Some of the most useful things we build start as a side comment in a meeting. This one started with: "Before the conference, someone spends days just making the letters."
What we found
An international conference organiser needed an invitation letter for visa purposes for every overseas participant. Each letter had the same layout and wording, but a dozen details changed from person to person: name, job title, organisation, nationality, date of birth, passport number, arrival and departure dates.
The process looked like this:
- Export the registration list to a spreadsheet.
- Open the Word template.
- Copy and paste each participant's details into it, one field at a time.
- Save it as a PDF, rename it, repeat.
For a large event, that is days of careful, repetitive work, done under deadline pressure, with passport numbers where a single typo can cost someone their visa appointment. And the errors usually surface late: the missing arrival date is noticed after the letter has gone out.
We suspect this happens in far more places than people admit. Conference secretariats, training providers issuing certificates, associations sending member letters: anywhere a list of people meets a document template.
What we built
We built a small, focused tool, which we now call Letter Maker. The first version was live in under a week.
- Add the list you already have. The registration spreadsheet, saved as CSV. Its column names ("First Name", "Passport Number") become the details the letter can use.
- Use your own letter. Your own template, letterhead and wording. The parts that change per person are marked clearly, and the wording stays fully editable.
- Check before you save. Pick any person and see their finished letter. Anything missing from the list is shown in red, so gaps are fixed before a single letter goes out.
- Make them all at once. One PDF per person, downloaded together.
What we learned
1. The spreadsheet is the source of truth. Event teams already live in their registration export. The tool should adapt to their columns, not force a new format on them.
2. Catching gaps matters more than speed. Producing letters faster is nice. Knowing which participants are missing a passport number before sending is what actually saves the day.
3. Privacy has to be designed in, not promised. These lists contain passport data. Access is restricted, and no personal data is ever stored on the server: the letters are generated, handed back, and nothing is kept.
4. Non-technical users need three steps, not a dashboard. Add the list, check the letter, make the letters. Every extra screen is a reason not to use it.
5. The first tool leads to the next one. Once the letters worked, the next request was obvious: "Can I edit the template myself and use it for any letter?" That is the version we are building now.
Who this is for
- Conference and event organisers sending invitation and visa-support letters to international attendees.
- Training providers issuing certificates and joining letters for every cohort.
- Associations and professional bodies sending member letters and CPD or attendance certificates.
- Any team that regularly merges a list of people into a formal document by hand.
We can set this up for you and your team
Letter Maker is not a self-serve download. We set it up for you and your team:
- Your templates, your letterhead. We configure your letters, certificates or confirmations exactly as you send them today.
- Ready for your next event. Your team adds the list and makes the letters. No training course, no new software to learn.
- Kept running for you. Hosting, care and new templates are covered by a small monthly fee, so it is ready every time you need it.
If letters or certificates are eating your team's time before every event, tell us about your process. We are happy to run your real list and template through it once, so you can see the result before deciding anything.