2012 Crunchies Coverage: Best E-Commerce Application

ABCey Events is counting down the two weeks until The Crunchies in San Francisco on January 31. Have you been voting for your favorite Finalists? I’m sure the Finalists for Best E-Commerce Application are counting on your vote. Who are they? Let’s find out:

Fab – Fab is a great design e-commerce site with smartphone app that helps people discover everyday design products at discounted prices. Fab offers everything from vintage apparel to vintage commerative collectibles to decorate your home. It’s great inspiration for interior decorators, fashionistas and DIY project fans. Check this site out to bring some bright colors, cool designs and pizzazz to your life. We love it because it gives great ideas for event decorations and goody-bags.

HotelTonight – HotelTonight is a great smartphone app that lets you book your hotel room at the very last minute (until 2am that same day) for a great deal. Obviously, this is ideal for last-minute planners/deal hunters as well as the hotel industry looking for a way to minimize their room stock. Event planners can recommend this app to event attendees who are looking for flexibility in finding accommodations.

Karma/Facebook Gifts – Last May Facebook acquired the gift app Karma and transformed it into Facebook Gifts. Facebook Gifts is great for two reasons: 1) It allows you to send a last-minute gift in a pinch 2) You don’t need to know your friend’s shipping address in order to send them a gift. Facebook Gifts does all the work by verifying the recipient’s shipping address. There are definitely people who hate shopping but who do love to give gifts – this streamlines the process for them. Next time you’re invited to an event on Facebook, go ahead and send your host/hostess an early gift with Facebook Gifts!

Warby Parker – Just three years, the two founders were selling their glasses from a loft in Philadelphia and now, they are everywhere! There’s very little to say about Warby Parker other than we love their glasses! (I am wearing them right now.) Before Warby Parker came along, I’m sure most people would not have thought it would be easy, convenient or SMART to shop for glasses on the Internet. These days, it’s almost hard to believe you wouldn’t go straight to them to purchase glasses since Warby Parker has made it so simple with their Home Try-Ons, flat rate pricing and free shipping.

Zulily – Sometimes when I stare jealously at a little girl’s cute outfit, I think to myself, “That must be from Zulily.” This is a great all-in-one shopping site marketed toward Moms. Zulily smartly targets Moms, who usually have the greatest shopping power in the household, to shop their flash daily deals for themselves but also provide an outlet to look for their babies and kids. Moms do not have to look any further than Zulily to outfit (the younger half of) their household.

Are you big fans of these e-Commerce sites? Who are you voting for? Tell us in the comments below or on Facebook & Twitter!

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.

2012 Crunchies Coverage: Best New Startup

ABCey Events is pretty excited for The Crunchies to be held in San Francisco on January 31. Do you know who the nominees are? Every week, we’ll introduce you to the nominees for a few of the big categories. You might already be a big fan of some of these startups, but if not, we’re here to share the wealth of knowledge. Here are the nominees for Best New Startup of 2012:

Coursera – Coursera is a social entrepreneurship company that partners with the top universities in the world to offer free online courses for anyone to take. Their technology enables the best professors to teach tens or hundreds of thousands of students. Through this, they hope to give everyone access to the world-class education that has so far been available only to a select few. The site offers a large array of classes and any person looking to revisit some academic topics will not be disappointed!
Crowdtilt – Crowdtilt is a place where you can pool money with your friends or your community for an objective/event/fundraiser you care about. It could be for anything from a vacation home rental in Hawaii to raising money for a charitable event in your neighborhood. Doing things with a group shouldn’t suck so much – and Crowdtilt helps with that. If you are the de facto group organizer for most activities, Crowdtilt is your dream come true.
Lyft – Lyft is an on-demand ridesharing app for cheaper, safer rides. Payment is donation-based. You can spot their cars by the pink mustaches at the front of the vehicle. Lyft and other ridesharing car services have definitely made getting around San Francisco a more reliable, cheaper, and in many cases, more pleasant experience.
Snapchat – Snapchat is a photo messaging application. Using the app, users can take photos, record videos, add text and drawings, and send them to a set list of recipients. Users can program a time limit for how long recipients can view their photos, after which it is deleted from the recipient’s device. With limited attention spans, I’m guessing teenagers love this app.
Waze – Waze is a free mobile navigation application for your smartphones that allows drivers to build and use live maps, real-time traffic updates and turn-by-turn directions. Waze definitely contributes to more and more people relying on their smartphones for navigational services (saving money, yay!).

