According to this CareerCast Study, event planners have the 5th most stressful job in America and we’re fairly sure the stress extends worldwide! So, eventprofs are always looking for great tools to streamline, organize and otherwise make our lives easier. Here’s a few of my favorite tech tools you might want to put in your toolbox as well.
Streamline with Online Apps
1. If you’re like most event planners, you have a thousand things to do every day, so you know you have to organize your tasks. (Did we mention it’s the 5th most stressful job?) Trello is a simple task management system that is easy to learn, offers lots of functionality, and is the right price for every budget – free. More than just a task list, Trello lets you upload attachments, set due dates, make checklists, even color code labels. Work collaboratively with one or ten different teams by using the Organizations feature. You can even start discussions, mention other members to notify them, or assign tasks to team members. With a comprehensive notification system, you’ll never miss a deadline again.
2. Every event planners needs a little (or a lot) of automation in their life! Zapier is an app that lets your other apps work together so you don’t have to perform the same task over and over. You create your Zap so that when X happens in App 1, Y happens in App 2. Need to add that new contact you just scanned with Full Contact to your MailChimp list, create a trigger and your Zap will take care of it each time automatically. Zapier offers more than 300 integrations, so your biggest problem will be deciding where to start automating your life.
3. You know you need to pay attention to what’s being said about your event but it so hard to keep up. Mention is an online tool that lets you monitor not just social media activity around your event but also anything published on news sites, forums, blogs or any web page. You can simply track the data about where and when your event is being talked about, or you can connect your social accounts, and with the alert feature, you can react to any questions from attendees in real time without leaving the app. Best of all, it also has a function that allows you to work as a team to share the load!
When there ISN’T an app for that
4. Apps are great but we still have to work in the real world and for that there is tech that connects us to our online tools. Are you still using the headphones that came with your cell phone? In case you haven’t heard, wires are out, bluetooth is in! Make the switch to wireless headphones and break free from the tangled cords tying you to your devices. Not only can tech like this help you relax on a plane or drown out footsteps in the hotel, most sets come with a built in mic so they double as a headset for making calls. Make sure to get ones with a charging case for those long days on the show floor.
5. Speaking of charging your devices, fully powered phones, bluetooths, computers and tablets are not negotiable for crunch days. A charging hub like the Hub 9000 can charge that dead cell phone and laptop at the same time anywhere you are to give you almost 2 days of additional battery life. Never get stuck standing near an outlet to make your calls again!
What are your favorite tech tool? We’d love to hear about them in the comments section below.
