Startup Monday: Bizzabo

Startup Monday is ABCey’s weekly post that features some of the best and brightest companies in the Bay Area. They are often companies that we have our eye on or have worked with in the past & would like to share with friends and followers of ABCey Events!

Bizzabo is an event planning platform site that simplifies the managing process for event planners! It contains many features to boost sales and keep ticketing, emails, agendas, networking, etc. of an event organized! Through ticket sales and access to social media, Bizzabo allows individuals to not only plan, but create buzz for their event! Agendas and emailing features also add to the convenience by keeping all important dates and documentation under one threshold.

“Own Your Event” is the motto at Bizzabo and their goal is to cater to your event the way that you envision it. It doesn’t just stop at promoting an event. Bizzabo encourages users to build better relationships and a successful website to bring in clientele and maximize opportunity!

Here’s some top reasons why Bizzabo is great for event planning:

It helps…

1. Build Your Website

2. Promote and Sell Tickets

3. Expand Your Community

4. Mobilize Your Event Planning Experience

Bizzabo is the perfect platform for your customized event planning needs! Would you use Bizzabo to help plan your next event? Let us know with a comment or message us on Facebook or Twitter!

5 Apps to Simplify Event Planning!

Event managing is never easy, but with the right tools your planning can be stress-free! Booking venues, hiring vendors, and planning your event size can be managed at the tip of your fingers. ABCey Events has complied 5 apps to simplify event planning for your next occasion!

1. Evernote

Get organized in the office or on the go! Evernote is an app that works as a filing cabinet. Brainstorm notes, vendor ideas and important venue research is easily stored, filed, and saved and can be accessed later on different devices. You’ll never have to worry about clutter!

2. ScannerPro

Scanning important documents has never been so easy! ScannerPro allows users to take pictures through a smart device or phone and create PDF’s. As an event planner, distributing information is key to great communication. You’ll never have to worry about getting to a computer at the last minute to send out files. With ScannerPro, documents are easily shared!

3. Venmo

Writing a check or transferring money directly from your bank account can pose some security issues. Venmo is an app that allows you to transfer money with the click of a button without the worry of theft! Venmo is a third-party platform that safely transfers and stores your money at your command. Simply, request or pay money out to an individual or vendor and cash it out to your personal bank account when ready!

4. Eventbrite

Hosting a conference or party that involves ticket sales or registration? Eventbrite can help your event run smoothly! Guest lists can be hard to manage with the flow of an event. Eventbrite allows attendees to purchase tickets online and even register via smart device. Go green and make your event paperless! Track statistics and party guests through the app. Share features also allow you to inform family and friends of your event!

5. Super Planner

Be a super event planner/ manager! Super Planner acts as your personal calculator making sure your event stays on budget with venues, vendors, etc. Nobody likes an overcrowded party, with this app capacity is calculated to the tee! Organize and execute your event without unnecessary space or staffing!

Execute your events with these 5 apps available in the Apple Store! What do you think of these event planning tools? Let us know with a comment or message us on Facebook or Twitter!

Startup Monday: Luxe

Luxe Valet is the answer to all of your parking woes. With service in major cities around the US, it’s sure to solve the biggest struggle of all — dare we say it — parking! This could be a great service to use for event parking as well, since we don’t want our guests wasting their time looking for parking spots!

The service can even be used in the morning to go to work, or in the evening to meet friends for drinks or dinner. What’s so great about Luxe is that they fit your lifestyle, so if you think you’re going to be drinking that night and don’t want to get behind the wheel (and you definitely shouldn’t) in select neighborhoods, you can have them drop your car off at your house if you have a garage or dedicated parking spot!

How it works: First you download their app, available on iOS or Android. Select where you want to drop off your car and it will show which driver will pick it up. Not only will they park it, but if you wish, they will even wash and/or fill up your tank!

They charge around $5.00 an hour, which for the convenience and price of parking in major cities, is definitely a steal. When you’re all set, simply tell the driver to come to get you. They will drop your car off wherever you’d like as long as it’s within their service boundaries. We know we’ll be trying this app soon & we hope you will too!

Tell us what you think about Luxe! Would you use this app? Let us know with a comment or message us on Twitter & Facebook!

3 Fun Apps for Game Night

Game night is a fun way to spend quality time with friends and family. Host yours the techy way! ABCey Events has found these 3 great apps to make game night fun, simple, and mess-free!