Which of these do you think is the best startup? Let us know your vote in the comments below or on Facebook & Twitter.

TV Tuesday: Postmates

The holidays are usually a busy time for most people. Have you heard of Postmates? Well, after today, you’re sure going to wish you had heard about it sooner. Postmates sells itself as a “revolutionary same day urban logistics & delivery platform.” Well, that is a sophisticated way of saying Postmates has couriers who will ship things for you and bring things to you. In San Francisco. Under an hour. Watch a testimonial:

Pretty cool, right? It’s no wonder that Postmates is in the running for “Best Collaborative Consumption Service” at this year’s Crunchies. As an event planner, I can see many instances in where Postmates would come in handy for a last minute pick-up or drop-off. Can you see yourself using Postmates for any reason? Let us know if you have a Postmates experience and tell us about it in the comments below or on Facebook & Twitter.

Gift Card Swap

It’s been several days since Christmas and I’m sure you’ve done all your returns and exchanges that come along with the holiday season. I am also sure you received a few gift cards to places where you will never shop at and aren’t sure what to do with. Don’t worry! There are plenty of sites that will help you sell or exchange your gift cards to places that you will actually shop at. Check out these five sites that ABCey recommends and see which one works out the best for you!

1. GiftCardRescue – This site allows you to sell gift cards you don’t want and get up to 90% cash. You are mailed check within 48 hours of receiving your gift card. Also with GiftCardRescue, you can swap gift cards for an Amazon.com Gift Card and get an additional 5%. Your exchange gift card code will be emailed to you within 48 hours of receiving your gift card. You can purchase discount gift cards from 4% up to 30% off and get free shipping. All discount gift card transactions are backed by a 100% money back guarantee. They offer gift cards to over 250 major brands. They, however, will only buy plastic cards and not electronic codes.

2. Plast ic Jungle – When you sell gift cards to Plastic Jungle you decide how you want to exchange your cards. You can select an instant payment option and get up to 92% of the face value of the gift card paid out via PayPal or Amazon.com. You can also swap gift cards for cash. When you choose Plastic Jungle for your gift card exchange, the postage to mail your gift cards to Plastic Jungle is covered. You also have the option to sell gift cards to Plastic Jungle and turn them into a donation to a nonprofit or another charitable organization of your choice. When you make a donation of cash for gift cards that would normally be unused, you are able to make a difference in your community and around the globe. Plastic Jungle offers over 400 retailers and brands of gift cards to buy or sell.

3. Carpool – A very easy gift card site to navigate, Cardpool’s name describes them both precisely and in a fun way. With its amazing inventory, Cardpool really is a pool full of gift cards. Like other sites, Carpool’s Gift Card Exchange section lets you buy gift cards for up to 35% off or sell gift cards for up to 92% cash back. When you sell a gift card to them, you get a choice of either cash in the form of a check or an Amazon.com gift card. If you choose the Amazon.com gift card route, your offer will be 5% more. All orders and transactions include FREE SHIPPING and are covered by their extensive Purchase Guarantee Program. When issues do arise, however, you do not have the option of contacting Cardpool customer service by phone.

4. CardCash – CardCash lets you buy discount gift cards for up to 35% off and sell them for up to 92% of the face value. If you don’t want to sell your gift card to CardCash, you are also able to trade it straight across for an Amazon.com gift card of the same exact balance. However, you will pay a transaction fee to trade. CardCash is slightly different than other gift card merchants in that they will purchase any remaining balance on a gift card. You can sell gift cards to CardCash with no minimum or maximum limit. CardCash doesn’t offer as many categories as other gift card exchange services do but they are also one of the few gift card exchange services to offer sports leagues gift cards, such as cards to the NBA Store.

5. SwapaGif t – SwapaGift offers the most unique way to get cash for your gift card out of all these sites. If you’re looking for cash immediately you can stop into one of their Certified Partner locations throughout the U.S. You can locate a store near you that will buy your gift card today for cash by simply selecting the state you are in from the map on their website. Gift card merchants and redemption rates may vary per store, and may be less than the mail-in rates but you can call ahead to obtain the redemption rate. Note that you can’t actual swap any gift cards online through this site!

These sites are great! Gift cards, in the past, have been go-to gifts for event gift packages so now, as the gift card giver, one never has to stress out too much about where to purchase your gift cards from. Now you can rest assure that the people you’re giving a gift card to, have options on what they can do with your gift! Have you used any of these sites to get cash or a more suitable gift card? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook & Twitter.