When organizing an event, the tools you have at your disposal can make all the difference. From comprehensive suites providing start-to-finish support to simple widgets to tidy up your workflow, there are all kinds of products available to help you optimize your event planning process.
When it comes to choosing an event planning software, it can be difficult to discern what tool will best serve you. This is why we've organized our list of the best event planning/management software on the market into three categories. These are: project management suites, marketing and social media, and efficiency/organization.
Each category has a different set of characteristics that can serve an event planner. Read on to see which one could help you take your event planning to the next level.
Project Management and Event Planning Software Tools
If you need a software that will handle your project pipeline start-to-finish, one of these tools may be your best option. Manage your budget, registration, staff, and more, all in one platform. Here are some of the most popular options available:
Monday.com
Monday.com is a one of the most prevalent event management software today. It's used by giants like BBC Studios, Universal, and Adobe to manage their events. Lauded for its features managing remote teams, rolling out marketing campaigns, even coordinating with vendors, Monday.com is simply one of the best event management tools available currently.
However, for event planners with a more narrow set of specified needs, the platform can be a bit overwhelming to work with. Additionally, its planning boards have been described as being a bit less intuitive compared to other event planning tools on the market.
Idloom-Events
Idloom-Events is another all-in-one event management tool, offering everything you would need to manage an event of any size. This software will provide you with tools to streamline your management process from start-to-finish, all on one of the most user-friendly interfaces available.
One of the additional benefits that Idloom offers are add-ons such as Idloom.passport, which allows for greater communication with attendees. You can check certifications, send out virtual learning packages and more. The app even has tools to handle accommodation for attendees such as your keynote speaker or event staff.
Clickup
Clickup is well-known as a great project management tool, especially for remote teams. Boasting easy task allocation, seamless collaboration, and built-in hours tracking, the software is certainly fit for a wide variety of project management applications. Clickup is also a powerful tool for event planning!
If your concerns are more in the back-end, as opposed to on the client-facing/marketing side, Clickup could be the best option for you.
Marketing and Social Media Management Tools
Now that you've got your team and your timeline locked down, the next critical step in event planning is, of course, marketing. Luckily, there are a number of event planning software that have built-in tools to help you optimize this aspect of the process.
Everwall
Everwall is an all-in-one solution for multi-channel social media management. Having been on the market for over a decade, this well-refined software can be a powerful tool for social media content rollout and overseeing marketing analytics, all in a single interface.
Everwall comes with a wide variety of options for advertisement, and will help expand your reach and monetization opportunities.
Eventbrite
While Eventbrite, one of the more well-known names on the market, could be considered a general event management tool, it's most prominent strength is its wide variety of marketing solutions. Eventbrite's most used feature is it's user-friendly registration system, but it can also help organizers create event pages, run email/social media marketing campaigns, and review analytics.
If marketing and promoting your event is the focus, Eventbrite could be the best option for you.
Integrate Precision Events
Integrate Precision Events is a lead capture solution which will provide you with useful analytics on event attendees. Its goal is to give organizers greater control in planning and outcome of their events by generating data-driven leads and giving greater insight into customers.
IPE also allows integration of other common event planning tools like Salesforce and HubSpot, making it easy to add into preexisting workflows.
Efficiency and Organizational Tools
At the foundation of any successful business is a system of strong organizational habits. All the software mentioned above give you every tool you need, but it can become useless if little details get lost in the mix.
Here are some products that can be simple supplemental tools in making the more subtle aspects of your workflow considerably easier.
Evernote
Evernote is a straightforward, free-to-use software that can help you to eliminate that wall of post-it notes that pile up in many event planner's offices. The software organizes your notes into "event notebooks", several of which can be used at a time. You can sub-categorize these notes to more closely manage various aspects of your workflow.
Evernote is also considered an option for more general project management applications, but its truest strengths lie in the ability to organize and share your notes seamlessly.
Member Solutions
Member Solutions is an event planning tool that is specifically focused on one of the most tedious aspects of the process, contract/forms management.
This tool can greatly reduce the amount of time spent laboring over fine-print, as the software offers a library of templates for a variety of forms and waivers that can be generated and sent automatically to staff and attendees.
Guru
If the idea of training your event staff seems daunting, Guru is the tool for you. Guru allows you to create training guides which can be virtually distributed to staff, making on-boarding new hires a much simpler task. It can also be used for up-skilling or retraining existing staff.
Networking is Key!
Once all your in-house bases are covered, the most important steps in building value as an event planner often come in the form of expanding your network.
One excellent way to do this is attending the annual Event Planner Expo in New York! Meet with fellow event organizers to share ideas, socialize, and form new business partnerships.
Contact us if you have any questions about the event, and click here to join the waitlist today!
