Ticketbud Tips and Tools*
June 2, 2015  •  by Jane Carter

26 of the Best Event Planning Apps to Boost Your Productivity

“What is the very most important thing you should be doing with your time and resources right now?” This is what we as event professionals should be asking ourselves constantly. The question above comes from Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown. Essentialism dives deep into the advantages of working smarter instead of harder. Too often, many of us fall into a reactive cycle where our energy is split amongst many tasks. By focusing on the few things that actually matter, we can cut through the noise and achieve our goals. To help you focus on what is essential to the success of your event, we’ve listed 26 of the best event planning apps to increase your productivity. These apps cover a wide range of needs so hopefully you’ll find a couple that you can add to your event planning toolbox. Read on to learn how you can use these apps to save time and be a more productive event professional. best event planning apps

26 of the Best Event Planning Apps to Boost Your Productivity

1. Asana

Asana-logo           What is it? A web and mobile app designed to enable teamwork without email. Productivity Booster Asana wants to be your all-in-one solution for all team communication. Instead of the back and forth through email, Asana stores your conversations to be read in real-time through their app. Tasks, projects, deadlines are seen from a bird’s eye view so members of your planning team don’t have to jump from an app to app. Similar Apps: Trello

2. worklife

Screen Shot 2015-06-01 at 4.21.54 PM           What is it? A web and mobile app that helps you run highly productive, engaging meetings. Productivity Booster How many times have your staff meetings gone off track or went way over the time allotted? Worklife automates best meeting practices – setting and sharing agendas, driving towards decisions and action items – to help your event team get more done faster. Similar Apps: Do

3. Sched

sched-event-apps         What is it? Event schedule & agenda building app. Productivity Boost Sched makes it easy to display your event schedule for attendees. The app also provides insights into your audience, allowing you to identify influencers and popular content. major-reports

4. Monefy

Screen Shot 2016-01-06 at 9.33.13 AM         What is it? Personal finance app to track expenses Productivity Booster Monefy aims to remove all the clutter from tracking expenses. It allows you to view graphs, export data, and sync to Dropbox. The app makes it easy to manage all of your event expenses in one place. Event planning is an on-the-go job, having an app like this is a godsend.

5. Eversnap

eversnap       What is it? Helps events & groups collect all their guests’ photos & videos in one online album. Productivity Booster Ever have a hard time collecting photos post-event? Eversnap solves this problem through getting your guests to download their app and upload event photos to one place. Instead of scrambling for image assets to promote future events, Eversnap stores them all in one place. Similar Apps: Capsule Cam

6. Momentum

What is it? A personal dashboard designed to eliminate distraction and provide inspiration, focus, and productivity. Productivity Boost This app is simplistic at its core. Momentum replaces your default browser tab with a beautiful background and the focus goal for your day. For event planners with thousands of to-do’s, Momentum is great for helping you focus on the things that matter. Similar Apps OneTask

7. Mailchimp

Mail_Chimp-672x200         What is it? An email marketing solution to manage contacts, send emails and track results. Productivity Boost The easiest way to drum up interest for your next event is through an existing audience. Mailchimp is a powerful way to leverage your contacts to announce ticket sales and stay top of mind. You can also test everything in your email, from subject lines to click-throughs. Similar Apps Benchmark Constant Contact

8. TinyScan

screen480x480 What is it? Portable scanner for your iPhone or iPad device. Productivity Boost Sending over important documentation like invoices and service agreements can be a pain. Having access to a scanner isn’t always an option which is where TinyScan comes in. This mobile app empowers organizers to scan documents right through their phone and save as an image or PDF. It’s a scanner on-the-go.

9. Slack

slack_rgb           What is it? Real time messaging, archiving and search for modern teams. Productivity Boost Slack is like a chat room on steroids. The app allows you to create groups amongst your event staff & search any past messages with ease. The team at Ticketbud uses Slack and we’ve saved hours of time with their built-in integrations and file sharing capabilities. Similar Apps: Hipchat

10. Guidebook

guidebook_logo_light       What is it? Easily build mobile apps for events and venues and publish them instantly. Productivity Boost Creating a dedicated app for larger events seems to be all the rage these days and for good reason. Guidebook simplifies what was once a fragmented process. Instead of going back and forth with an app developer, Guidebook provides transparent pricing and built-in functionality made specifically for events. This includes attendee push notifications, session management, and in-app sponsorship opportunities. img_gears_guide_home Similar Apps: Attendify Doubledutch

11. Buffer

logo-dark             What is it? A service that helps users share social media content by scheduling online posts throughout the day. Productivity Boost Social marketing for your events can be a daunting task. Not only do you need to manage attendee chatter but you’re also responsible for curating fresh content on a consistent basis. With Buffer, you can setup all your social posts for the week and let Buffer schedule your posts on your behalf.

12. Eventhero

eventhero_logo_small       What is it? Real-time event management software that plugs into your favorite registration system. Productivity Boost This software aims to bolster your day-of event management capabilities. EventHero offers real-time alerts, on-site badge printing, a lead retrieval system for exhibitors, and access control management. It’s the total package for serious event professionals. Similar App Boomset

13. Sli.do

slido-logo-rgb         What is it? Interactive Q&A and Polls for Meetings and Events Productivity Boost Creating and measuring attendee engagement at your event can be near impossible without the right tools. Sli.do is a great solution for promoting event interaction amongst your attendees and speakers. You can create live polls in seconds, take questions from the crowd, and enable twitter hashtag monitoring.

