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10 New Event Planning Tools Worth Exploring

March 8, 2011   |   AUTHOR: Julius Solaris   |   POSTED IN: event technology

Everyday I get emails from PR departments, entrepreneurs and marketing professionals wishing to get a mention for their product or service on this blog. Reality is that only a few get coverage.

This is because I try to keep a pristine blog that delivers quality content. The thousands of readers, followers, community members around this blog tell me I am going in the right direction. Thank you guys!

The point I was trying to make though is that only a few succeed, but please do not get discouraged. As this post witnesses your time will come. So keep sending me your tips.

The following 10 event planning and management tools are quite worth trying. Some of them are free, some others you have to pay for. Please do use comments/Twitter and let me know what you think about them.

1. EventEspresso

I love the idea Seth put together. It is definitely a complete event management solution for those of you using WordPress as their event website. The basic licence is available for free and customization can be purchased at very affordable prices. A definite must check.

2. MeetingApps

Meeting Apps collects mobile applications for event planning. They put hell of a lot of work in organizing them so definitely worth having a look. A whole website dedicated to event planning apps may seem a bit much to some of us but the way the apps are categorized makes sense to me.

3. EventAlpha

Event Alpha is yet another event registration, management and website development tool. They seem to have quite a portfolio of clients using them and offer a free version of the tool. In a crowded environment it is very tough to differentiate. I’d be interested to know what your experience is with the tool.

4. Tom’s Planner

I’ve been meaning to write about the cleverly named Tom’s Planner for quite a while now. It is a neat project management online tool that creates Gantt charts. The whole user experience is somewhat more rewarding than MS Projects and you can export easily, if the case. There is a free version to play with, so go for it.

5. TuneTug

A simple idea with great potential. Vote your favourite song on the app and the DJ will play it next. Everyone who has been active on the party scene would agree this has been quite needed for a while. As always adoption is the key to succeed, we’ll keep an eye on these guys and see how they do.

6. Paam

Paam helps with the recruitment and management of staff and volunteers for your event. They end up being an event management platform with payments and so forth, but the recruitment angle is definitely original and worth the mention.

7. ConferenceHound

Conferencehound is a great discovery engine for conferences. It has nothing to envy to Lanyrd or Plancast. Actually, as a reader pointed out, it is more complete and features also non-tech events (please be patient with me, I love tech events).

8. Powernoodle

Powernoodle was quite engaging in the way they contacted me. The tool in fact seems quite fun. Powernoodle promises to make the brainstorming and planning stages enjoyable. It also looks at making task assignment and management easier. It has a free 30 days trial, after that it looks like a bit pricey. Time to check your budget.

9. Moreconference

Moreconference is a backnetworking tool for your event. Are backnetworks a good idea? Not to be discussed here. Moreconference has a fully functional demo to decide whether your event and attendees need it.

10. Event2Mobile

In fairness, Event2Mobile did not contact me. We followed each other on Twitter and I was genuinely interested in what they have to offer. Mobile is very hot right now. Event2Mobile seems to help in making your event content more mobile by rendering items such as brochures or programmes. They cover all the major platforms, definitely a plus. They are talking about ‘getting a quote’ therefore big money could be involved. Call the finance guys and ask whether it fits your budget.

Got more apps, services or products? Let me know by using the contact form.

Photo Credit: x ray delta one

  • http://twitter.com/moreconference moreconference

    Hi Julius, thanks for featuring us. Just wanted to give another shout out for Tom’s Planner which is a great tool that we use too. He also seems really open to suggestions from the user community on how to develop it in the future.

  • http://www.meetjulius.com Julius Solaris

    Great to see some synergies

  • http://twitter.com/Powernoodle Powernoodle

    Thanks Julius – really appreciate the review. I’ll be trying Tom’s Planner later today.

  • http://www.meetjulius.com Julius Solaris

    Great guys I am loving PowerNoodle

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  • Richard Dawson

    Many thanks for the mention of EventAlpha Julius.

  • http://www.meetjulius.com Julius Solaris

    No problem

  • http://www.thetradeshownetwork.com Karin

    Your initial picture threw me for a loop – interesting ideas, I might try one or two to see if they are an effective tool to put into our strategic marketing plan.

    Thanks!
    Karin Roberts
    http://www.thetradeshownetwork.com

  • http://www.meetjulius.com Julius Solaris

    Glad you like it

  • Marissa

    Hi Julius, I tried out Tom’s Planner and, while very aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly with the drag-and-drop functionality, it didn’t seem to allow linking up tasks for dependencies – crucial in any project management, let alone event planning. I’ve also been playing around with OpenProj and even though it is more robust, I have been having difficulty getting tasks down to the minute-by-minute for the day-of planning and deadlines. I am a fan of Gantt charts for their ability to allow you to see the big picture and all of the moving parts, but can’t seem to find a good tool to create them.

    I work for a small non-profit that produces a large gala at the end of the year (~500 attendees) with very limited human capital and financial resources, so I’m trying to find low to no-cost solutions to organize and project manage. Maybe I’m trying to make these programs do more than they are supposed to, but can you recommend a program that would include all of these functions, or perhaps an alternate method to Gantt charts that I’m not exploring? Thanks!

  • http://www.meetjulius.com Julius Solaris

    I’ll hunt it down for you :-)

  • Marissa

    Thanks so much! Looking forward to checking out what you come up with.

  • http://www.meetjulius.com Julius Solaris

    Coming up shortly – stay tuned