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The best events management solutions make it simple and easy to manage all aspects of an event, from programs to speakers to attendees.
1. Best popular
2. Best simple
3. Best all-in-one
4. Best for mobiles
5. Best for ticketing
6. Best for social media
7. Best for project management
8. Best for enterprise
9. Best for catering
This is important because managing events can be tough – there are people to invite, registrations to manage, and commercial responsibilities if you’re a business looking to partner with sponsors. And that’s just the start.
Marketers and event organizers can make life easier for themselves by deploying one of the best event management solutions available to run events stress-free – that’s anything from a small gathering to a multi-day conference.
Events management solutions are always evolving, adding new features and enabling higher levels of productivity through mobile devices, all while integrating with an ever-increasing range of social media platforms to help event organizers spread the word to prospective attendees.
This is especially the case as a number of events have been forced online because of the pandemic, creating new challenges for running events.
Of course, if you are managing a physical trade event, don’t forget the need for trade show displays and we’ve also featured the best interactive kiosks for events.
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If you’ve ever attended an event or meet-up of any kind, the chances are that you have used Eventbrite. It’s extremely popular for a reason, featuring a simple and streamlined interface that’s easy to use whether you are organizing your own event or booking an eticket to somebody else’s.
It comes with a built-in payment processor and analytics engine which enables real-time reporting of data and insights. Eventbrite is one of the best events management solutions for integrating with social media websites – especially Facebook – and it also provides deep compatibility with Spotify, Instagram, and Survey Monkey, the latter of which makes distributing surveys post-event a cinch.
If you do get stuck, Eventbrite offers live chats and online support in addition to in-person training through webinars.
You will need to contact sales for pricing and although there are no extra fees for free events, there is a £0.59 + 6.95% Payment Processing Fee. Fees are paid by ticket buyers, unless you choose to cover them.
Eventsforce is a cloud-based event management system that lets you host anything from a simple event to an awards ceremony. Rather than confusing you with a multitude of options, Eventsforce let you activate as many (or few) processes as required depending on the complexity of your event. It provides the ability to manage check-ins, view connected apps, set up awards, and much more from any internet-connected device.
It also allows for task automation, which allows you to get on with organizing the event rather than constantly contacting attendees and staff. A software-as-a-service solution that runs in the cloud, Eventsforce meets the most stringent security and regulatory compliance standards including PCI DSS and EU GDPR.
Bizzabo is an all-in-one event management solution that’s equally suited to desktop or mobile. If you prefer to take a methodical approach to organizing events, splitting the process up into smaller and more manageable chunks, then you’ll appreciate Bizzabo’s Unified Command Center which helps you with everything from customizing ticket purchase pages to acquiring sponsors.
Bizzabo’s ticketing system goes further by letting you embed ticket widgets into your own pages to maintain the consistency and theme of your website. It also offers deep integration with LinkedIn and other social media websites, making it easy for attendees in your preferred marketing channels to purchase tickets.
If your employees prefer to manage events on a smartphone, rather than desktop, Whova may be the best event management solution for you. Used by companies including Loreal, Hilton and NASA, it simplifies operations by only letting you only activate certain features and processes that you need at any one time – whether that’s overseeing event registration, creating an event website, managing an agenda, check-ins, or generating name badges.
Like Eventbrite, Whova lets attendees check-in to events using a QR code that can be scanned through its mobile app. Just to be aware that some features are only available as an in-app purchase.
A rising star in the world of event management solutions, Ticketbud is an all-in-one management and ticketing platform with all-inclusive pricing – so you won’t be hit with any surprise costs. It lets event organizers sell tickets to their events while promoting and marketing them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
The platform also offers comprehensive reporting and complete access to event data, and it will also take care of payment processing. It’s more geared towards local events, so it’s worth managing your expectations if you’re a little more ambitious than that.
Everwall makes it easy to manage people’s perception of your event while it’s in full flow by showing a live curated view of its social media feed. Simply set up the wall and then invite event attendees to comment using a hashtag to get going. From there you can keep people informed by manually tweeting, or you can push messages according to a set schedule and invite attendees to vote in polls.
It’s affordably priced, charged per event and customizable to match the theme of your event. In addition to a Twitter feed, Everwall lets you display messages from a Slack group or Instagram feed, and you can even show messages sent through text message to include people who are not active on social media.
Strictly speaking, Monday.com isn’t a bonafide event management solution. However, as a project management tool, it’s useful for task management for when people are working on events and checking their status at any given point.
Plus, it gives you a single view of everything going on with your event. It sports an easy-to-use interface that makes the most of visual elements to log things such as event budgets, attendee numbers, booking details, deadlines, and mapped out due dates and milestones.
This all adds structure to your event plan, which is further helped by Monday.com’s communication tools which allow team members to converse within projects to enable faster decision making.
Used by industry giants such as Olympus, Cvent is an easy-to-use and powerful event management software solution. The platform lets you manage everything from venue sourcing to content management, events marketing, events registration, on-site check-in, badging, and appointments.
After sourcing the venue for your event, Cvent lets you set up custom dashboards and reports before building a website to embed the ticketing platform. It boasts a range of features to foster attendance – such as targeted event email marketing, a contact and profile manager, exhibitor and speaker management, and automated room block management.
Planning and delivering catering can be one of the most difficult aspects of getting any event right. Caterease places a special focus on this, allowing you to create visual menus for your attendees while providing ingredient lists and preparation instructions for cooks.
The platform, which has more than 50000 current users worldwide, is designed to both increase productivity and save its users money by preventing mistakes in the food delivery process. There’s a free trial available, in addition to training, and it’s compatible with both Android and iOS.
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Désiré has been musing and writing about technology during a career spanning four decades. He dabbled in website builders and web hosting when DHTML and frames were in vogue and started narrating about the impact of technology on society just before the start of the Y2K hysteria at the turn of the last millennium.
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