Everything before the curtain goes up.
SectionZero runs a community eisteddfod's year in one place: the syllabus, entries, pieces, invoices, the programme, the day itself and the results. It's built for the volunteer committees who do that work.
Captions are built in. Everything on screen is made-up sample data.
The year, start to finish
One place for the whole cycle
Roll last year forward
Copy last year's season in one go, with its sections, fees, prizes, days and dates. Then split, combine or renumber only what's changed, and see each change before it happens.
Open entries
Set your dates, fees and age rules, and decide whether a section that's full or out of age range warns the family or stops them.
Families and studios enter online
On a phone or a computer. Teachers can enter a whole studio, and let their staff enter for them. You can still enter on someone's behalf when they ask.
Pieces read from the score
Attach the score and SectionZero reads the title, composer and copyright owner from the first page, for the family to check. Each piece is entered once and carried through to the programme.
Invoices with your bank details
Each family gets an invoice as soon as they submit, with your own payment instructions. You record payments as they arrive.
Build the programme
Lay out your days, sessions, breaks and running order. SectionZero estimates start times and produces the A5 booklet, and tells everyone with an entry when it's published.
Run the day
The chairperson marks each section started, running late or finished, and families can see where things are up to. Scratches and late arrivals are recorded as they happen.
Adjudication and results
Adjudicators mark and write critiques on a tablet. You check every section before it's published, and families then see their placing, mark and critique.
Your records
Your history, kept whole
Each year is its own record. Changing this year's syllabus never rewrites last year's.
Section numbers are labels. They can change from year to year without breaking the history behind them.
The past is sealed. A finished season is fingerprinted, and a published result is corrected with a reason, never quietly overwritten.
Where it's up to
What's ready, and what I'm still working on
Everything above works today and has been run end to end, with sample data, as a full season. A few things are still in the works, and some may well be ready in time for 2027:
- Card payments. Until then, families pay you directly by bank transfer.
- A compiled copyright (OneMusic) report, built from the piece details already collected at entry.
- Confirming and releasing aggregate awards. The running points tally for each aggregate already works.
- Importing past years from another system.
I'm deliberately not building ticketing or livestreaming.
Who's behind it
Built from the committee side
I'm building SectionZero because I see creative friends of mine pour hours and days into administering an eisteddfod, when their true passion is bringing the joy of the performing arts to the next generation.
I've been on the committee side for years, as treasurer and before that as president. Too much of the work happens outside the system that should support it: scrawled on notepads, pencilled in margins, left to be added up later. SectionZero is meant to be the place that work lives.
I'm not building this to get rich. It's meant to be a small, careful tool that a committee can rely on.
Asher Roby
Early access
Run your 2027 season on SectionZero
I'm looking for a small number of eisteddfods to use SectionZero for their 2027 season, and to tell me plainly what works and what doesn't.
- What you get
- Your own SectionZero for the 2027 season, set up with you, and a direct line to me when something isn't right.
- What I ask
- Honest feedback through the year, and a conversation before entries open and again after the event.
- Cost
- Agreed with you before you commit. I'm aiming for a cost that sits inside the entry fees families already pay, shown openly on the invoice.
- Your data
- It stays yours. You can export your season at any time, and leave whenever you choose.