Event Planning Software

Delegate the clerical chores to your computer
By Holly Ocasio Rizzo, Writer and editor Holly Ocasio Rizzo Planning a marketing event, meeting or conference can turn even the most cool-headed business owner into a nervous wreck. There's so much to consider: date, theme, location, guest list, invitations and replies, food, setup, social time and thank-you notes, not to mention staying within budget.

Can you rely on a committee to keep track of it all? Yes — but you can streamline even further by using event-planning software as your right-hand assistant. Here's why:

1. The software works like a roomful of assistants. It helps you locate vendors, store data about them, check out music and numerous other Web-related tasks at the touch of a keyboard. It also tracks registrations, creates badges, generates letters and gives you an event-end report on attendance and budget.
2. It eliminates the need for hard-to-track printouts and bulky binders.
3. Most planning software includes a journaling feature that lets you pour out your thoughts on the event the way you might not be able to do with a committee — what you want to accomplish, how you want the event to look, sound and feel, and what you want attendees to remember most about it.

 

Know your needs

There are dozens of event-planning software choices on the market. A comparison of features will help you pick the product right for your company.
Try: Corbin Ball Associates offers frequently asked questions about event-planning software, plus links to articles describing vendors and their programs and discussing the tasks that software can do.

Make a choice

If you have doubts, start with a low-cost program and move up to something more sophisticated.
Try: VIP Organizer costs less than $100 and is good for uncomplicated events. ServiceCEO can handle larger companies and more complex events. Wingate Web wins praise from mid-size companies.

Go for the Web

Wary of software? Not sure whether it's worth the investment? Some experts characterize online tools as the next generation in event planning, predicting that many software producers will soon be offering Web-based tools.
Try: EnnectEvent, an award-winning Web-based program, lets you manage registration and contacts, customize event items with your logo, even create a URL for the event. Corbin Ball Associates provides links to other Web-based event-planning tools.

• Simple software costs less than $100. For high-end, enterprise applications, software involving company-wide data flow and accounting can cost from a few thousand dollars to more than $100,000.
• Choose a vendor offering a help desk or other support to handle your questions as you install and use your software.
• Insist on trying a demonstration version before buying.