There is far more to planning a large corporate event in London than meets the eye.
Finding the perfect contractor for marquee hire in North London is a good place to start, then there’s seating, catering and decorating, but the operational side of managing a gathering of hundreds of people is a many-headed hydra and it takes some serious organisational skills to pull it off without blocking a gasket.
Thank goodness for the modern age, as smartphones and tablets rarely leave our sides, making it even easier to keep on top of everything in our lives, from appointments, to remembering to be active, to sorting out a major event, and SwitchIt has listed the eight top apps for event planning that could be the difference between success and crying in a darkened room.
The first place to begin is with an app like Eventbrite, which allows you to invite, promote and plan an event, as well as providing a platform if you are charging for tickets. Eventbrite makes it very easy to share details of an event on Facebook and Twitter and users can just search the site for your event if they aren’t accessing the click-through function in an email.
CrowdCompass is a clever app from Cvent which has been designed to increase attendee engagement and produce a strong return on investment. Ideal for trade shows, conferences and other corporate events, the software allows users to brand the app and open up messaging forums, Q&A feeds, polls and gamification.
Will your event have presentations or seminars? If so, Glisser is a great way to help you create presentations without the ‘Death By Powerpoint’ factor. The software comes with an audience response system to track audience engagement through slide sharing, live polling, digital Q&A and Twitter wall posts.
Looking for great promotion artwork without the hefty price tag? Rawpixel has an incredibly diverse gallery of stock photos – and the imagery is not commonly found on rival stock photo galleries so you escape any ‘Where Have I Seen That Before?’ suspicion, which could dent your authenticity.
For those valuable planning stages, Social Tables allows users to visualise their event with 3D floorplans in which you can position entrances, exits and furniture, while you can use the collaborative features to work with other event organisers helping the team to make decisions faster.
Hubb is the best place to start when you feel like you’re spinning a lot of plates. The cloud-based platform helps the events team to manage, plan and market an event, updating whenever stakeholders make a change ensuring all the data is up to date and everybody involved is fully informed. The system works by pushing stakeholders to submit content to deadlines and workflow targets. Pretty smart.
Similarly, Basecamp is a project management tool that keeps teams organised and uses task lists and calendars to keep everybody in check.
Finally, the SwitchIt app, which is a digital business card application built for sharing digital business cards at these large events, with the option to program dynamic graphics. The app is great for networking and saves details automatically into your smart device, allowing you to keep tabs on your new contacts, while making space on your desk by chucking away the Roller-Deck.