ABCey’s Tech Tuesday: 5 Best Event Website Templates

Want to build a buzz around your event and wow your registrants? The convenience and customization event websites offer to both event planners and attendees are amazing! Thus, today’s #techTuesday features 5 best event websites to help you create your next event website template.

1. Splash

Pricing Details: Free for personal events and trials, custom pricing for business licenses

From simplifying event asset creation to capturing attendee insights and measuring event impact, Splash is a great event marketing tool.Splash’s content management system makes it super easy to create your event website while maintaining brand consistency. You can also customize your invite, check-in guests, print your event badges, and more with this tool!

2. Squarespace

Pricing Details: Squarespace has 4 price plans, ranging from $12 to $40 per month.

Squarespace is a drag-and-drop website builder with the best quality templates in terms of design and flexibility. With this tool, you can have full customization control without the need for coding. Squarespace also has good SEO, and its pages all follow SEO best practices. It provides you the best tools to promote your brand.

3. EventCreate

Pricing Details: EventCreate has 2 price plans, ranging from $9 to $29 per month.

In addition to website creation, EventCreate is also a ticketing & registration platform. EventCreate uniquely offers fully white-labeled, custom-branded event pages and is the only platform that offers A/B ticket price testing, to help you maximize your event revenue.

4. Planning Pod

Pricing Details: Planning Pod has 4 price plans, ranging from $19 -$69+ per month.

Planning Pod is an online event management software that aims to help people and organizations that manage multiple or complex events and registrations. This tool offers a centralized platform to manage events, clients, staff, venues, vendors, payments and business details. More importantly, the floor plan feature allows event planners to customize designs for the venue, so they can help clients visualize the event.

5. Bookmark

Pricing Details: Free version available; Professional plan: $11.99/month; Business plan: $24.99/month.

Bookmark is one of the most advanced website builders when it comes to web technologies. Its AI software AiDA (Artificial Intelligence Design Assistant) can help you create an exceptional website in less than 90 seconds! The AI can help fill your website with blocks that suits the most, puts on sample content and customizes design colors. And all you need to do after is to change the text and images. This tool is super efficient and is perfect for non-technical professionals and small business owners.

Have you used any of these event website builders before? Did we miss any? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook and Twitter


ABCey’s Tech Tuesday: Top 10 Event Tech Trends of 2019

It’s Tuesday! ABCey presents #TechTuesday as we highlight the best and brightest ideas in the event tech industry. For today’s #TechTuesday, we feature ten event tech trends to look for in 2019.

1) Mobile Charging Stations

Full charge ahead! Having a convenient and reliable way to charge mobile devices is one of the top amenities event attendees crave. By incorporating charging outlets into themed décor to your next event will not only satisfy their craving but also make it more trendy. goCharge is a great source to rent or buy a charging station for your next event!

2) 5G

Verizon and AT&T have both launched preliminary 5G services, but neither one is broadly available yet. With 5G, it’s fast, more responsive and able to connect a lot more devices at once. The speed and reliability of your venue’s Wi-Fi will become less important, as attendees will already have high-speed internet available to them on their devices, allowing for more opportunities.

3) Event Diagramming

Event diagramming tools are constantly improving. With the ability to lay out your event in any way you want, it allows for better planning and better control. Additionally, it helps planners and venue management save time. Forbes has used the software since 2013 to improve the efficiency of their events by visually verifying the placement of every piece as well as the viability of venues. We recommend MagicPlan or SocialTables Check in to make your planning a breeze!

4) Facial Recognition

Identifying and verifying an individual by using their faces has never been easier. With facial recognition, we can easily check in and register guests, reach new audience members and most of all, improve on site security. Apple and theme parks, like Disneyland have already take on facial recognition and have integrated into their systems with the IPhone and tickets respectively.

5) Beacons

A great companion for your event app- Beacon’s bluetooth technology send signals to other smart devices nearby using small, wireless transmitters. . One of the most useful benefits of beacon technology is that it has the capability to help attendees navigate from point A to point B. AppAtlas, powered by the mobile event app provider MeetingPlay, recently launched indoor wayfinding throughout enourmous ropms. By downloading an app, venue guests can easily navigate throughout these mega complexes with turn-by-turn directions right from their mobile or smart devices..

6) Event Applications

Event applications are a great tool for listing your event info, schedules, performer information, and more all in ONE place. Their flexibility makes them a perfect fit for almost any type of event. Pathable and Guidebook are just a few! Built with ease of use and design in mind, both event apps are great at being simple and convenient!

7) Event Automation

Event automation gives event planners the ability to create personalized experiences for all attendees. By sending out information tailored to each person to their own interests, it could also help prevent attendees from getting slammed with information overload. GEVME, Silverpop and HubSpot are some trending event automation platforms that will get you started!

8) Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)

Waiting in line for an event? Say no more! With RFID, you can set up a faster entry process and store payment, all in one with this tool. Furthermore, you can significantly cut down on your day-of staff or reallocate your staff into more engaging roles at your event venue. Xylobands, made popular by Coldplay is a great source of RFID coming into play. During the concert, it lights up during the musical acts and is a beautiful sight. Not only is it mesmerizing, but it will be a factor in getting people to come back.

9) Artificial Intelligence (Chatbots)

If you had questions about an event, don’t fear! With chatbots, you are able to get your question answered in a few seconds, relieving overwhelmed staff. In addition, chatbots are virtual meaning they could be on different social media platforms anytime and anywhere. There are numerous chatbots all over the internet including Spotify, Uber, Nike and more!

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10) Augmented Reality

In simple words, augmented reality is a combination of our real and computer-generated worlds in the form of live video imagery. With this technology, events planners can utilize the capabilities of computer-generated display text, sound and effects to enhance attendees’ real world experience. Attendees can experience AR through headsets or through displays on mobile devices. When Apple announced the ar feature at Apple’s annual conference, Worldwide Developers Conference, it changed everything for years to come!

Have you tried any of these event tech trends? Which one is your favorite? Let us know what you think in the comments below or on Facebook and Twitter!

If you’re interested in learning more about events we’ve done for otherSan Francisco startups or other fortune 500 companies, click here.


ABCey Presents Startup Monday: Spoke

Spoke logo

Startup Monday is ABCey’s weekly post that showcases some of the best and most innovative startups based in the San Francisco Bay Area! These are often companies that we have our eye on or have worked with in the past. Today, we’d like to highlight Spoke!

Spoke

What is it?

Spoke homepage

Spoke is a workplace manager system that gives support teams within organizations a single place to manage employee requests. It includes ticketing, knowledge management, and self-service powered by artificial intelligence (A.I.). By allowing employees from different departments to communicate on a single platform, this system makes workplace management simpler and more efficient!

Why We Love It?

Graphic that shows how Spoke operates

Spoke uses advanced technology to make work management faster and easier, and at ABCey, we love tech! This system allows companies to focus more on the work that’s important to them. It helps employees get answers quickly, so they can continue doing their jobs well. Not to mention, it’s extremely affordable with prices ranging from as little as $1/month-$3/month, depending on the type of plan you get. Now that’s a steal!

How Does it Work?

Example of a Spoke request

Spoke uses chatbots, which automatically respond to employees’ questions on Slack, email, SMS, and the web, so you don’t have to respond to every single request! Its ticketing system is also organized and easy to use, unlike traditional ticketing systems, giving you everything you need to manage employee requests all in one place. Not only this, but Spoke’s knowledge management base keeps tabs on all sorts of important information, no matter where it came from within the company. This way, you don’t have to worry about keeping track of it all yourself!

Do you use Spoke? How do you like it? We’d love to hear from you! Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook or Twitter!

 


ABCey’s #TechTuesday: Top 5 Event Tech Trends in 2018

#TechTuesday highlights the best and brightest ideas in the tech world. Today’s #TechTuesday features the top 5 event tech trends to make  your events stand out.

1. Facial Recognition

Man getting his face scanned - tech trends
Facial Recognition

Facial recognition serves many different functions at events, such as speeding up the registration process, improving security, and it helps with getting feedback from attendees. FR also allows you to reach new audiences via social media. Try encouraging your guests and staff to post photos of the event to Facebook and to tag themselves, which will help showcase your event!

2. Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Chatbot being shown - tech trends
Chatbot

AI has also recently joined the event tech trends family, mainly because it has the ability to personalize guests’ experiences. One aspect of AI that has caught the attention of event planners are chatbots, which offer automated customer service to guests. Give it a try!

3. Event Apps

Someone holding an iPhone - tech trends
Event Apps

Event apps can help your event run more smoothly and efficiently, and has been a prominent event tech trend for a while. Grupio and CrowdCompass are just a few of the great event apps we recommend. Use our list of the Top 5 Apps for Event Engagement to find the best app for your next event!

4. Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR)

A man using virtual reality - tech trends
Virtual Reality

These two tech trends are on the rise and can help make your event more interactive. VR is useful if you want to transport your guest into a completely different worldAR is helpful if you want your guests to be able to incorporate the environment around them so they can view and interact with it on their personal devices.  Which one will you use?

5. Social Media

The logos of different social media platforms - tech trends
Social Media Platforms

There are so many new ways to incorporate Social media into your next event. Try having a social vending machine filled with event or brand related swag/apparel! Another social media trend to use at events is a hashtag mosaic. Luster has a fun tool that takes your event hashtag to make a mosaic wall. These tools are sure to get your guests excited!

Which event tech trend will you use at your next event? We’d love to hear from you! Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook and Twitter!