Event planning may sound exciting and rewarding, it is equally exhausting as well. In research, the Event coordinator ranked in the top 5 stressful jobs as the job can be as long as 20 hours or more. Event managers are always running on caffeine to make it all happen perfectly. Event management software can help here.
Wouldn’t you want to make your work a little easy on you? According to stats, event technology can improve ticket sales by 20%, productivity by 27%, and profit by 20-30%.
Here, we have brought you the best event management software, each of them will help you in every step of your event planning and fits right in for all event types and event trends.
How to select the Best Event Management Software
First, Prioritize your needs. Do you want to cut time from repetitive and monotonous tasks such as updating and scheduling conference timings over and over again? Or do you want to save money and make more money with a better ticketing platform? Wouldn’t you want to increase footfall at the venue, increase audience participation, and increase business?
The second step is to ensure that the event planning tools you choose provide you with all the requirements. Before you jump onto any “Event Organizer’s Favorite Management Software”, read about the system and ask the following question:
What are you basically looking for?
Know what is your basic need- streamline ticketing system, mobile app or website, check-in tools/features, engagement solutions, retrieval tools, and others. List everything down.
What is your event type?
Is your event an in-person, virtual event, or hybrid event? Is your software suitable for your event type?
Reviews of the app
Check the stars on the app and reviews given by the users.
Ease and Adaptability of Software
Schedule a demo first to understand the basic features of the software, like a test drive.
Benefits of Event Planning Software
The primary benefit of using event management tools is that they ease your event planning process, if you are running a single event or multiple events currently or planning for future events, event management tools are a great relief. Here are some basic benefits you can enjoy in the event planning process.
1. Adds Professionalism to the overall experience
Event management runs smoothly with event planning platforms. It ensures a smooth workflow and eliminates manual work and error from the entire process.
2. Holistic Approach
Event planning platforms give you a whole new level of experience. Binding all the elements together in the event planning process- acts as a central hub. It ensures transparent communication between the audience, speakers, event planners, and sponsors.
3. Streamline the process
Many software enables you to create event websites, event registration, event analytics, event reports, and online meetings- with mobile event app access available.
To help you to take your event-planning frustration away we have listed down a few amazing and free event-planning software
Most Popular Event Management Tools for Ticketing
Event planners want more registrations and increased revenue. That is possible only when you have event planning software for ticketing. Here are a few ticketing platforms you might want to try.
1. AllEvents
One of the user’s favorite event management platforms across more than 200 countries like Europe, India, UK, United States, and others. AllEvents is one of the best ticketing platforms for all types of events. From small meet-ups to workshops to huge concerts. It is users’ favorite ticketing platform because of user-friendliness.
Event planners can manage the following things with AllEvents tools
- Online/Offline ticketing
- Automated Booking Reminders
- Email invitation campaigns
- Affiliates dashboard
- Event promotion
- Automated Follow-ups with an interested audience
- Ticket sales analytics
- Venue check-in facility
- Automated post-event feedback
It also provides the best social media promotion campaigns to increase the customer base. You can streamline all your activities with an all-in-one platform.
Pros
- Free to use for event creators
- Ease of use for event creators as well as attendees
- Customizable ticketing features
- Website friendly plugins
- Automated Event promotional tools
- Top on google searches
Boost event visibility by 3X
With paid ads, you can increase your Christmas ticket sales and maximize ROI.
2. Whova
Whova is all in one event management platform. It is event management software on Global Top 100 Software Companies.
Whova is designed to ease your in-person, virtual and hybrid event type- all streamlined in a single system.
Pros
- Event website creation, online registrations, and event marketing.
- Live streaming and videos with its virtual conference platform and hybrid events
- Audience engagement, networking with both virtual and live audiences.
- Attendees’ check-in, personalized badge, and much more.
Cons
- More personal email marketing than events
- No editing options.
- Integration with other software doesn’t work smoothly. Cannot function smoothly if you have multiple events.
Event management software for event promotion
3. AllEvents Event promotion
The main headache of event creators is event promotion. AllEvents provides event marketing services where you need to provide details and choose a promotional plan according to the need.
The marketing experts create and optimize your event marketing campaigns over different channels. Your event can reach up to 500k+ audience.
Pros.
- Event marketing expert manages your campaigns
- They handle all aspects from copywriting to ad designing
- Events get featured in Event newsletters.
- Events get featured on top of the AllEvents event discovery platform having more than 10M+ monthly visitors.
- Promotion prices are low comparatively.
- Maximum ROI.
4. Eventbrite Boost
Eventbrite boost is an event marketing tool that event creators can use to manage their digital ads. Unlike AllEvents, here you need to create and manage your campaigns on your own using Eventbrite boost.
Pros.
- You can manage all campaigns in one place
- Better UI than ad manager by Facebook & Google.
Cons
- No expert consultation
- Need to create copies and design your ads on own
- You don’t get a featured listing
- You need to spend on the ad budget and also on boost charges. So, the cost is high.
- No ROI guaranteed
Event Planning Software for Better Communication
5. Slack
This popular communication platform aggressively grew after the pandemic. It is an excellent platform to get your entire team on board. It allows you to create internal teams, and multiple channels- it is a workspace within a workspace. You can have both public and private channels for attendees and the internal team on various topics. Further, it allows media sharing, video calls, one-on-one messages, group conversations, and app sharing- everything in one place.
