Sheet Happens

A UI wrapper for Google Sheets to automate event planning, including participant tracking and automated carpool assignments!

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🚗 Sheet Happens

Mission Control for Event Logistics & Carpool Coordination

An intelligent event operations dashboard that transforms chaotic event signup management into a streamlined, real-time coordination experience. Built during IrvineHacks 2026.

Inspiration

I face a painful problem when organizing events: manually managing tens of event participants and organizing them into a carpool that everyone is happy with is tedious, error-prone, and wastes time. I wanted to build a command center where event organizers could:

  • See all participants and drivers at a glance
  • Drag-and-drop riders into car seats in seconds
  • Use voice commands ("Alex in John's car") for instant reassignment
  • Get AI suggestions for optimal assignments
  • Sync data directly from Google Sheets

The result: 20+ minutes of manual work condensed into seconds with safety constraints intact.

What It Does

A full-stack web app that combines real-time carpool visualization, drag-and-drop assignment, voice control, and AI insights into one dashboard.

Key Features

🗺️ Real-Time Carpool Dashboard

  • Visual car layouts with drag-and-drop seat assignment
  • Auto-enforced capacity constraints
  • Self-driver tracking and waitlist management
  • One-click auto-assignment for unassigned riders

🎤 Voice Command Control

  • Natural language commands ("Move Alex to John's car", "Alex is confirmed")
  • AI-powered parsing with intent recognition
  • Instant execution and full audit trail

👥 Participant Management

  • Real-time status tracking with role-based filtering
  • Preferred ride partners, notes, and preferences

📊 Dashboard & Insights

  • Live event statistics and AI-generated insights
  • Approval workflows for capacity review and notes

📋 Google Sheets Integration

  • Import and real-time sync directly from sheets
  • Single source of truth for participant data

🔍 Filtering & Search

  • Filter by role, officer status, and event status
  • Search by name/email with multi-column sorting

How I Built It

Tech Stack

  • Frontend: React + Next.js, TypeScript
  • Styling: Tailwind CSS, shadcn/ui
  • Database: SQLite, Drizzle ORM
  • APIs: Google Sheets API, Web Speech API

Relevant Flows

Voice Command Pipeline

Capture → Transcribe → Parse (AI intent extraction) → Execute (database update) → Log & Broadcast to clients

Real-Time Data Flow

Google Sheets/database → EventStore → components subscribe → drag-and-drop API updates → broadcast to all clients

Challenges I Ran Into

Challenge Why It Mattered Solution
Solo project Teammates didn't get off the waitlist, so I had to handle all frontend, backend, and design alone Focused on core features, iterated ruthlessly, leveraged existing libraries to maximize impact
Balance features with practicality Users are used to Google Sheets, may find using this app confusing or not necessary Made sure to keep the user in mind at all times. Sure, this feature is cool, but is it actually useful/better than existing alternatives?
Voice command accuracy Misheard commands could assign riders to wrong cars Built fuzzy matching, disambiguation prompts, and command preview before execution

Accomplishments That I'm Proud Of

  1. Complete Full-Stack Solution – Built frontend, backend, database, and integrations from scratch in a hackathon timeline
  2. Voice-Driven UI – Implemented AI-powered natural language parsing that understands complex carpool commands with fuzzy matching
  3. Drag-and-Drop System – Integrated @dnd-kit with custom constraints for intuitive seat assignment
  4. Google Sheets Sync – Bidirectional integration with smart debouncing to handle API rate limits gracefully
  5. Solo Delivery – Delivered polished MVP as solo builder despite late start and teammates not attending

What I Learned

1. Real-Time State Sync

Syncing across components without race conditions required: single source of truth, optimistic UI updates with rollback, and event-driven broadcasting. Building this architecture upfront prevented major refactors later.

2. Voice Command Ambiguity

Natural language is messy. "Move Alex to John" has multiple interpretations (which John? which Alex?). I built a resolution engine with fuzzy matching, disambiguation prompts, and learning from corrections. This taught me that UX for AI features requires graceful fallbacks.

3. Prioritization Under Pressure

With a late start and solo timeline, ruthless feature prioritization was essential. Focusing on the core MVP (carpool dashboard + voice commands) allowed shipping something polished rather than several unfinished features.

What's Next for Sheet Happens

  • AI custom comments parsing: Use AI to automate the parsing of unstructured comments into the correct structured data fields for each user
  • SMS Notifications: Twilio integration to send confirmation texts and to notify participants of car assignments
  • Mobile App: React Native/PWA companion for real-time mobile operations

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