Best Event Management Software

Events are significant for a business. Whether it is a suppliers' meet, product launch, employees' celebration, exhibition, or any other business event, such gatherings play a significant role in the growth of businesses regardless of their size and type. 

Just like the task of conducting events is vital for your business; planning them effectively is also critical. Unsuccessful events can do more harm than conducting no events at all. To make that happen, organizations use online event management software, which can ensure the flawless management of the event, starting from registering attendees to collecting post-event reviews of the attendees.

Whether you are an event management company requiring to organize events for your clients, or a business organization looking forward to managing events on your own, this buyers’ guide to event management system can help you in selecting the right event management tool enabling you to make your event successful.

In this buyers’ guide to event management software, you will get to know -

• The basic information about event management tools
• The significance of  technology in today’s competitive event management industry
• The features and capabilities you should look for while selecting an event planning software

An event management software helps organizations in automating the entire process of planning & organizing, promoting, and analyzing business events. The event management tools can organize event registration, keep track of the attendees, automate ticketing & seating arrangements, plan hotel & travel booking, venue selection, manage onsite operations, and analyze the success or failure of the event. 

The event management system aids various complex activities related to event planning like acquiring necessary permissions, managing transportation and parking, arranging media facilities, decor, security, catering, and all the services provided by third-party vendors. Basically, it ensures systematic planning & execution of the event, ensuring its success in terms of revenue generation and growth of the business.

We have always found new ways to get things done quickly in a simple way using technology in all the facets of our life. Similar to other industries like banking, shopping, manufacturing, technology has been successful in automating tasks in the event management sector also.

Before the 1990s, event managers used to utilize hand-written registration processes, and mail invitations in the form of hard-copy using postal or courier services. After the year 2000, when the use of the internet became common, the invitations were sent through email. The information about the attendees, venue, third-party suppliers, etc., was maintained using spreadsheets. But, due to the hassle of juggling between different spreadsheets, having no access to real-time information because of using manual methods, the event management processes lacked precision and accuracy, resulting in the event failures. The failure of an event ultimately causes a substantial financial and reputational loss to the business.

To eliminate the mismanagement of the events and ensure flawless execution of the event management process; the event management solutions were introduced in the market. Now, there is a wide range of event planning platforms available, which have made it possible for the event planners to automate the entire event management process, and gain access to up-to-the-minute information about the event and external factors affecting the event. The use of online event management systems now not only ensures the completion of the event in a much more organized manner than in the past but also helps in analyzing the success or failure of the event.

Not all events are the same, nor are their requirements. Moreover, all the businesses don't work the same way, and so there is no one-size-fits-all situation when it comes to the event management system. The type of event management tool is based on four aspects - Deployment, Device/Platform, Cost, and Functionality. Let's dive into the details.

Deployment

Open Source Event Management Software - This type of event management tools are usually free and easy to customize as its source is free to the public. The free and open source event management software suits those who have specific requirements. It requires on-premise deployment, and so you need to ensure that you select this type of event management tool if you own a server to host the software.

Cloud Based Event Management Software - Contradictory to the open source software, the cloud based event management software, also known as SaaS based event management system doesn't require on-premise hosting. The software is hosted on the cloud. The data stored on the cloud securely is easily accessible from anywhere at any time.

Device/Platform

Web-Based Event Management Software - This type of event management tool can run on web browsers, and if designed responsively, can work on browsers on mobile devices.

Event Management Apps - The event management app needs to be downloaded on smartphones, iPads, or Tablets to make it function. It cannot run on browsers using a desktop or mobile device.

Cost

Free - There are several free event management software available, but they might include limited features or may not be scalable enough to grow with your business. So, you need to ensure that the free event management system you are selecting includes the features you require; otherwise, the free event planning software may prove to be expensive for your business in the long-run.

Paid - There are several cheap to expensive event management tools available. The price of the event management system may vary depending on the features and functionalities it offers. If you are not sure about the compatibility of the software with your business, it would be better to go for a free trial it offers. In that case, you can try using that software for a specific time, and save yourself from investing in an online event management software that doesn’t suit your specific requirements.

Functionality

All-In-One Event Management Software - This type of event management solution comes to manage an event systematically and accurately. Starting from event planning to executing; an all-in-one event management system automates all the tasks required to make an event successful.

Venue Selection Software - Venue selection software is specifically focused on the selection of the venue only. Using this software, the users can select the venue like a hotel conference room, outdoor party plots, or any resort for conducting their events.