Pros
- Allows media sharing- video, images, files, etc
- Multiple communication channels- private and public/ internal and external
- Easy integration with other apps
- Mobile app available
Cons
- Limited storage- up to 5 GB.
- Adds a limited number of people in the channel
6. ConfTool
This popular tool is specially designed for academic purposes. Abstract submission, abstract, and paper review, paper submission is easily available at ConfTool. It is built with advanced sharing options, and ensures effective communication among authors, participants and publishers along with customized review and submission forms for contributions.
Pros
- Customizable Submission and Review Forms
- Invitation Options
- Enhanced Payment Options
- Online messaging
Cons
- Limited Participation
- Limited Features
- Requires subscription for advanced features
Event Management Tools to Create Websites
7. Wix
One of the popular website-building tools used by many event organizers to create their event pages. Wix has an attractive range of templates and website themes, a few specially designed for websites, and is completely personalized. In addition, you get updates on event content such as event speakers, event themes, event agendas, and other important information.
Pros
- Various themes available
- Quick and User-friendly
- Easy to use
- Streamline the entire process
Cons
- Needs manual editing
- A bit complex
- integration to other registration platforms
Event Management Software for Streaming Events
8. Zoom Events
Who isn’t familiar with the zoom events? Zoom events are an intrusive option when it comes to streaming your conference, classes, meeting, or any event. This event management app is built to host events via virtual medium and handle various aspects of event management planning and streaming. What’s more is, it helps in managing tickets and sharing events. Lately, schools and universities started using it for taking online classes for students. If your event is small and with a limited audience you can simply go for zoom events but for the larger events, it might not be the perfect fit.
Pros
- Easy to use and implement
- Available on the mobile app
- Effective pricing
- Flexible and centralized Platform
Cons
- Lacks digital features
- Limited participation
- Security concerts if not password protected
- Limited streaming time- 40-60 mins.
9. GoToWebinar
Go to webinars is literally a go-to for organizers to host webinars and conferences. It promotes communication, training, and marketing through webinars or conferences. . It is one of the bests conference planning software. With a simple interface and easy to use it is quite a reliable event technology for both the organizers and attendees
Further, you get integration, analytics, and other features to engage your audience, network with a broader audience, and make small communities to increase your business. It is best suited to organize webinars, meetings, and conferences.
Pros
- Ease in identifying registrations
- Multiple visual layouts are available
- Multiple sharing- video sharing, screen sharing, etc
Cons
- Limited participation
- Not available in various states
- Additional features are complex to use
- Less virtual background
Event Management Software for Additional Features
10. Slido
If you want to have excitement among your audience, Slido brings out the best audience engagement features. From Q&A to live polls, it ignites the spark in the audience for greater participation and indulges them in meaningful conversations. It allows users to crowdsource top questions to grab the audience’s attention. There are so many options available for live polls and questions.
Before you shift to any other polling app, check the availability of polling and Q&A features in your current platform. For instance, various event management platforms allow you to display results on bigger screens, support ranking order, gives live poll questions templates, allow Q&A on the speaker’s side, auto-reminders, and other features.
Pros
- Multiple polls and Q&A options
- Multiple rooms name
- Reasonable Price
Cons
- Character limitations
- Depends on the screen resolution
11. Trello
Are you having sticky notes lying all around your desk? Well, Trello is here to ease your to-do list and tick the box from your list. You’ll love Trello if you are into ‘to-do list’ as it is project management software with robust graphics, a user-friendly, attractive visual interface, and easy-to-access features.
Trello may have strong communication features, but it is a bit rigid when you want to take a step back and have a bird’s eye view of your entire management process. If you love being organized then this event management tool is for you.
Pros
- Less complex pricing
- Media sharing
- Keep track of to-do list
- Mobile friendly
Cons
- Limited Storage
- Difficult to handle big projects
- Issues in commenting
- Lacks robust agile features
Be Cautious Of These Three Shortcomings
1. Limited Design
What irritates us the most is the limited design options in event management solutions. The templates available are pretty basic and everyone is using the same color scheme. Book your demo test first and then make your decision to go with any event management solution platform.
2. Price
Event creators should understand the ROI while going through the pricing of event management tools pricing. Some platforms are free and some charge way more than that.
i.e. Eventbrite charges are high but there are Eventbrite alternatives that are Free to use.
3. Support Channels
The quality and responsiveness of customer service matter the most. What if you make your purchase, and after that, the software provider goes MIA. Choosing the perfect event management platform means looking beyond what is offered.
Conclusion
Now you are all hands-on with all the popular event management softwares, plan your events with high confidence. Do not hesitate to explore more options. Do not worry if you are running out of time, you can still manage to sell tickets at the last- minute and do big promotions for your events. The event industry is still going through drastic changes, and it demands a more personalized experience. But we can assure you that this event management system software will make you the king of event Organizing.
Manali is a writer, editor, and content marketer by profession who specializes in event management and planning. She is working with AllEvents to help them create engaging content that drives the event organizers forward.