A Paisley event professional who began working at St Mirren in 2008 has launched a technology company to help teams plan and manage live events.
Ian Findlay founded CrowdKind after 18 years of work spanning community projects, stadiums, festivals and international events.
Its first product, Dots, is available now. It allows security, stewarding and crowd management teams to plan staff positions using their existing site plans.
Teams can record roles, reporting lines, times, equipment and instructions, and identify staffing gaps before an event.
Ian said: “CrowdKind started with things that should have been easier.
“I have spent years seeing good people lose time because information was spread across different spreadsheets, drawings, messages and versions of the same plan.
“The event changes, but the information does not always change with it. CrowdKind is about making those everyday parts of event work clearer.”
Ian spent four years studying computing at Reid Kerr College, now part of West College Scotland.
He started working at St Mirren during the club’s final season at Love Street. His early career also included community development, culture and creative projects.
He worked with organisations including Fablevision and icecream architecture. He was also involved with somewhereto_, a UK programme helping young people access space for creative, sporting and enterprise ideas.
In Paisley, Ian was one of the founding trustees of Renfrewshire Witch Hunt 1697 and later managed its large town centre event.
His career then moved increasingly into security, crowd management and major event operations.
In Scotland, his work has included T in the Park, Hampden Park, the Royal Highland Centre and Murrayfield Stadium.
Internationally, he spent 28 nights working live music at a purpose-built outdoor venue in Qatar. He has also worked on major live events in Saudi Arabia, including Formula 1 after race concerts.
Most recently, his work included the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games.
CrowdKind is developing further tools for live event operations.
Ian added: “Paisley is where I studied, where some of my earliest projects happened and where this part of the journey has come back to.
“The aim is simple: better tools, clearer information and better event days.”
More information is available at crowdkind.co.uk.
Headline photo: CrowdKind founder Ian Findlay outside Paisley Abbey.