1. Charades

Charades allows you to play the guessing game with a new spin! Simply choose from categories like TV shows, music, or “Friends” and let the app do the work for you! Flip your phone up or down to let it know if you got an answer right or wrong. It even keeps score for you! No paper or pen is required. Find it in the App Store and Google Play.

2. Karaoke Anywhere

You don’t have to go out to a bar or rent a full karaoke machine to get the party started! With this free app, available for iPhone and Android, you can have karaoke anytime – anywhere. Make it solo or jam out with your friends! From Reggae to Rap there’s something for everyone. Find it in the App Store and Google Play.

3. Party Doodles

Party Doodle is the new era Pictionary. Draw a picture and have your friends guess your drawing! You can hook up your iPad to your computer and let everyone watch as you doodle your way to the finish line. This app is free but only available on iPad. Find it in the App Store.

If you like these apps or have used them before, let us know in the comments below or on Twitter or Facebook!

3 Music Apps to Turn Up the Beat at Your Event

Playing DJ can be hard. Let ABCey help you out with three recommendations for music apps to keep the tunes going at your next party! If your corporate event has a low budget and you have to cut costs on hiring a DJ, these could also come in handy! Our favorite is Spotify because of usability and number of options!

1. Spotify

Spotify is the new spin on Pandora. With live streaming of almost any artist you can think of, you can have it all. If you don’t want to make up your own playlist, you can browse the thousands that are pre-created for you! This is perfect for a last minute get together or if you want to find music based on your mood!

2. 8 Tracks

8 Tracks is also an online streaming platform. Users can create a free account and either listen to top tracks or make their own. Each playlist must consist of at least 8 tracks giving this fun app its name.

3. Soundcloud

Unlike the other two apps listed above, Soundcloud caters to lesser known artists. Artists and producers can promote their music on Soundcloud and share it with other users! And, it’s free!

With so many great options out there, you’re sure to have tons of music to choose from! All of these are available on the Apple App Store and Android Google Play. Let us know if you have used these apps and what you think on Twitter or Facebook!

Get Organized! 2 Helpful Event Planning Apps

Event management is no walk in the park. From vendors, to clients, to caterers, to conferences, to meetings… there’s so many components to planning! Sometimes it’s tough for event managers to stay organized. But with the development of event planning apps such as Wunderlist and Basecamp, there is no doubt an event can flow efficiently! ABCey encourages you to manage your events at the palm of your hands without worry of lost post-it notes or hand written to-do lists!

1. Wunderlist is an online tool and app that allows you to input tasks and to-do lists for yourself and other colleagues. We recently discovered Wunderlist and in our experience, it has shown to simplify the process of planning! It allows you to check mark what is done, know what needs to be done, and also make separate folders to keep everything organized! It’s a great way to jot tasks down while on the go or even help to overview components of an event.

2. BaseCamp is another essential tool for an event planner. Not only does it allow features like Wunderlist, but it also enables you to appoint tasks to fellow colleagues. Communication is made simple with messaging features so you can easily contact your people when important jobs or problems may arise while planning. Communicating with people across country? No problem! BaseCamp even allows the correct time zone to be correlated to fellow business partners. Deadlines will be met accordingly and less stress will dealt with.

The Wunderlist and BaseCamp apps can definitely simplify an event management job. These are just two of many great tools for event planning. Know any other helpful apps? Let us know with a comment or send us a message on Facebook or Twitter!

Life Made Simple: 3 Food Delivery Apps!

Planning a party? Celebrating the Warriors NBA championship this weekend? ABCey encourages you to stress less and celebrate more! Get your favorite foods delivered with apps like Postmates, Caviar, and Crunchbutton for your next hosted event!

But wait… What is a food delivery app?

A delivery app allows you to choose your favorite eating spot (from participating restaurants), place an order via smart device, and get it delivered right to your door! It’s as easy as one, two, three… Less worry about hiring a caterer and more time to enjoy your party!

1. Postmates: This app is versatile and easy to use. Looking to order lunch or even make a grocery run? Postmates has got you covered! In under an hour you’ll have what you need to make for a great meal for one or ten!

2. Caviar: This service delivers from a wide range of restaurants, commonly used from all corners of the city! Lunch and dinner breaks are made simple. Use it for quick take-out or catering your next event/ business meeting!

3. Crunchbutton: They let you know what restaurants deliver around to your area and simplify your hunt for food. Nobody likes meal-time rush hour. Let someone else do the hard work for you and get your favorite foods delivered to your doorstep with the push of a “Crunchbutton”.

