Since 2024 Casual Hands was engaged to design and manage the entire Volunteer Program. This included recruitment, onboarding, training, rostering, and onsite delivery across all key festival streams. We worked closely with the internal SXSW operations and stakeholder teams to ensure volunteers were well-prepared, supported, and aligned with each day’s schedule and venue needs.

Our responsibilities include:

•  Recruitment & Screening: Managing applications from over 800 prospective volunteers each year, ensuring role suitability, diversity of availability, and alignment with event needs.
• Training: Delivering both face-to-face and online training to prepare volunteers for their roles, focusing customer service, communication, and SXSW Sydney-specific safety protocols.
• Onboarding & Uniforming: Coordinating induction, credentialing, and uniform distribution, including colour-coded uniforms for easy identification of Volunteer Coordinators and Team Members.
• Rostering: Managing over 1,000 shifts via our proprietary platform Luigi Jobs, which enables integrated communication, compliance tracking, and live rostering adjustments.
• Onsite Operations: Deploying an experienced leadership team each night including Volunteer Coordinators, Team Leaders, and Response Coordinators to ensure efficient shift coverage, wellbeing, and real-time problem solving.
• Reporting to SXSW Sydney: Provided daily reporting and post-event metrics to the operations team, contributing to future planning and continuous improvement of the program.