Event Registration/Event Booking Software - This type of software is many times confused with the event planning platform. Event registration software is used for only registering the participants or attendees for the event. An event booking software allows event planners to register the attendees for the event, or allows participants to book their attendance for the event. But, besides event registration, this type of software doesn’t automate the other processes of the event.

Leads Generating Software - Though this type of software is not considered solely for event management, it is useful for organizing the events. The sales representatives use this software for generating leads for their events like conferences, trade shows, seminars, etc.

Use of Mobile Applications

The use of event management applications has accelerated these days. It has become easy to check-in guests, make last-minute changes, and provide up-to-date information to the attendees on an instant basis using an event management application. It also becomes easy for the attendees to navigate through the venue, book a seat for themselves, and communicate with the organizers and other attendees. This makes the job of the event organizers extremely easy and saves the attendees from any confusion. The use of event management app has helped the organizations to cut down costs on printing the event material and eliminate help desk issues.

Social Media Integration

Social media platforms like Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, etc., allow event organizers to share their event details and make the information available to a wider range of audiences. You would agree to the fact that social media is an efficient way to make anything famous. So, to use social media platforms for business advantage, the online event management systems allow social media integration, which automatically posts your event details to different social media platforms. This helps event planning apps to focus more on events rather than manually posting about the event on different platforms.

Personalization

Personalization is critical to make an event engaging to the attendees. The attendees should get a feeling that the event is being organized for them, and that is possible only with the help of event personalization strategies. The event planning software available these days allows event planners to send out personalized invitations, emails, notifications, etc. Moreover, you can also print personalized seating labels for all the attendees, so that when they arrive at the event, they find their place easily labeled with their name. All this adds to wonderful event experience and is the major factor affecting the success of the event.

Data-Driven Decisions

Using past data to plan future events is one of the major aspects considered while planning a business event. The feedback from the attendees helps in making the right decisions about the organization of an event. The analytical reports generated by the event planning tools tell you about the preferences of your target audience and thus help you in planning out better events for the future to ensure its success.

Data Security

Event professionals hold a major responsibility for protecting the information about their attendees. The event software includes confidential information about the business, event, and attendees, which can be a goldmine for hackers. A little bit of negligence in the data security can cost a fortune to your business and event attendees. Ensuring that your event management solution includes high-end security features becomes highly essential.

Eliminates Communication Gap

A single person cannot do event management. There is a team involved in managing a single event. If all the team members working on an event are not on the same page, there may be a lot of miscommunication and confusion occurring, which can cause mistakes throughout the event planning. The event planning software can eliminate such a situation, as it keeps the entire information relating to attendees, venue, catering, etc., at a centralized location, which can be accessed by all the team members and ensures that all the arrangements for the event are under control.

Makes Collaborating Easy

Whether it is about collaborating with team members or event attendees, the event planner makes it easy for you. It allows you to send automated emails & notifications to your attendees at one go saving your time and resources both. Moreover, it also allows attendees to collaborate to grab the additional information they require.

Enables Quick and Simple Event Registration

Using different software for event registration and planning can be a tedious task. Instead, if the event registration, payments, and planning the entire event is made using a single interface, it can save a lot of your time. An event management system allows the attendees to register their seat for the event and make payment for the same online. It also allows event planning apps to register the seat for the attendees on their behalf and make their job easier. As the event registration information is updated on a real-time basis, the event planners get the idea about the vacant seats and manage the event promotions accordingly.

Keeps Budget Under Control

By using event software, you have clear and constant visibility of the expenses being done for planning the events. In case, the expenses are going on a higher side for an event, you can control it on an initial basis itself, instead of realizing that you overspent for an event after its completion. This saves you from doing a lot of unnecessary expenses and ensures that you achieve your monetary goals.

Allows Managing Multiple Events

With an event management platform, you can manage multiple events simultaneously without any errors or confusion. Despite all events being different in terms of nature, attendees, etc., the event planner allows you to manage all the events from a single platform. You don't need to juggle between different excel sheets, registers, and files to manage multiple events at the same time; an event management system can simplify this job for you.

Facilitates Last Minute Iteration

While managing events, you might have experienced that many times there are last-minute changes to be done due to some internal or external problems. For example, if you have organized an outdoor conference, and all of a sudden it starts raining, you need to change the venue from outdoors to indoors. An event software can help you in managing these last-minute changes by updating all the participants, event planners, decorators, caterers, and everyone associated with the event about change in venue through automated notifications, and save yourself from embarrassment.

Helps in Promoting the Events

Promoting an event is highly significant to ensure maximum attendees are coming to the event. Without event planning tools, promoting an event on multiple platforms might become a tedious and time-consuming task. Using event management tools, you can easily design the marketing campaigns for different social media platforms, and execute them with high efficiency yielding guaranteed results.

