Make Your Event a Stress-less Success!

Every event needs organization. Without it, we are stuck with a stressful mess of ideas, plans and an abundance of information. The best way to keep everything in order, is to incorporate technology into the event planning, and event itself. ABCey has adapted an article from Collaborate Meetings Magazine, who featured PlannerTech by Liz King of Liz King Events and Josh Gooch, elaborating on a list of some event planning tools to help you keep your cool.

1. EventFarm is an all in one ticketing service. They provide a variety of options for your attendees and for you as well! Their distribution process is comprehensive and even allows for ticket block distribution and progress tracking. Payment is simple and convenient, and registration/check-in can be modified by you- with the ability to ask registration questions, show seating arrangement options, as well as request entree selection. Along with ticketing features, also come promo codes, waiting lists, arrival alerts, and even the ability to create name tags/badges.

 

2. Social Tables is a sophisticated option for important details like venue mapping, making  general processes more efficient, streamlining the check-in process and communication. This service also allows for real-time collaboration among team members, as well as in depth seat mapping. They have received funding from 500 Startups and even gained the business of the 1,300 attendee Latin Grammy’s- a shocker to CEO Dan Berger. Congrats!

 

3. Hubb is a cloud based CMS which gives attendees, speakers and planners the ability to create personalized schedules, interact with one another and provides one location to view all social information associated with the event on a “community wall”. The mobile integration allows for real-time updates- making sure no one is left sitting in the wrong room.

 

4. Bizzabo helps planners make (and attendees get) the most out of an event. This service also allows everyone to receieve up to date info and help networking opportunities. It’s easy to use and allows for the much needed interaction before, during and after the event. As of now, its free to event planners and attendees, but in the future Bizzabo will provide some outlets for event organizers to gain extra revenue. 

5. Splash is a great tool to use to create an awesome and original event page, which lets you select a location, time and also serves as an invitation. You can take care of aspects like generating a budget, creating one-sheets and overall brainstorming, as well as tracking RSVPs and VIPs in real time. Pictures can be posted to the event page afterwards using a #hashtag!

Which of these services or apps have your tried to help techify your event and streamline those somewhat complicated tasks ? Let us know in the comments below, or on Facebook & Twitter.


Startup Monday: Tadaa

Tadaa is ABCey’s new favorite iOS photo-sharing and editing app. The Hamburg, Germany-based startup differentiates itself from the abundance of mobile photo-sharing apps and services with an emphasis on ‘high end’ editing features, targeted towards the more serious “iPhoneographers”.

Unlike Instagram, Tadaa has a sense of “gamification” whcih comes in the form of ‘tadaa Dollars’, a virtual currency rewarded for every like, comment, reply or re-share a user receives. The editing features are what really makes Tadaa really stand out. Firstly, the editing features are built-in and users don’t even need to join the service to use the app as a photo editor.  Additionally, lighting, contrast, and saturation can be adjusted, while upload image resolution remains high (1600 PX max), which the company claims is around three times higher than Instagram.

Incredibly, after adding Instagram import just over two weeks ago, the startup says that over 3 million photos have been imported from Facebook-owned Instagram. In that same period of time, the app garnered nearly 500,000 new users, bringing the total registered user base to just shy of 2 million.

Even though I love using Instagram, I decided to download Tadaa to try it out. It definitely takes some getting used to, but the quality of editing is significantly superior and I am keeping it! (sorry Insta!) What do you think of this app? Do you plan on downloading it and experimenting? Let us know below in a comment or on Facebook & Twitter!