, set capacity, and customize signup fields.
  
  

• Volunteer Management: Track and manage participants for each event.
  
  

• User Management: Approve, deactivate, or update volunteer accounts.
  
  

• Reports & Analytics: Export signups, view revenue, and generate volunteer hour summaries for grants.Audit logs to see the activities and resources used.

Volunteer Management 

User Management 

Analytics: 

Volunteer Page – Sign Up and Log Hours

Volunteers see a clean list of upcoming events with real-time slot availability. After participating, they can log their hours directly in the system.

• Sign up instantly for events.

• Volunteer Dashboard for easy access to all events
  
  

• Log hours after events are completed.
  
  

• Edit logged hours if updates are needed.
  
  

Registered Volunteers signup with a single button click

Volunteer Dashboard 

Log Hours 

Designed for Every Device

Our platform works seamlessly on laptops, tablets, and phones. Whether you’re a busy parent signing up on your phone, or an admin exporting reports on a desktop, the system adapts to your needs.

Laptop view, tablet view and mobile view

Mobile view:

What’s Next

We’re extending the platform with:

• Setup for payments and donation receipts to make contributions seamless.

• Automatic email notifications for confirmations, reminders, and updates.

• Multi-language support for serving diverse communities.

• Offline-first features for events in areas with limited connectivity.

Conclusion

Technology should make it easier for people to help others, not create more hurdles or administrative headaches. Working with Kiro felt like having an engineer with infinite knowledge paired with human creativity.

👉 Join us at GenInspired.org to explore the platform, volunteer at events, or partner with us to bring this system to your community.