Tag: professional
ABCey Presents: Top 5 Event Planning Apps
Smart phone apps have become increasingly beneficial, especially in the event planning industry. There are many apps available now that can help event profs become more efficient in their day-to-day tasks. Here are ABCey’s Top 5 Event Planning Apps that are crucial for staying up to date on all the latest event trends!
1. Super Planner
This useful app is a great business application tool for the professional event planner, including calculators for venue capacity, staffing, catering, staging, projection and dance floor, as well as useful tips. ($9.99)
2. Boomset
Boomset focuses on event registration. Easily check attendees in with their QR scanner. Event organizers can also use this event app to print badges, or create wristbands. It also has integrations with other event management platforms so that event registration is as painless for organizers as possible. (FREE app)
3. myParties
“myParties” is simple and extremely easy-to-use event planner app. It lets you organize your party with utmost convenience. You can schedule times, make invitations and have the much-needed control of the bills. (FREE app)
4. Social Tables
Social Tables is a super efficient check-in tool. It provides a fast, professional and secure alternative to Excel or paper event guest lists. Their web-based app also makes 2D or 3D diagramming and seating charts easier. (FREE app, monthly service pricing)
5. Monefy
Monefy aims to remove all the clutter from tracking expenses. It allows you to view graphs, export data, and sync to Dropbox. The app makes it easy to manage all of your event expenses in one place. Event planning is an on-the-go job, having an app like this is a godsend. ($0.99)
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What event planning apps do you use? Have you tried any of these apps? Let us know in the comments below or on our Facebook & Twitter pages!
Sources: Social Tables, Bizzabo, iGeeksBlog, Ticketbud
Best Practices in Leveraging Social Media to Expand your Network
As event planners, we are constantly interacting with large networks of professionals and meeting different influencers. If you’re a professional of any kind, you’ve likely had to walk the fine line between seeming desperate and building a healthy network. Luckily, leveraging the right social media tools will help you connect with the contacts you have made, without being intrusive. Here are some tips we’ve put together on how to best use social media to help expand your network!
1. Identify Your Target Influencers:
Try focusing on connecting with people in a profession that’s relevant to yours. This way, you won’t waste your time on people that don’t have an impact to your business anyway. You might find your target influencers on social media or industry events. so take a peek at industry publications or get recommendations from your colleagues.
2. Use Twitter:
Most accounts on Twitter are public and therefore easy to find. Look up your target influencers and send them a tweet. Fully exploit your 140 characters. The more personality you give your tweet, the more chance they reply!
3. Use Linkedin:
Linkedin is the biggest online network of professionals. Sometimes, it is not possible to “connect” directly to a person if you don’t know them personally. In this case, you can easily join a group that your target influencer is part of and participate in discussions to call to their attention. You can also send connection requests using the group, which doesn’t make you seem like a stalker!
4. Write a Personal Email:
Email addresses are often challenging to find, but if you have actually located an email address, write a message – but make sure to keep it short. Illustrate exactly what you want and get to the point quickly. Including that you like your influencers’ work or point of view is a great way to obtain their attention. This way they can see that you’re genuinely interested in them and they would be more are likely to share perspectives and advises.
Have any of these social media tactics worked for you?
Tell us about it or share other ways to connect professionally with influencers in the comments below or on Facebook and Twitter!
Event Spotlight: Khazanah Nasional
We are super excited to be producing an event this coming Sunday, September 22nd, for Khazanah Nasional! They will be opening up a new office in beautiful downtown San Francisco. The event is Malaysian themed and they will be welcoming their Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak!
Khazanah Nasional Berhad is the Government of Malaysia’s strategic investment fund. They promote economic growth and make strategic investments on behalf of the Government. They have invested in over 50 major companies around the world which range over a broad spectrum of work.
ABCey was hired to manage all aspects of event planning and production including, AV, lighting, catering, decor, florals, entertainment, videography and photography, and we couldn’t be more thrilled!
Thumbtack To The Rescue!
How many hours have you spent online, researching a local service? What if, instead of finding a few possible places, looking up their numbers, calling and leaving a few messages and hopefully hearing back from them in a few days, you could get up to 5 quotes from interested, qualified professionals within 24 hours?! Cue Thumbtack.
Thumbtack is a San Francisco based company (yay!) that offers a free program that allows you to find professionals in your area – and quickly! Thumbtack verifies all of it’s professionals to ensure you are getting the quality of service you deserve AND they receive no advertising money from service professionals, so there is no room for bias. Each provider is qualified through a rigorous checkpoint system, guaranteeing your selection of a safe and qualified professional. All you have to do is send out a request with your needs and within 24 hours you will have interested experts ready to review and choose from!
This website is great for personal use as well as for businesses! Event planning is all about bringing together so many different services and putting on a seamless event that incorporates them all. This group is great, because they do the background work for you and you are guaranteed experienced professionals that will get the job done – well! It takes the guesswork out of hiring someone which can make the difference between a good event and a great event!
How cool is that?! At ABCey, we love almost anything that saves us time! We’d love to hear some of your experiences with Thumbtack or similar groups! Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or on Twitter & Facebook!