In this day and age, we aren’t limited to just pizza deliveries. Take advantage of these apps for your lunch, dinner, or hosted party events! Which app do you like the best? Let us know in the comments below or message us on Facebook and Twitter! Or, call ABCey Events and let us do the work for you!

StartUp Monday: Getaways, Travel and Hotel Offers

This week’s StartUp Monday app is Getaways, Groupon’s new app that provides travel and hotel offers for your next event!

Getaways allows you to search travel and hotel offers for any destination, any day! Travel is Groupon’s fastest growing business category. With more than 25,000 offers right now and 1,000s of hotels offering a 5% Groupon Bucks credit, you’ll be able to find the best prices for all your travels!

Why We Love Getaways: Getaways makes travel to events easy and cheap! Not only can we search last-minute deals, but also ones that cater to our events’ guests, such as “Beach,” “Family Fun,” and “International Tours!” It’s a great way to keep destination events under-budget and our clients happy. Users will also have access to discounts on events when they book travel-related deals on the platform! To top it off, those who download the free app and book a trip through it can get a 20% discount until November 14 using the promotion code APP20 !

Where would you travel with Getaways? Let us know with a comment below or on Facebook and Twitter!

Start Up Monday: Munchery

With the mission of “reinventing weeknight dinner!” Munchery provides for its followers not only affordable food delivered right to your door, but healthy food as well (and did we mention tasty!) Working in event planning we understand what it’s like to live life on the go, being swamped with overflowing meeting and scheduling, planning out what’s for dinner is usually just an after thought to an already stressful day. But with Munchery meals you get food that is good as well as convenient with an ever changing menu that is sure to rival your local chinese take out!

How it works: Every day a team of local chefs create a variety of handmade entrees and desserts, all you have to do is select an entree of your choosing and select a time for delivery between 5-9pm (and don’t forget to tip your delivery driver).

Why we love it!: Not only does the Munchery provide it’s customers with deliciously affordable meals but for every meal ordered a meal is donated! And not to mention that the business is green, using sustainable packaging with boxes made of renewable plant fibers.

Would you try out Munchery? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook and Twitter!

Five Favorite Apps Friday!

Happy Friday everybody! Let’s kick off the weekend right with ABCey Events’ five favorite apps of the week, apps that help our lives healthier, happier, and more organized (which comes in handy in the bustling world of events)!

1. Mint

There’s no time like the present for you to get your finances in order! Our favorite budgeting app of the moment is the Mint (free on iOS, Android, Amazon, and Windows). Mint helps its users stay organized by collecting all of their financial activity including savings, investments, and spending. You are able to input your financial goals and receive advice specifically tailored to your financial needs (did we mention all of this info comes in a beautiful pie chart?)! Plus a little budgeting can come a long way when getting ready for the holiday season. It’s apps like Mint that ABCey Events can’t wait to try out for our next event!

2. Fooducate

With the holidays coming up, particularly holiday food, what better way to stay in shape than keeping track of your diet. Our favorite healthy-living app of the week is Fooducate! The way Fooducate (free on iOS and Android) works is that its users can easily scan barcodes and get loads of information on just what exactly they are eating, highlighting things many manufacturers overlook like transfat, excessive sugar, and MSG. Fooducate not only helps users keep track of their diet but also educates them in the process!

3. Yahoo! Weather

When planning an event, particularly an outdoor one, weather can be a tricky element to plan around. With Yahoo! Weather (free on iOS and Andriod), users are able to not only check the weather report (including wind pressure and precipitation, etc), but also are able to do so while enjoying the beautiful backdrop of the corresponding city. And who doesn’t love an app that’s both informative as well as visually striking?

4. Afterlight

For all the Instagram fans out there, Afterlight takes mobile photography one step further by allowing its users to control an image’s brightness, contrast, and saturation, along with a wide array of fun filters and frames. Afterlight ($0.99 on iOS and Android) also includes one of the best crop tools as well as other basic photo editing features. We definitely can’t wait to try this app out when capturing our upcoming events!

5. Lovely

Let’s face it, San Francisco is an expensive city, especially when it comes to finding a place to live. Lovely (free on iOS) provides renters access to great apartment deals while helping users find a place quick and easy with its real-time listings. Lovely keeps users in the know by providing notifications when new listings are available. Trying to move out of your apartment or looking to relocate to a new city? Lovely is your app!

What are your favorite apps of the moment? Share with us your thoughts in the comments below or on Facebook and Twitter!