If you work in event management, you need to utilize the benefits of event management software to ensure your events run as smoothly and efficiently as possible.
Event management software can be used to manage conferences, conventions, trade exhibitions, and many other types of business events.
Here are five things to consider when choosing event management software for your needs.
1. Look for Software That Manages Both Business Functions and Event Details
There are lots of kinds of event management software available, each with its own features and tools. But most contain features and tools like event schedule planning, venue selection, event budgeting, online registration for attendees, and lead retrieval.
Other common features and tools include floor planning, booking, billing, marketing, and audience response solutions.
Of course, to find the right solution for your requirements, you need to compare different software. One thing to look for is software that manages both business functions and event details.
That is the biggest difference between Planning Pod and its competitors, like Dubsado, Honeybook, and 17hats. Unlike those competitors, Planning Pod is specifically built for event professionals to manage both the business functions and the event details of each event.
The former involves things like invoices, payments, calendars, and leads. The latter refers to things like attendee details, timelines, floor plans, and budgets.
Find out more information about Honeybook versus Dubsado versus 17hats versus Planning Pod.
2. Choose Software with Highly-configurable Agenda Management Features
Large events can involve complex schedules. If you’re involved in multi-day events or events held in multiple rooms or locations, you need event management software that can handle the complexities associated with such challenging events.
The best event management software comes with agenda management features that can pull together data points like attendees, session names, and speakers to help you in many ways.
For instance, you can avoid double bookings, visualize where and when all your sessions are running, generate a comprehensive schedule, tag sessions by categories, and confirm session capacities, to name just a few.
3. Ensure Your Software Makes Registration and Ticketing Simple and Flexible
Whether you’re operating large or small events, you need to consider getting event management software that makes online registration and ticketing simple and flexible.
The best software enables multi-attendee registration, the option to send private invitations, the ability to import attendee details from other platforms, the ability to create waitlists and update them automatically, and the ability to connect event registrations to data points through integrations with other platforms.
4. Use Email Templates for Efficient and Successful Marketing
If you want your event business to be successful, marketing is crucial.
The best event management software comes with email marketing automation tools, with plenty of templates and customizable features to choose from.
You only need to create a basic template once. You can then use your branded email template again and again and just amend information like the event name, event description, and the date of the event.
5. Get Software with Limitless Event Options
Some event management software limits the number of events you can plan. Some even charge fees per attendee.
If you’re dealing with a large portfolio of events and meetings, you’ll need to ensure you manage each one as cost-effectively as possible.
Therefore, you should consider avoiding software that has limitations and high fees that give you no added benefits. Make sure the software you choose has no hidden costs, too.
When you use software that supports limitless events of all types and sizes, including in-person, virtual, and hybrid events, you can be sure that your events will run smoothly.