The integration of technology in event planning has revolutionized the way organizers approach and streamline their operations. One of the most impactful innovations in this domain is the advent of event management software platforms.
After reading this blog post, you will understand:
- What Event Management Software platforms are, specifically
- Why event organizers using them save more in production costs than when using free manual workflows like spreadsheets+forms
- How to leverage a well designed event management software platform to get the most out of its features
Digital tools have transformed the business of event organization and production by providing a comprehensive toolset to improve and streamline the entire event lifecycle. From planning and vendor management to execution and post-event analysis, event management software has become indispensable to modern successful and efficient events.
The What: All About Event Management Software Platforms
Event Management Software platforms represent a pivotal shift in how events are conceptualized, planned, and executed. This section delves into the core of what these platforms offer and how they’ve become a cornerstone for contemporary event organizers seeking efficiency and impact.
The Origin of Modern Event Software Platforms:
Traditional event planning involves many highly manual, error-prone tasks, such as managing vendors through numerous phone calls and emails, coordinating logistics on paper, and maintaining real-time communication with stakeholders.
This created a need for event management software platforms that offered tools to centralize and automate these tasks, shifting from countless emails to a single organized communication interface, streamlining vendor coordination, and simplifying logistics management into a cohesive user interface built for the specific business processes for event organization and production.
Modern event management software platforms commonly have features like a dashboard that displays relevant vendor and event data. For example, the number of vendors registered, or the remaining sponsor inventory, or the number outstanding contracts still to be executed.
When event organizers can quickly see relevant detaild of their events from a single dashboard, they can be more efficient and effective. This advancement not only modernizes the tools at their disposal but also deeply transforms the planning process, allowing for more streamlined workflows.
The Why: Primary Advantages of Using Event Management Software
Choosing event management software over traditional planning methods brings numerous benefits to organizers, vendors/sponsors, and attendees.
Here are the key advantages these platforms offer:
Improve Operational Efficiency:
Event management software simplifies complex tasks such as managing vendors and sponsors, allocating booth space, and processing applications. By automating these tasks, the software not only cuts down on manual labor but also reduces the chance of mistakes, leading to smoother event operations.
Simplify Communication and Centralize Information for Vendors/Sponsors:
Event management software consolidates communication channels and information access for vendors and sponsors, streamlining their interaction with organizers and attendees. This centralization simplifies the exchange of information, from booth setup details to real-time notifications about event changes. Vendors and sponsors gain a dedicated platform for all their needs, enhancing their ability to engage with the event and its participants effectively. This feature not only facilitates smoother logistical coordination but also boosts the visibility and impact of their presence at the event.
Improve Events and Decision-Making with Data:
Event management software allows event organizers to collect, organize and analyze data from their event, such as attendee behavior and demographics, programming performance, and sponsor engagement. This data helps organizers understand what’s working and what isn’t, allowing for smarter decisions about everything from layout to programming. By paying attention to feedback and metrics, future events can better serve the needs of attendees, vendors and sponsors, and the event organizers as well.
The How: Exploring EventHub’s Features
Now that you have a grasp on the What and the Why, let’s talk How. EventHub is a standout Event Software Management platform built by a team of experienced event producers. It is packed with features that simplify and improve the planning, marketing and execution of events:
What’s Happening: Real-Time Dashboard for Real-time Insights
EventHub provides a real-time dashboard that gives organizers a complete view of the event’s status, interactions with vendors, and the progress of applications. This immediate access to information allows for quick decision-making, helps to quickly resolve any issues, and ensures the event runs smoothly.
Using EventHub’s real-time dashboard, Event Organizers can:
- Immediately see total booked sponsor and vendor revenue
- Analyze bookings and revenue by participant category or custom groupings
- Monitor application intake and approvals in whole or by participant category
- Track and move along deliverables owed by participants, such as payments and paperwork
Take Action: Efficient Vendor and Sponsor Onboarding
EventHub takes the onboarding of vendors and sponsors to the next level by not only streamlining the application and paperwork process but also enhancing it with a sophisticated review and approval module.
This module allows organizers to request corrections directly within the platform, ensuring all submissions meet the event’s requirements before approval.
Using EventHub’s vendor and sponsor onboarding workflow, Event Organizers are able to:
- Encourage vendors and sponsors to use the streamlined application and paperwork processing functionalities, emphasizing the benefits of efficiency and accuracy.
- Leverage automated processing to expedite approvals and onboarding, which fosters stronger partnerships through timely, organized interactions (less perceived chaos = happier partners!)
- Use EventHub’s built-in eSign, which eliminates the need for external services (or dreaded emails with attachments that get lost in the shuffle).
All of these features further accelerate the approval process, making the onboarding of vendors and sponsors faster, more efficient, and fully compliant with less effort and time investment from both parties.
Communicate, Clearly: One Channel Connects Everyone
EventHub has a smartly designed communication module that enables organizers to centralize their communication with vendors and sponsors. This central interface streamlines onboarding, makes it simple to update specific groups with new information, and easily highlight important logistics details to individual or groups of vendors and sponsors
Having one interface that has a built-in understanding of the event is clearly better than say, a static email inbox, or even worse, the dreaded “what time am I unloading?” text message on the morning of the event.
Using EventHub’s communication tools allows Event Organizers to:
- Send targeted updates: share relevant information with only those vendors or sponsors that need it. Prevent information overload by telling vendors and sponsor only what they specifically need to know, and when.
- Share detailed, well-formatted logistics information: EventHub’s platform includes a logistics panel which allows Event Organizers to outline specific load-in and load-out times and onsite contact details for participants.
- Keep everything organized: EventHub’s communication tool creates a single source of truth to review and analyze for specific vendor and sponsor relationships. An event organizer can quickly refer back to a request from the previous year to custom tailor an outreach for the following year’s event, for instance.
EventHub’s approach to integrating communications with logistical details provides a clear, organized method for keeping everyone on the same page, taking your event from ‘organized chaos’ to… just organized.
Conclusion
As you embark on your next event planning endeavor, we encourage you to explore the capabilities of EventHub’s event management software suite. Learn more about EventHub’s feature and get in touch for a demo with their team of experienced Event Producers here:
