Bert Burnell // Pocket OS

live://current

HELLO / ABOUT

Bert Burnell

I work across live events and tech, usually in the gap where things don’t quite fit together yet. I’ve been involved in festivals, venues, and esports events in roles ranging from booking and operations to systems and data, including founding and running my own festival.

Alongside that, I build and experiment with AI tools, automation, and creative workflows. Most of what I do comes down to making things actually work, whether that’s improving how an event runs, fixing a broken process, or building something new entirely.

I currently work for Festival Pro, helping organisers design workflows, shape processes, structure data, and make systems useful in real-world event settings.
I ran shows and bookings at Mr Kyps from 2008 to 2018, working with national touring artists until the venue was redeveloped.
I founded and ran On The Bus Festival from 2012 to 2018, carrying the full reality of building and delivering an independent festival until repeated wet-weather pressure made it increasingly hard to sustain financially.
I’m also part owner of The Four Horsemen, where branding, bookings, and live ideas all meet in one place.

LinkedIn profile open profile

field://four-horsemen

VENUE / CURRENT

The Four Horsemen

I’m a part owner of The Four Horsemen, a pub and event space where we run and promote our own nights alongside regular trade.

It’s a mix of live events, community, and creative experimentation, testing ideas, running promotions, and building something that feels distinct rather than generic.

Part ownership with hands-on involvement in branding, marketing, bookings, and venue identity.
A live test bed for promotions, event ideas, and what actually works with a real audience.
Connects venue operations, audience development, and programming decisions in one place.

work://festival-pro

CURRENT JOB

Festival Pro

I work for Festival Pro, helping event organisers make their systems work properly in real-world conditions, not just by setting things up, but by designing processes and workflows that teams can actually use.

It sits between operations, systems thinking, product reality, and problem solving: shaping better ways of working, fixing messy setups, structuring data properly, and turning scattered information into something people can actually use.

I work directly with organisers on workflows, process design, system setup, and practical problem solving.
I translate what event teams need operationally into something the platform can realistically support.
I handle reports and data structure as part of a wider systems and workflow picture.
I also cover docs, tutorials, debugging support, and the real friction between software and live events.

festivalpro.com visit website

archive://dead-projects

TRACK RECORD

Track Record

The start of my journey was in events and venue management, but it was never separate from the systems side. I originally trained towards programming before switching into events management at college, which is probably why I’ve always been comfortable around process, platforms, and technical problem solving even without being a coder.

I ran shows and bookings at Mr Kyps from 2008 to 2018, working with national touring artists and handling everything from advancing to on-the-day delivery, until the venue was eventually redeveloped.

I also worked in similar in-house programming and promotions roles with The 1865 and Canvas, mainly helping them land and shape shows with agents.

Between Kyps and Festival Pro, I was Events Manager at Arts University Bournemouth Students’ Union, covering Freshers Week, the graduation party, One Site Festival, and helping students set up their own events more professionally.

Dorset Music Magazine sits here too: from 2014 to 2019 we created content, brought in advertisers, and distributed 15,000 copies a month across the area.

I founded and ran On The Bus Festival from 2012 to 2018, building and delivering an independent festival from the ground up until a particularly wet-weather year made the financial model much harder to sustain.
Alongside On The Bus, I ran Sploosh Stewards, recruiting and managing volunteer teams for festivals including Glastonbury Festival, Blissfields Festival, and Sunrise Celebration.
That work gave me direct experience of stewarding, crew coordination, and the wider operational reality of making festivals actually happen.
That mix shaped how I think about events now: practical, structured, and aware of what can go wrong before it does.

play://vr-lan

VR / ESPORTS

VR LAN

VR LAN is a community-run VR esports event I founded and organise, built from the ground up for players rather than just spectators.

It brings together competitive tournaments, new game showcases, and a social LAN atmosphere, with players travelling internationally to take part.

Where event operations, systems, streaming, logistics, and experimentation all meet.
Built as a community-first format rather than a shiny demo for spectators.
Founder-level ownership means format, delivery, testing, and iteration all happen close to the ground.
If something new gets tested first, it usually happens here.

ai://berts-not-real

LAB / BERT'S NOT REAL

Useful stuff

This is where I experiment.

AI tools, automation, generative media, music videos, and odd workflows, usually with the aim of making something genuinely useful rather than just novel.

This website itself was built as an experiment using autonomous locally run AI agents.
Some ideas turn into tools, some into media, and some into strange prototypes that teach me something useful.
The point is to test what actually works, not just make AI-flavoured noise.