You know the drill. There are three holds on the same Saturday in your main room: one from an agent, one from an outside promoter, and one from your own talent buyer. The third hold is ready to challenge… but the challenge itself isn't the hard part. Keeping track of it is: which hold owes a response, when the clock runs out, and what happens to the date once you hear back.

Too often, those answers end up in different places, everywhere from an email thread to a text to whatever the booker remembers from Tuesday. Everyone is doing their job — the information is just scattered. That's how deadlines get fuzzy, follow-ups get duplicated, and dates slip through the cracks.

Introducing Hold Challenges

Opendate now lets you start a challenge directly from an eligible hold on your calendar. Opendate identifies the hold ahead of it, sets a response deadline, and adds the challenge to a centralized list where your team can track it through to a resolution.

Hold Challenges brings the full process into the calendar where your team already manages dates, rooms, and holds. You still talk with agents and promoters the way you always have. Opendate keeps the record of what's been challenged, who owes a response, and how it turned out.

Start a challenge from the calendar

When a hold has another active hold ahead of it, you can start a challenge right from that hold. There's no need to reconstruct the hold order or double-check positions by hand.

• Opendate identifies the first hold in line that needs to respond.
• Opendate assigns the challenged hold a response deadline of one business day.
• The calendar marks the holds involved, so the relationship is visible in context.
• If circumstances change, you can withdraw the challenge.

See every active challenge in one place

Active challenges live in a dedicated Challenges menu, ordered by the soonest deadline. Instead of clicking through future dates to remember what's pending, your team works from one queue.

Each challenge shows:

• The event date and room
• The holds involved
• The time remaining to respond

Urgent and overdue challenges are visually flagged, so you can see at a glance where follow-up is needed. From any challenge, you can jump straight to the date and holds on the calendar. Challenge status also appears on the calendar itself, so you're looking at the same information whether you start from the list or the date.

Resolve the outcome clearly

Once you hear back, record the outcome in Opendate:

• Confirmed: The challenged hold keeps the date. Marking it confirmed closes the challenge, and the challenger stays in its current position.
• Released: The challenged hold gives up the date. Marking it released clears that hold and moves the challenger forward.
• Withdraw: The challenge is no longer needed. Withdraw it to close it out.

Opendate also keeps each challenge aligned with changes to the underlying holds, including confirmations, cancellations, and releases. The Challenges list reflects what's actually on your calendar.

A note on overdue challenges: overdue status means the response deadline has passed, so your team knows it's time to follow up. It doesn't release a hold or change positions on its own. The outcome is still your team's call.

Manage challenges from desktop or mobile

Time-sensitive hold decisions don't wait until you're back at your desk. Hold Challenges works in both Opendate calendar experiences:

• Desktop: Start challenges from the calendar and manage them from the Challenges menu.
• Mobile: Find the Challenge action in a hold's quick actions, and use the mobile Challenges list to review active challenges and deadlines, then record the outcome.

Whether you're in the office, at load-in, or on the road, your team is working from the same up-to-date view.

What this changes for venue teams

• Less reliance on side spreadsheets and personal reminders. The challenge lives with the date.
• A prioritized view of deadlines. Challenges are listed by the soonest response deadline, making approaching and overdue items easier to spot.
• Shared visibility. Everyone with calendar access can see the same challenge status.

How to get started

1. Open your calendar.
2. Find an active hold with another hold ahead of it.
3. Select Challenge.
4. Use the Challenges menu to track the deadline and record the outcome.

Available actions depend on your permissions. Team members with calendar access can view challenges, while those with calendar management access can start and resolve them.

Keep every challenge connected to the date

Hold Challenges gives booking teams a clearer way to manage competing interest without separating the challenge process from the calendar. Every active challenge, deadline, and outcome stays connected to the date and holds involved, right inside the venue booking workflow your team already uses.

Open your Opendate calendar and look for the new Challenges workflow, or contact the Opendate team if you need help getting started.