Hirschbiegel + Grundstein GmbH Revolutionizes Event Planning in the Cultural Sector with ComponentOne
Case Study | Jan 17, 2025 | Hirschbiegel + Grundstein GmbH
Industry Context
Hirschbiegel + Grundstein GmbH, a veteran of European IT Services, has been a cornerstone for application development in the German, Swiss, and Austrian markets for nearly three decades. Specializing in game-changing planning solutions for the cultural sector, the company has helped streamline and modernize the operations of theaters, operas, festivals, and event venues through its flagship management software, KOKOS.event—a comprehensive WinForms application designed to address the complex needs of the event industry, including scheduling, personnel deployment, budget management, and contract administration.

What began as an on-demand software development team with diverse project requirements has evolved into a more specialized service over the years, but the need for a trusted toolkit of .NET controls has remained steady as the scope of their projects has amplified over time. While, theoretically, their team could build the desired application without ComponentOne’s controls, in practice, this feat simply isn’t realistic.
“It would cost endless hours of work,” explained Wolfgang Knauf, one of Hirschbiegel + Grundstein’s only four developers and a key user of ComponentOne’s WinForms controls. “It’s not possible at all. Not possible in an acceptable timeline.”
The Challenge
Prior to the launch of KOKOS.event, many organizations relied on outdated planning practices like tracking with Microsoft Excel (or even manual paper-and-pencil methods) to coordinate their event planning and administrative processes. These rudimentary systems were not only inefficient but often prone to errors and difficulties in collaboration. Hirschbiegel + Grundstein recognized the need for a more extensive, flexible, and user-friendly solution, and thus, KOKOS.event was born, transforming the way in which theaters and event venues plan and manage their operations.
The software’s intuitive modules for subscription planning, orchestra scheduling, and material and fund management, to name a few, have allowed the entertainment and hospitality industries to move beyond the limitations of manual event planning and embrace a more sophisticated, automated approach to their workflows.
In an effort to streamline the industry’s approach to event planning, Hirschbiegel + Grundstein identified the need for a solution that would easily and conveniently track and coordinate even the most minute details. This solution would require various scheduling capabilities—for appointment coordination, staffing, time recording, and artist calendars. The application would also require functionality to organize features into tabs and groups, as well as the ability to arrange multiple windows or panels in a flexible layout to accommodate the extensive demands of event coordination.
While assessing all the requirements of this project, Wolfgang’s team knew they were faced with developing this application using the Windows Forms framework, which, on its own, offers only the bare essential UI components. With this and their limited manpower in mind, it was apparent that finding a complete set of dynamic third-party UI controls wouldn’t only simplify their work but would, in fact, prove necessary to complete the project at all.
“The WinForms framework has nothing built in to build such a detailed table, so we were forced to look for something else,” he explained. Since WinForms does not offer a datagrid with the amount of built-in features this project required, Wolfgang’s team reviewed toolkits from other providers but found them to be buggy and overall lacking by comparison. “So, we switched to ComponentOne.”
The Solution
At the heart of KOKOS.event’s modernized interface is FlexGrid, ComponentOne’s WinForms datagrid control. FlexGrid is leveraged in several ways throughout this application, from forms for personnel scheduling to event timelines and even for financial planning and budget management.
“I think it’s in every form—we have a few without it, but most of our forms contain at least one FlexGrid,” Wolfgang revealed.
Despite the availability of components specifically built for scheduling, the developers at Hirschbiegel + Grundstein found those components somewhat limited in design and opted for the flexibility of ComponentOne’s FlexGrid. When considering the layout of their application’s UI, they identified the need among their users to see as much as possible on one screen. Traditional scheduling components include additional visual space, which isn’t conducive to this project’s need for an interface that is compact in nature.

Wolfgang and his team initially considered scheduling components but preferred the customization capabilities that FlexGrid afforded them. “It did not work as good as a custom flex grid,” asserting, “FlexGrid is incredibly flexible.”
FlexGrid wasn’t the only control, however, that Hirschbiegel + Grundstein employed in KOKOS.event. As FlexGrid successfully satisfied their project’s requirements, Wolfgang’s team found additional uses for various ComponentOne controls throughout this application, including the ComponentOne Scheduler (a fully-featured event calendar control), a WinForms ribbon control for their toolbars, and a DockingTab to generate an organized workspace fostering an intuitive user experience.
“Over the years, we discovered more and more controls and started using them,” ultimately enhancing the usability and efficiency of their application.

The Result
With ComponentOne’s WinForms controls, KOKOS.event offers dynamic functionality and customization options, empowering users to manage complex event planning tasks with ease, precision, and real-time collaboration. The developers at Hirschbiegel + Grundstein have succeeded in delivering a larger-scale application, such as KOKOS.event, even with a smaller-scale team.
Revolutionizing its region’s event planning methods in the cultural sector, the KOKOS.event application is a perfect example of ComponentOne’s capabilities, offering a combination of sophisticated software solutions with a comprehensive user interface. Perhaps the most powerful tool in Hirschbiegel + Grundstein’s ComponentOne arsenal has been FlexGrid, specifically. Used to achieve a multitude of functions, ComponentOne’s WinForms datagrid has contributed to this application’s value and ability to save its users’ time, reduce errors, and ultimately facilitate exceptional cultural experiences for the area’s patrons.
About ComponentOne
ComponentOne is a complete suite of fast, flexible, and feature-rich .NET UI components and controls, including grids, charts, input, reporting, layout, and more. Written for C# and VB.NET developers, these powerful tools support the entire .NET stack. ComponentOne controls speed up development time with easy-to-use designers, more built-in features, time-saving samples, and rich, flexible APIs. They’ve been developed for over 20 years and are trusted by over 250,000 developers.
About Mescius
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