If you’re thinking about upgrading your event management software, if you are on the hunt for new event planning software, or if you are in need of a robust free event management software system that still has some awesome bells and whistles, then you have found the right place. Event planners worldwide use event planning software to help them plan their events from beginning to end. This can be used by a wedding planner to keep track of all the details associated with the wedding or it can be used to keep track of attendees for business events. Some event planning software even allows for virtual collaboration sessions, making it possible for attendees to check-in online and ensure they are doing what is needed at each certain stage of the event.
When you have organized dozens of event for your clients and are in need of a better way to create and manage them, it’s time to find the best software for managing events. With all the benefits that come with using the best event planning software, it’s no wonder many business owners decide to go down that path.
Eventbrite
This is a popular ticketing solution for events ranging from small meetups to large concerts. The system is customizable and can also be used to send email confirmations and reminders. It also allows people to register from both their phones and computers.
They charge an extra 3.5% of the ticket price plus $1.59 per ticket. While Eventbrite is well-known, some organizers think the fee is a bit high.
Summary: Popular for smaller or entertainment events, however a bit pricey compared to other registration tools and all-in-one event planning software. For example, Whova only charges 2% + $0.99 per paid ticket, which can save you several thousands of dollars.
Whova
Whova is an award-winning all-in-one event management platform. It received the People’s Choice Award and the Best Event App Award at the Event Technology Awards (the ‘Oscars’ of event technology) and is also the only event management software on G2’s Global Top 100 Software Companies.
Rather than juggling multiple specialized event software platforms, Whova is built to help you manage your virtual, in-person, or hybrid event from beginning to end with one system. Specifically, you can use Whova’s event planning software for:
- Online event registration, event website creation, and event marketing
- Live streaming and video recordings with its virtual conference platform and hybrid event platform
- Attendee engagement and networking with an event app for both in-person and remote audiences
- Attendee check-in, name badge generation, and more.
Updates: Whova recently released a COVID-19 liability waiver to help you transition back to in-person events, as well as a speed networking feature.
Summary: An affordable, mobile-friendly, all-in-one event management platform. Whova is widely used by 20,000+ in-person, 5,000+ virtual, and 1,000+ hybrid events in the US/Canada, UK/Europe, Australia, Asia, and more. With the highest ratings in app stores and software review sites among all event apps, Whova offers customers a variety of time-saving tools.
ConfTool
ConfTool helps you manage the submission and review process of academic abstracts and papers. It features advanced import and export options, facilitates communication between authors and participants, and uses customizable submission and review forms for contributions.
Organizers can choose between two different plans depending on their requirements: one for smaller events of up to 150 participants with basic features, and one for larger events with a wider range of features. In addition to managing abstracts, organizers also use the Pro package’s conference management software for scheduling, registration, administration, and invoicing, among other features.
Summary:If you’re holding a research heavy academic conference and want a reliable tool for abstract management, ConfTool is worth looking into. However, it isn’t currently accessible on mobile, and is designed to support only limited aspects of the event, rather than function as a comprehensive event management software.
Social Tables
Social Tables brings you the best of venue sourcing, event diagramming, guest management, and check-in. The free event planning tools let you create to-scale diagrams in minutes. You can map out all the smallest details and share them with venues, clients, and collaborators. In addition, Social Tables helps you manage guests — from VIPs to special meal requests — and visually seat them in diagrams.
Social Tables also creates award-winning platforms for hotels and venues, including CRM Software, Event Sales, and Event Services platforms.
Tripleseat
Tripleseat is the best event planning software for unique event venues. It’s a web app for sales and event management built mainly for restaurants, hotels, and venues. With Tripleseat, you can increase event sales and streamline the planning process.
You’re able to capture event leads, convert leads to bookings, create contracts and BEOs, and more. For event pros who are crazy about data, Tripleseat also gives you many reporting options to measure ROI.
Regpack
Use Regpack to customize registration forms and create unlimited attendee types. You can check in guests with a mobile device or let them check themselves in. You can even embed the software on your website’s sign-up page.
Other features include group registration and encrypted payment processing. You can also add a cart and express checkout if you choose to sell products alongside the event. After that, use the software’s survey feature to get feedback from attendees.
Event Mobi
Well-known enterprises like Intel, Motorola, IBM, and Johnson Johnson use Event Mobi. This event management tool lets you engage with guests before, during, and after the event. Start with a 14-day trial to check out features like gamification, live polling, and activity feeds via a live display. Private chat is also available, so you can contact specific attendees like VIPs and cater to their individual needs.