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14. Dropbox

logo@2x-vfleQNE2w           What is it? A file hosting service that lets you store and access files from anywhere. Productivity Boost Contracts, invoices, marketing plans, schedules. Tons of files get passed through your planning committee. With Dropbox, you can sync these files to any of your team members and view from any device.

15. Pocket Planner

pocket_planner_logotype           What is it? An all-in-one event calculator. Productivity Boost This handy app from Social Tables lets you calculate food, beverage, staffing and safety needs. You can give clients accurate estimates for their event and make last second orders without error.

16. Evernote

evernote_logo_3876       What is it? A service that brings your work together into one digital workspace. Productivity Boost Just read this blog post and you’ll understand why Evernote is awesome for event planning.

17. Event Wallet

Screen Shot 2016-01-06 at 9.55.47 AM       What is it? An app that uses iBeacon technology to collect and share exhibitor’s content. Productivity Boost Event Wallet gives visitors to trade shows and conferences an easy way to discover content from exhibitors. For event planners, Event Wallet tracks collections, shares, and downloads of their content. This makes it easy to stay in touch with interested visitors post-event.

18. Kayo

logo2       What is it? Documentation & lead generation service for your event. Productivity Boost This French startup provides terminals to solve the logistics problem of carrying around documentation (think brochures, 1-sheeters, etc.). By going paperless with Kayo, exhibitors can collect and analyze the behavior of your event’s attendees.

19. WeTrack

wetrack-logo     What is it? Helps creative professionals effectively plan events, manage projects and control budgets. Productivity Boost This tool reminds us of Asana but geared more towards events. Beyond team collaboration, WeTrack offers project management tools that allow event profs to create budgets and manage invoices for contractual work.

20. Init Live

b9b96d_a37aab4cfe9d4302be0a4446836cbf29.png_srz_p_276_76_75_22_0.50_1.20_0       What is it? The new way to manage communications and schedules for volunteers & staff at large events. Productivity Boost Init Live is a web & mobile app that aims to end nagging communications issues at your event. When something unexpected happens (like an accident for instance), your staff can use the app to alert other team members immediately. The app also has built-in scheduling to assign roles and keep track of your team’s locations.

21. Full Contact

fc_banner         What is it? Contact Management Software Productivity Boost You can end up wasting a lot of time keeping track of all your event related contacts. Full Contact pulls in all your connections, updates them with social info, and syncs them back to your Apple devices or Gmail. This can save you time when integrating data into your CRM or scouting sponsorship opportunities.

22. Mention

What is it? Real-time media monitoring application Productivity Boost Mention is a great tool for creating alerts for your event across all social media channels. Set it up once and never have to jump around your feeds to keep up with attendee chatter. S1SGqNWok5NSRIUSaRZuDGx5gzqnMdTS7A_o

23. Thumbtack

thumbtack_orange_152x29     What is it? A consumer service for finding and hiring local professionals. Productivity Boost You might of been in the situation where some volunteers couldn’t make their shifts last second. Or maybe you’re having trouble finding a 90’s hip hop DJ and don’t know where to start. Thumbtack is a great solution to solve these hiring needs. Their marketplace allows event profs to find & contact any professional for contracted work. Jobs include DJ’s, catering, bartending, photography, and rental supplies. Similar Apps: TaskRabbit

24. Zapier

zapier-logo         What is it? A service that makes it easy for anyone to connect their web services together. Productivity Boost Event professionals should be leveraging attendee data as much as possible. The roadblock is how to get the data into something like your CRM or an email marketing service. With Zapier, this becomes completely automated. Kiss all your repetitive data entry tasks goodbye as Zapier simply connects your web apps together. Power Tip: Ticketbud integrates with Zapier so you can send your attendee data to services like Mailchimp or Salesforce. Learn more here. Similar Apps: IFTTT

25. Wunderlist

wunderlist-icon           What is it? A to-do service that is the easiest way to get stuff done. Productivity Boost Wunderlist keeps your event planning life in sync. With their mobile application, you can create to-do lists on the fly and share them with members of your staff. The service also offers a business solution that synchronizes all your team’s communication in one place. collab

26. Ticketbud Organizer App

tb-logo-sm@2x       What is it? Your go-to app for checking in attendees and selling tickets on-site. Productivity Boost If you’re using Ticketbud for event registration, the mobile app solves two major headaches. First, never worry about keeping track of check-in lists ever again. The app scans our QR coded tickets at lightning speeds. A recent update to the app also enables planners to process credit cards at the door. So instead of scrambling to tally up all your sales through a 3rd party swiper, Ticketbud keeps everything in one place.

Over to You

What event planning apps or services do you use to boost productivity? This is just the tip of the iceberg as literally hundreds of apps exist out there. It be awesome if you could leave your favorite app in the comments. We’d love to learn more about what event planning apps you use to make life easier.]]]]> ]]>