Can Measure Event Success Accurately

The online event management systems can generate analytical reports that can measure the effectiveness of the event and its ROI accurately. Starting from event registration to feedback provided by the attendees, the event software studies the minutest detail. It comes up with accurate reports, which can help you make smart decisions for your future events. So, no more guess works, your event planning strategies would be based on accurate reports that help you in maximizing your ROI.

Online Registration

The event planner that facilitates online registration makes it easy for the participants and organizers of the event. Through online registration forms, you can collect all the information about the attendees, including their payment details, which makes even the ticketing process easy.

Sending Invitations

The event management platform you choose should be able to send invitations automatically as soon as the participant fills up the registration form. Now, you don't have to manually check the details of each participant and send invitations through email and text messages on their phones.

Workflow Setup

Most of the time, the same workflow or process is followed for managing similar kinds of events. For example, the process followed in managing a conference in the past would require following the same process with some minor modifications. The event management tool you choose should allow you to set up the workflow for these similar kinds of events so that you don't miss out on any task and save your time. 

Cost Budgeting

Even if you have managed to organize an amazing event, it may become a liability to the business if its expenses go out of budget. An event planner you select should track the expenses of each event you are organizing, and notify you if the events are costing you more than a predetermined budget.

Database Management

The event planning tools should allow you to store the contact information of your customers, event participants, third party vendors, and everyone related to the events you have organized and are going to organize. It should have easy to use search features so that you can access the information whenever required.

Event Promotion

An event can be successful only if it draws maximum participation, and that is possible only with effective promotion of the event. The event management system you select should have features like email templates, bulk email/text messaging, etc., which can make people aware of the event and motivate them to attend it.

Social Media Integration

The event planner that is integrated with social media platforms can easily help you in posting updates and sharing content related to your event and grab the attention of a maximum number of audiences. This can increase the number of participants adding to the success of your event.

Analytical Reports

The analytical reports generated from your event management platform would help you in analyzing the success or failure of the event. You get answers to many questions about the engagement of the participants and revenue generated. This helps you to plan your future strategies relating to organizing events.

Participants Feedback

Post-event, it becomes necessary to get reviews of your participants so that you can improve your events for the future. The event management software should automatically send email or text messages to provide the feedback for the event they have attended and store those feedbacks in a database which can be easily accessed.

User-Friendly

The event management system should be easy to use so that you can avoid a waste of time and effort required in training your team members. Just ensure that the event management tool you select has a simple to use interface, drag-and-drop features, What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) editors, etc. This would help you in getting things done quickly and improve the productivity of your projects.

Functionality

Before selecting an event management software, you need to ask yourself: do you need to automate the entire event planning process or just a part of it? The all-in-one event management system allows you to streamline the entire workflow of an event, starting from event marketing to the post-event survey. Whereas, there are many solutions that can only look after event registrations, hotel & travel bookings, cost accounting, contact management, etc. Depending on your requirements, you need to invest in software, as buying the software with the functionality you don't require would not be a wise decision.

Scalability

No business is stagnant, and neither yours is. It is evident that the event management requirements of any business changes with its growth. Today you may be planning small-scale events but can also be required to organize multiple events on a large scale simultaneously. In that case, you need an event management system that is scalable and can match the requirements of your business to help it sustain the competition.

Integration

Do you require your event management tool to fetch the data from the other systems you are already using like CRM, accounting software, marketing automation tool, etc.? If yes, then you need to ensure that it integrates well with those systems to get the value for money you are looking for.

Support

Using a new event management software initially can require some training or support. Also, after using the software for some period, you may require support if you are using any particular feature for the first time, or in case any technical discrepancy occurs. In these situations, you need to be sure that the software provider offers timely support so that you don't get stuck up in the middle of organizing an event due to which you lose a client or face failure of the event. Check the users' reviews to select a trustworthy event management software provider.

Cost

Last but not least, the cost is the most important factor that you should be looking for while selecting your event management software. You need to ensure that the features of the event management system justifies the cost. Moreover, you also need to ask yourself whether the features offered by the software that you picked can be any use to your projects today or in the future? If not, then it is worthless to invest in expensive software. If your budget is a constraint, you can pick free and open source event management software, or else you can go for moderately priced with limited features or expensive software with advanced features, depending on your business requirements.

Buying event management software means bringing a change to an organization. Many times, the team members are so busy with their core responsibilities or tied up in their comfort zone that they don't use the new system. In that case, your investment in the new event management software can go waste. The only solution is to encourage your team members to use the event management software you have newly purchased using the below tactics.