Wrike
Wrike is a full-suite event management platform. Its strength lies in its highly-efficient structured strategy to event planning. This entails breaking down the event plan into different stages, assigning each task its specific due date, and easily monitoring progress using a visual timeline.
Designed for managing any event, from the ordinary to the most elaborate of gatherings, Wrike offers a robust array of tools to help you better plan, prepare, and hold your events, including supplier coordination, and optimizing your resource usage. Its Event Planning Template allows event professionals better control of all important tasks.
Wrike Event Management offers businesses an end-to-end solution for handling all types of events, from the initial steps until their completion. It also helps users with even the tiniest details while ensuring that they still have a full overview of the event in general. Moreover, it offers a robust collaboration tool to help teams better complete tasks and achieve targets.
ProjectManager
ProjectManager is another award-winning event management platform. It combines event planning and project management, along with collaboration and scheduling tools, into a single robust solution. It is designed to effectively function using a centralized interface to quickly start new events, assign tasks, and other key event tasks.
With this smart event tool, you can enhance your event management capabilities to help your business achieve a competitive edge versus your competition. No matter how simple or complex your event is, ProjectManager provides the needed technological tools and features to help ensure your event’s success.
It is also easily scalable to any type or size of event or special project that you’ll conduct, for any business or industry. It also supports extensive customization to correspond to your brand and particular ways of doing things. What’s more, you can easily manage multiple events using this tool since it’s also a robust project management tool.
Gather
Gather is an event management solution designed to help effectively streamline event workflows. Empowered by cloud-based access, this event management solution helps event planners and managers simplify their tasks—which mostly include cumbersome, error-prone activities.
The platform helps minimize errors, enable tasks to be completed more quickly, and achieve substantial savings in company resources and time. Moreover, event managers will also appreciate their access to the huge listings in the Gather Booking Network, which automatically expands their marketing reach.
Cvent
A cloud-based event management tool, Cvent offers an easy-to-use, integrated technology platform to optimize the effect of any event that you organize. It accompanies event professionals at every step of the entire event cycle, including event planning and marketing, onsite execution, audience engagement, and event outcomes measurement and analytics.
This solution can also streamline event-related tasks, such as performance measurement, guest engagement, event planning, and venue search. Currently, it has over 300,000 active users in more than 100 countries.
Bizzabo
Bizzabo is an all-in-one event management solution that provides event teams with every required tool for creating successful events, supported by robust analytics to derive insights to drive continuous growth. It helps organizers develop marketing campaigns that boost higher event turnout and build an on-brand digital experience. It also allows the use of dynamic online communities to convene people together.
This event tool also enables organizers to simplify their ticketing system and enhance sponsorship opportunities. It likewise helps improve networking campaigns and allows organizers to use consumer data for report and analytics purposes.
XING Events
XING Events is an event management software solution designed to help event professionals enhance their efficiency to hold successful events. It uses smart apps and process automation to help organizers improve their efficiency and prevent the usual work burnout that is prevalent among event managers and teams.
And with its intuitive tools like EasyEntry and TicketingManager, event organizers can readily elevate their event management capacities without the need for additional manpower and training. It also provides access to 15 million potential event guests, which significantly increases sales prospects.
Member Solutions
Member Solutions was originally created to process membership registrations, so it’s popular among fitness studios. Since it was founded in 1991, it has expanded to include various tools for planning events.
Its event registration feature makes it easy to create signup forms, liability waivers, and other attendee paperwork using a library of templates. All forms are white-labeled and can easily be branded by with your company logo. If you also dabble in marketing, Member Solutions’ email marketing feature can also help keep attendees up to date about your event.
Caterease
Caterease simplified the catering portion of event planning. With Caterease, you can create visual menus for guests. And for the back of the house, you can create ingredient lists and food prep lists for the cooks.
Guests can enter their own food selection. Then, you can use the data to determine how much food and beverage you need. Caterease’s interface might remind you of Microsoft Word and Excel, so there’s almost no learning curve.
Conclusion:
If you’re like most event planners, you want to find the best software for your growing business. You want something that makes everything easier without a huge learning curve. You want something that will help you gather information from your participants, store that data on your mobile devices, and then use it to update everyone involved in the planning process.