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July 1, 2015

8 Event Management Tools Essential to Organizing Your Event (+ a few bonus alternatives)

8 Event Management Tools Essential to Organizing Your Event (+ a few bonus alternatives)

Running an international event with attendees in their hundreds requires our team to optimize all possible organizational processes surrounding Eventex. Over the years we have tried and tested many different applications to automate our work processes and this article is the result of our years of experience.The list below focuses on applications that automate repetitive tasks, make team collaboration effortless, organization more efficient and at the same time reduce the risk of any type of miscommunication and blunders.

1. Google Apps for Work - Email, Calendar, Documents, and Team Collaboration

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Think of Google Apps for Work (or Gmail + Google Drive + Calendar + Hangouts) as your diary, desk, office and HQ. With Gmail and Google Apps for Work we store, share and collaborate on files, documents, appointments and activities. All of our work neatly organized (most of the time) and accessible and editable 24/7, 365 days of the year on any device. The default Google Špps package includes Email, Calendar, a word processor (Google Docs), spreadsheet application (Google Sheets), slide show app (Google Slides), survey creator (Google Forms), a drawings and graphics app (Google Drawings) and there are hundreds of Google-made and third party add-on applications, some paid, some free.Website: www.google.com/work/apps/businessAlternative:Microsoft Office 365

2. Asana - Task Management

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With Asana team members can assign themselves and each other tasks with deadlines and communicate in-app regarding the progress. Needless to say the tasks can be edited, subtasks can be added and deadlines can be changed. With the help of Asana Eventex team members can see how much each team member has on their plate and whether they are able to handle more, because letā€™s face it, there is always more work to be done.Website: www.asana.comAlternatives:Trello or Podio

3. WordPress - Website Setup and Management

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We have been using WordPress for our website for a while now. What we like about WordPress is that it's free (except the paid themes and plugins), customizable and easy. Having a mobile-friendly and modern website is a piece of cake.Website:www.wordpress.orgRecommended themes and plugins:Salient, Responsive timetables, Logos, Disqus, Contact Form 7, Wordpress SEO

4. Weemss - Event Registration and Ticket Sales

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There are hundreds of event registration and ticketing solutions out there, literally. We chose to go with Weemss because of the softwareā€™s user-friendliness and the levels of freedom it gives us. With Weemss we schedule the:

  • Activity of different registration categories;
  • Activity of special offers and promotions;
  • Email communication with attendees;

Website:www.weemss.com

5. Xero - Invoicing, Budgeting and Accounting

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Letā€™s face it, accounting is a pain, however with a cloud solution that automates payment tracking and invoicing you have the ibuprofen equivalent. With Xero you can easily track payments, reconcile bank accounts, send out invoices, claim expenses and much more. The best part is all of this can be tracked and done on mobile devices with the Xero app.With Xero and direct payments through Braintree, Stripe and PayPal (via Weemss) we are able to stay on top of our accounting with less staff necessary and less work hours spent on repetitive, tedious tasks.Website:www.xero.com

6. Mailchimp - Email Marketing

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To keep everyone posted on new updates surrounding Eventex, whether it is a new speaker, new sponsor or other changes to surrounding the event, we are constantly sending out emails. Automation of this process is essential to us and the most user-friendly, reasonably-priced service we have come across so far is Mailchimp. If you have fewer than 2,000 subscribers, with Mailchimpā€™s Entrepreneur Edition you can send up to 12,000 emails per month completely free.Website:www.mailchimp.com

7. Hootsuite - Social Media Management

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We all fall victim to the mindless scrolling in social media networks, multiply that by the various networks and you get a couple of lost hours a day, at the very least. With Hootsuite you can manage all your social media profiles in one place, schedule posts and monitor analytics for the effectiveness of your campaigns. There is a free version available.Website: www.hootsuite.comAlternative:Buffer

8. Google Analytics - Track Website Traffic

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The Internet is a jungle and Google Analytics is the local tribesman guiding you through and helping you to make sense of it all. Although the dashboard is not very presentable, the software is incredibly powerful and useful for finding out

  1. who is visiting your website,
  2. where they are coming from,
  3. how they got there and
  4. what they are doing.

By setting goals inside Analytics you can track specified conversion rates (event registrations) and measure effectiveness. We use Weemss with itā€™s Analytics integration to track conversion rates for our event registrations.Website: Ā www.google.com/analytics

Some final words

We hope you find these applications as useful as we have. In choosing what applications you want and need for your next event, consider the following:

  • Is the application easy to deploy?
  • Is it easy to use or does it require additional training and services?
  • Is it safe and secure? Is data encrypted, is it backed-up and what is the uptime?
  • Is product support offered?
  • Does it work across all devices? Is it mobile-friendly?
  • Last but not least, how much does it cost? Is it a one-off or a license based fee?

Make a checklist of your particular needs and demo or trial the solutions extensively before committing to a choice. Involve your team in the selection, because they will be using the applications most of the time. In reviews and articles listen to user discussions and comments more and focus less on what is written in the media, obvious but worth mentioning.What tools are you using for your events? How are they helping you work better? Let us know!

CreditsWordpress photo by: Serge | Some rights reserved

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