• Motivate your team members by explaining them the benefits of using the event management software
• Make the guide to use the event management tool easily accessible
• Provide a thorough training session about using the software to your team members
• Encourage the top authorities also to use the software to access the information
• Stop delegating jobs or providing information in the form of paperwork or spreadsheets, instead insist on modifying and accessing all the task-related details through your event management software

The cost of the event management software depends on the features, functionality, and its deployment. There are many event management tools available, ranging from $1.6 one-time charges to $3000 yearly subscription. Depending on the budget and requirements, you can choose one. For example, ClearEvent is available for $9.95 monthly subscription charges, but GEVME is available for $250 monthly subscription charges. If you are interested in buying software with the yearly subscription, you can go for EROnline, which can cost you $500/year or Eventival, which can cost you $3000/year.

There are also event management tools with one-time subscription charges like InEvent, which can cost you $1.6 only and Meeting Application, which can cost you $500. Just evaluate the features carefully before investing in these event management tools. It would always be preferable to choose the software offering trial period so that you can know well in advance whether it includes the features you require or not.

If investing an amount is not your idea at this time, you can also go for free event management software like EventTitans, Eventbrite, Social Tables, etc. Just go through these top 9 free and open source event management software to find the one you are looking for.

Virtual and Augmented Reality

AR & VR has the potential to change the way we organize events and provide unique experiences to the attendees. The participants of the event can get the feel of how the event is going to take place before even attending it due to this technology. You can even make your attendees walk through the conference hall and show them their seats before the event. Using virtual reality and augmented reality in event management can be an excellent opportunity for the event organizers in terms of making their event innovative and improving the engagement of the attendees.

IoT (Internet of Things)

IoT refers to Bluetooth enabled devices communicating with smartphones. This technology has brought a revolution to many other business sectors, including the event management industry. With the help of IoT devices, you can make the check-ins to the events easier for the participants, notify them about the updates instantly, and many more real-time tasks. This can help in making your event much more happening and delighting.

Wearable Devices

When we talk about wearable devices, a few things that come into our minds are wristbands and smartwatches used in the health & fitness industry. But, now, there are many wearable devices in the form of smart badges, eyewear, earwear, clothing, etc., available, which can transform the way you manage your events and provide a unique experience to your attendees. Smartwatches and wristbands are already being used in event management for sending and receiving notifications about the events. Very soon, other wearable devices would gain technological improvements to be able to integrate into your event planning strategies.

Drones

The use of drones in events is already at the hype these days. The event management system connected with drones can help you in capturing the moments of the events on a real-time basis, advertise your brand, and also help the attendees in engaging with the event. But, as there are many laws about drones, it is always not feasible to use them at all places. Still, drones are gaining popularity, and very shortly would be the basic requirement of almost all the outdoor events.

Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning

AI & ML are transforming the way the event management industry works. It can add significant value to the events, attendees, and vendors. Event management software incorporated with AI and ML can help in reducing the job of humans and automating the processes at an impeccable level. The most prominent example of this technology is chatbot through which you can attend to your event participants at any time without using a human mind. Besides that, it can streamline the event planning processes relating to finding best fits in venues, locate the right vendors for catering, decoration, etc., quick decision making, enhancing security, and many such advancements that can help you in planning live events in an excellent manner.

The event planning tools listed by GoodFirms’ team includes in-depth details of each tool with authentic reviews & ratings given by the users helping you to select the right one for your business. Many options being available online, it might be overwhelming to select one, so here are the reasons why you should refer to the list of event management software and planning tools suggested by GoodFirms.

• A thorough and systematic research-based approach is followed by intricately evaluating the latest technologies and trends used to build these event management tools
• The reviews and ratings by the users who have used these event management tools can help you in selecting the one that suits your specific requirements quickly
• GoodFirms includes a team of researchers having an in-depth understanding of the technology which has resulted in winning the trust of enterprise organizations located worldwide

The events taking place these days are far different from events that took place a decade back, and this is going to be continuously evolving. The reason behind this gradual transformation is digitalization and the use of event management technology. Ongoing advancements in event management software have played a tremendous role in helping the event planners to manage their events innovatively and make them successful. This has also been the reason behind the challenging demands of the attendees in terms of seamless experience before and after the events.

To meet the growing expectations of your event participants these days, it has become significant to use a competent and reliable event management system that can not only make your event successful but also sustain the reputation of your organization. We hope this buyers' guide has provided you comprehensive information helping you to select the event management software that can suffice your event management requirements and gain an edge over your competitors.