Is your event on fire? No? Need a little bit of inspiration? Here it is…
You know that feeling of a bland event. Probably not because you read this blog and your events are awesome.
You can’t win all the time though. Sometimes there is too much going on, sometimes things do not turn out as you planned them, some other times you are simply tired.
This is, I think, where technology helps. In making things simpler.
Effective technology is a service that immediately makes sense. Something that saves you time or really helps with throwing a better event.
With this mission in mind, I’ve curated the following list of innovative services. Some of them are free and you actually don’t have to do anything to get them. Stress free.
The aim is to make things simpler, not overly complicated.
These guys are all fresh startups you probably haven’t heard of. They need your support so they can keep innovating the industry. I will ask you a small favour at the end of the post to support them.
So here goes (in no particular order)…
EventCommercials
EventCommercials is the latest venture of Marvin McTaw. He used to be part of sched.org, another great startup we covered in the past.
Let me warn you, Marvin has asked me for a bit of advice and I am trying to help but I have no interest whatsoever in the company.
Other than that I believe EventCommercials is a f%$£^$£$ awesome idea. Just submit your website and you get a free promotional video to post on Youtube. A fancier version will come at a cost.
Do not waste time, do it now!
HaikuDeck
Brother, do I love HaikuDeck – yes I do. Apologies for the talking to myself but this is truly a great service.
I’ve used it recently in this article. I created a presentation with this iPad App that got over 30,000 views on Slideshare in less than a week.
The service helps in two areas where speakers constantly fail: slide design and picture selection.
I’ve been talking several times lately about the speaker/planner relationship. If you are engaging with inexperienced speakers I would suggest to them to use HaikuDeck.
SocialPoint
I am quite ecstatic about SocialPoint, the latest venture of longtime #eventprofs community member Samuel Jay Smith. For full disclosure, he did not ask me to write this review, I just think what he’s up to is just plain cool.
SocialPoint is a consultancy business, but not as you know it. They work with hardware and software to create more engaging experiences. SocialPoint developed their own social media display solution and RFID platforms.
They also offer a Social Concierge service (*cough* *cough* see slide 30 of this 2010 presentation *cough* cough*)
SiteSurvey
I am so happy SiteSurvey exists, because we surely don’t need yet another ‘add-overcrowded-technology-here’.
This is a simple app to run site inspections when you are visiting potential venues for your event.
You have your nifty room survey tool, a cool room sketching feature and collector for items dimensions.
As they put it, SiteSurvey does not replace CAD or advanced software for modelling. It is a quick way to record data on the go and be a bit more 2013 than 1991.
It is on sale on iTunes for $4,99 – less than a Big Mac Meal.
RapidNFC
RapidNFC, I love you. As soon as I landed on their site I realized how cool these guys were.
The problem with offline interaction (via RFID or NFC) is that it usually comes at a price. Rapid NFC offers chip enabled badges starting at £1.35 ($2.00 approximately).
So you can get all the swiping and offline tweeting/liking going with few bucks.
Quotes for Events
This is a new entry in the event marketplace arena (after all, I told you event marketplaces were going to be big this year).
Quotes for Events helps to collect quotes for all your event needs. The benefits are obvious for both event professionals and suppliers. The service is UK based.
Big Day Network
The Big Day Network is pretty much like Quotes for Events but aimed at the wedding and party industries.
If you are planning a Baby Shower, Sweet 16, Bar/Bat Mitzvah then BDN is for you. They’ll help you sourcing everything from inflatables to cakes, from face painters to magicians.
They are US based.
Weddingella
Weddingella is a wedding planning app.
Weddingella features budgeting, seating, project management and RSVP management.
They are present on the App Store and BlackBerry App World, coming soon on Android.
Memory Meld
How do you collect all the pictures taken at an event by attendees? This question is gaining the same weight of ‘what’s the meaning of life?’ or ‘why are we on planet earth?’.
Memory Meld gives it a good shoot offering a solution to collect all pictures. Users create an event with a unique code. Guests go to the website, enter the code and upload their pictures. Voila!
If when you mention hashtags or Storify, attendees react like this, then Memory Meld is highly recommended.
EventSneaker
EventSneaker sits with the Event Dashboards trend (see slide 9).
They heavily rely on Eventbrite which is a great strategy to acquire users. ES gives you an easy to read dashboard of your vital statistics such as shares and tweets as well as powerful Facebook integration.
Love the interface.
Bundlr
Bundlr belongs to the curation trend. It is a similar platform to Eventifier, Conferize or Storify.
It is a great way to offer your attendees a one stop shop to watch all the media from your event.
Tymr
Tymr is the latest player in the recommendation and discovery space. While event professionals can use Tymr to sell tickets, event attendees will get the most out of this app.
In fact it looks like Tymr has worked more on the user side. Attendees can save their events and keep discovering new ones.
I like the clean style of it.
CheckinForGood
The guys at Check-in for Good are a smart bunch. They want to ‘make events about giving’.
You can select a cause to support and engage in a pay-per-visit campaign. Each time an attendee checks in at your event they will donate to a charity.
They will also collect all the social media shares of your campaign, helping you to create a trackable report of the impact generated.
I love the approach smart thinking for a good cause.
Gimmie More!
I have 842 Event Startups collected for you in a massive Pinterest Board. I am adding around 50 a month.
How do you get added? How do you make it to one of these roundups? The best way is to follow me on @EventMB on Twitter. Your Twitter bio is your pitch, so try to nail it!
Can I Ask You a Favour?
The young minds behind these services need your help to bring more innovation to the industry.
So please share this article. The more people read it, the more all of us will spend time talking about it.
It’s a virtuous cycle worth fuelling!
Photo by Dusty J
