Eventopedia: Easy Venue Search for Busy Planners [Review]

Eventopedia: What Is It?

Eventopedia is an intelligent search platform that helps event planners harness the hidden knowledge of their peers to uncover important qualifying details about the venues they’re evaluating. It also is an independent review platform that is unencumbered by advertising and paid listings.

The creators of Eventopedia looked to design a ‘democratic’ platform, giving event planners a selection of free venue listings composed of details from the venues themselves that are enhanced with community insights. These insights give event planners the insider information they need to make the right decision every time.

The service is completely free to event planners, and the venue search does not prefer paid profiles like some others. It currently lists venues and information for 50 cities globally.

Let’s take a closer look.

Main Feature Categories Are

‘Democratic’ Listings. Eventopedia’s search results are not influenced by paid ads, and are instead organized by best fit according to criteria like event location, set-up style, and the expected number of guests. Users can search a whole city or zero in on a specific venue.

Planner-friendly Filters. The search results can be filtered by themes like ‘contemporary,’ ‘funky,’ and ‘historic’ to find a spot that’s in keeping with the vibe of their event. Planners can also search across cities by types, like ‘historic market.’ Other filters include venue categories, like ‘bar’ or ‘unique.’

Video. One of the strongest assets that Eventopedia offers is video. The service either helps venues shooting their own professional video site inspection (VSI) or showcases existing video material with prominence. This is quantum leaps when it gets to venue selection as we event professionals love to see rather than read.

Easier RFP process. Planners can connect directly with vendors through their desired channel (website, email, social media platforms, phone, etc.). This makes things easier for getting quick feedback without filling tons of RFPs hated on both ends by suppliers and planners.

Review

Eventopedia is a service by planners for planners. That may sound like a marketing cliche, but sitting with the founders Alan Newton and Toby Heelis, who bring 40 years industry experience, we could feel the earnesty in making decisions that reflect what event professional want in venue search.

Take the lack of sponsored ads. Eventopedia levels its venue search listings and prioritizes helping planners find the best fit. The filters and search criteria available are designed to produce a handful of quality, curated venue listings with a view to finding just what you need.

That is also reflected in the ability to search for specific breakout room types, which is extremely useful when you are scoping venues with your event in mind.

If you would picture a traditional selection process, in fact, you would need to open intricate PDFs to find the breakout room availability or go through an immense list of options. The results are usually confusion and blurry vision.

Eventopedia helps you to search for a specific room by entering exactly the breakout session needs you have. This feature is currently being rolled out to more cities, and currently with limited availability, but the direction the service has taken is one to follow.

Another element we were impressed with is the prominence of video on the platform. It doesn’t take much to understand that event professionals are mostly visual individuals. The ability to see the venue and experience it first-hand is supported by a strong video presence on the website. Eventopedia took a substantial step in making sure that venues get the memo when it gets to video.

The platform can in fact produce videos with annotations for venues that want to step up their placement. Before you freak out, here is an example of what we are talking about:

These annotations provide essential cues to planners trying to picture what their event will look like in the selected room. Elements like column placement in a ballroom, spacing, and precise measurements are clearly visible and actionable right from the video.

Another important element of the platform is reviews. Who travels to a hotel these days without checking online reviews? In the event industry, the practice of checking venue reviews is reduced to scouring your personal and social network for recommendations.

The fact that you can find desperate planners asking for recommendations in Facebook or LinkedIn groups signals a clear interest in hearing from our peers, but that few platforms have been able to capitalize on it. Eventopedia gives quite some prominence to reviews, and while numbers may still be too limited to give you comprehensive insight, they can certainly guide you in the right direction.

Full Features

Venue Search

• ‘Democratic’ listing
• Video-optimized vendor profiles with interactive video tours
• Room-specific search
• Practical and thoughtful filters
• User-generated insights, ratings and commentary
• Mobile optimization

Connect

• Communication and RFP flexibility that allows planners to use whatever method they like to reach vendors quickly
• Eventopedia’s Ask the Committee feature is a direct line to an experienced event planner for help and advice.

Who Is It For?

Eventopedia serves professional and temporary or ad hoc planners alike. This could be anyone from the occasional user looking to organize the office party to an in-house event manager for a corporate or event agency venue finding team.

Intuitive and easy to use, the search platform is designed to save time in the venue or supplier search by offering a short listing of qualified options.

Currently, the platform is used by a variety of event planning types: executive assistants, agents, PR professionals, office administrators, in-house event planning teams, experiential event agencies, private event planners, in-house venue managers, and marketing professionals.

While it can work for locals, too, Eventopedia is ideal for event planners looking to host events in cities in which they don’t reside. It reduces fear of the unknown and makes planning easy by providing info from other event planners and facilitating connections to them.

Of course, the platform covers 50 cities at the time of writing, and that could be a limitation to some planners as it may limit options for specific destinations, requiring additional or more comprehensive research to ensure all suitable options are explored.

Pricing

The platform is free to use for the event planner. Registration, while not required, is encouraged for regular users as Eventopedia is continually adding new features to facilitate the event planning process and make venue search easier and less stressful. Registration also helps the system learn the event planner’s search preferences to enable more personalized suggestions in the future.

The site also does not allow venues to pay for their placement. Eventopedia does offer paid video production services and content creation for venues but all venue listings are free.

IN CONCLUSION

Eventopedia is a global database of event venues powered by an intuitive search engine with structured and unstructured search options. The unique thing about the platform is that it provides insights from other event planners, like little-known hacks and tips to make the most of each venue. While the search capabilities are limited to 50 cities at the time of this writing, new areas are being added continuously. If you’re looking to save time in your venue search, Eventopedia is an easy-to-use, enjoyable platform.

Disclaimer: Reviews are paid for placements. While Event Manager Blog receives a fee to extensively look at the tool and review it in detail, the content of the review is independent and by no means influenced by the company. If you have any questions please use the contact us section.