Over the past 6 years of blogging I’ve learned that people love to learn about new tools that help them do business better, faster and more efficiently. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise when I asked my Facebook Fans what they’d like to see on the blog next and they said Online Tools for Event Planners.
Just a few weeks ago, I posted the Event Planning Tools Megalist (part i), which also appeared in my monthly Event Solutions column. Today, I’ll follow this post up with a few more tools I love…
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VISUALIZE YOUR HASHTAG STATS
I love what Hashable did for SXSW. If you’re using hashtags for your events, Hashable lets you track & discover important stats about usage, users and conversations.
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GET ATTENDEES TO SHARE AND DISCOVER MEMORIES AROUND YOUR EVENT
Color is getting a ton of buzz. Not only have they received some pretty substantial seed funding, but I can see some great applications for events.
Color Demo from Color Labs, Inc. on Vimeo.
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VIDEO CONFERENCING
If you use Skype for video conferencing, you may just want to check out ooVoo. They claim that 8 out of 10 Skype users prefer ooVoo.
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CREATING GROUPS
GroupMe lets you set up your own chatroom with select contacts – share photos, your location and set up a conference call on the fly. MiniGroup lets you set up a private group online to share updates, photos, videos, links and documents. If you use a tool like GoToMeeting, Presence claims to have a sleeker interface with all the high quality video you’d get elsewhere. Fast Society and Hurricane Party let you create impromptu face to face events.
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NEED HELP REMEMBERING SOMETHING?
FollowUpThen is a simple to use reminder tool that lets you send reminders to yourself and others via email.
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GET CUSTOMER FEEDBACK
uservoice helps you collect and manage customer feedback. It also has a solution for events that lets you crowdsource ideas, suggestions and feedback for your conference, meeting, corporate or special event.
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SHOWCASE YOUR WARES IN YOUR OWN ONLINE MAGAZINE
issuu lets you publish your own online magazine for free. They also have a paid version that lets you remove advertising, customize your magazine and access stats.
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GET THOSE CONTRACTS SIGNED FASTER
RightSignature is an online document signing software that lets your customers sign important documents anywhere, without having to print out and scan paper.
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GET BOOKED FOR APPOINTMENTS RIGHT FROM YOUR WEBSITE
BookFresh is an online scheduling and appointment software that lets your customers book time with you right from your website.
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EVENT PLANNING SOFTWARE
Posy is a simple-to-use and collaborative event planning software.
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GET INSPIRED
Yes, there are millions of visually inspiring blogs. But why not go where those bloggers go to find inspiration? Pinterest is a site where bloggers and blog readers can go to share photo eye candy.
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GET REWARDED FOR TRAVELING
Loyalty program meets location-based networking. Topguest lets you earn points for checking in to their partner locations via Facebook, Twitter, Gowalla or Foursquare. If you’re a venue, you might want to consider becoming one of their partners.
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SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT
MarketMeSuite appears to be a pretty comprehensive and cost-effective social media management tool. I haven’t tried it yet, but plan to sign up for an account soon.
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WHAT WOULD YOU ADD?
I love all of these sites.
Posy seems really great and I am planning on opening that up for a test run as I took a new position for event planning.
Also, if you are looking for a site for group collaboration, there is Basecamp (http://basecamphq.com/) and it’s really easy to send stuff between people and keeping it all mobile.
Great addition, Jordan. I like a lot of 37 Signals’ solutions!
Definitely informative and a great way of refreshing ideas. Thanks for sharing and will follow your blogs.
Wonderful, James!
Thank you for the feedback.