Choosing the best event planner software

by on February 28, 2011

In this post, I am going to discuss something near and dear to my heart … event planner software. I know having this level of emotion for something so mundane and inert may sound a bit crazy, but bear with me. I have been building and marketing wedding planning software and event planner software for the last year or so. With that said, it probably makes more sense as to my level of feelings for the topic.

This short post is directed at the wedding consultants and event planners out there who are looking for tools to help them serve their clients better and be more efficient and organized. Although many of you might think that being a wedding professional or event planner might be a breeze, think again. Your job is to please your clients and deliver the event of their dreams, and usually this is no small order. To accomplish this, you have to coordinate lots of vendors and hundreds of details while juggling multiple events at the same time. It’s a tough job, and only those with a passion for it do it well.

With that said, any tools or resources that can help planners become more efficient is a godsend. And event planner software is such a tool, so when considering this software, planners need to remember a few things.

1. Look for tools that work with your existing setup – There’s no need to go out and buy a computer to fit the software, as there are plenty of software options that are compatible with PCs and/or Macs.

2. Look for tools that help you with both events and your business – Calendars, guest/attendee list managers, venue managers and other tools for managing an event are great, but it’s also very helpful to have tools for managing your business details, including proposals, invoices, finances, budgets, contact and vendor lists, etc.

3. Look for tools that can grow with your business – Some software programs might work great right now, but will they expand as your business grows? Make sure the software you use can expand as your needs grow.

4. Pay for something that’s good – There are certain things you save money on, but business software isn’t one of them. It’s better to buy what you need and what will help you than to go cheap and discover that it won’t do half of what you want. Plus, a good piece of software can actually save you time and money, so it’s worth the investment.

5. Make sure the software has customer support – You never know when you might need some help or when the software develops a bug or two (all software has bugs now and then), so make sure the software you buy is backed by customer support.

P.S. Now that we’re talking about software, I wanted to recommend a nifty little piece of email software called Atomic Mail … very affordable and capable email software for marketing your products and services.

Comments on this entry are closed.