Planning an event is a massive undertaking. You have to book a venue, establish a budget, and create an agenda. That’s before you even start promoting your event or selling tickets.
Your job as an event planner is to make sure everything runs smoothly. Event planning software can help you track and organize all the important details in one place.But with numerous options on the market, which event planning software is right for you?
In this article, we’ll look at why you need event planning software and provide an in-depth overview of our top picks. We’ll also give you an actionable event management template that you can use to plan your next corporate event like a pro.
Why do you need event planning software?
Hosting special events is a key marketing strategy for many companies. It allows them to connect with their audience and educate attendees.
Chief marketing officers spend an estimated 24% of their annual budgets on live events. The majority expect to allocate even more resources on such events in the future.
A well-planned event can be a valuable marketing tool that raises brand awareness and generates leads — or a high-impact way to engage with your team and improve productivity. The key to launching a successful event lies in careful planning.
From venue booking to budget planning and attendance tracking, organizing an event without a planning tool and a way to track details can quickly become a logistical nightmare.
It’s also not uncommon for things to unexpectedly change as you plan a corporate event or an academic conference. A guest speaker may suddenly drop out or a caterer may run out of those little sausages on the sticks.
Event management software tools help you organize all your work. The fact that everything is stored in one place means you won’t have to switch back and forth between different applications.
This can save you a great deal of time. In fact, planners who use an event management tool save roughly 200 hours a year — that comes out to about 5 work weeks!
To help you find the right event planning tool for your needs, we’ll focus on a handful of solutions and dive into what they have to offer.
Event planning software: 5 leading platforms
Planning an event is no easy feat. Event planning software can help you prioritize what’s important, streamline the planning process, and see how everything fits together.
Here are our top software picks for event professionals.
#1: monday.com
monday.com offers a highly flexible and visual event management platform. From venue booking to budget planning and attendance tracking, you can use our platform to plan, organize, and track your work — all from one place.
monday.com features:
- Keep a checklist of important details like dates, speakers, budgets, etc.
- Manage event planning timelines and view status updates at a glance
- Coordinate event registration efforts and create an outline for event promotion
- Setup workflows and save time by automating repetitive tasks
- Create comprehensive reports and see where everything stands
- Use automations and forms to send attendees updates and get people to RSVP all from the same platform
monday.com also offers over 50 integrations with popular applications like Salesforce, Zoom, Outlook, and more.
monday.com pricing:
Pricing for monday.com depends on number of users, plan duration, and features selection. Our pricing page lets you play around with the different options to find the perfect price and solution for your team and budget.
monday.com offers a free 14-day trial and you can create an unlimited number of boards and users. No credit card required.
#2: Eventbrite
Eventbrite is a popular event management software. It offers a user-friendly interface that allows event organizers to create all kinds of events from small local meetups to industry conferences and more.
Eventbrite features:
- Use the website builder to create a landing page for your event
- Accept payments from your website with built-in payment processing
- Manage and track sales with real-time analytics from any device
- Promote and sell tickets on social media networks like Facebook and Instagram
- Send email confirmations and reminders to all event attendees
Eventbrite also offers an event management app, allowing you to promote and track your event right from your mobile device.
Need some extra help? Eventbrite also has equipment you can rent and even staff you can hire for your event.
Eventbrite pricing:
Eventbrite charges a 2% fee plus $0.79 per paid ticket for the Essentials plan or a 3.5% fee plus $1.59 per paid ticket for the Professional plan.
One huge plus with Eventbrite is that its event management solution is free to use if you’re creating a free event.
#3: Aventri
Aventri is an event management software that brings together all the features that event planners need to create memorable events and improve the attendee experience.
Aventri features:
- Manage each step from event registration to attendee follow up and more
- Create a virtual event and stream live or on demand from any location
- Use the website builder to create a landing page for your event
- Promote your event and boost attendance with email marketing
- View real-time insights and monitor event performance against your benchmarks
Aventri also lets you create your own mobile event app, allowing you to send real-time notifications to attendees and gather feedback with surveys.
Aventri pricing:
Aventri doesn’t display pricing information on its website. You can sign up for a demo or reach out to their sales team for more details.
#4: Eventtia
Eventtia is a flexible event management platform that lets you plan events, manage attendee registrations, and much more from one intuitive dashboard.
Eventtia features:
- Build an event website with the website builder and integrate it with payment processors
- Manage attendees and send custom messages with event-related information
- Use the task manager to plan your workflow and assign tasks
- Send post-event surveys to all attendees and gather feedback
- Increase attendee engagement with chat and live polls during sessions
You can also build your own branded mobile app with Eventtia’s event management software.
Eventtia pricing:
Eventtia doesn’t display pricing information on its website. You’ll have to reach out directly to their sales team to request a quote.
#5: Planning Pod
Planning Pod offers a robust event management software that lets you plan events, automate workflows, and manage communications from one place.
Planning Pod features:
- Use the collaboration tool to manage communications with vendors
- Track event planning tasks and manage budgets right from the dashboard
- Use the event design tools to create layouts and seating arrangements
- Build custom event webpages and launch online registrations for attendees
- Track leads in your funnel and send customized invoices
Planning Pod also offers venue management and floor planning software. These let you manage bookings and create professional floor plans.
Planning Pod pricing:
Pricing starts at $19 per month for the Essential plan with an unlimited number of users and goes up to $69 per month for the Business plan.
Planning Pod also offers a 14-day free trial, so you can test drive their event management tool first before making a decision.
How to select the right event planning software
Event planning software comes in different shapes and sizes. Each of the platforms on this list provide a rich set of features that enable you to plan and launch a successful event.
Choosing the right one depends on your needs. If you’re looking for a platform that offers robust integration with Facebook and built-in payment processing, then go with Eventbrite.
If you’re looking for an event planning software that lets you organize and visualize your work in one central location, then we recommend monday.com.
Here’s a look at how Btrax, a branding and marketing agency, uses monday.com to plan events from one board:
Read more about how companies like Btrax use monday.com’s event management system to plan and organize their events.
Conclusion
Planning an event is by no means easy.
That’s why you need the right event planning software to organize your work. As promised, here’s an event planning template you can use to plan your next event from start to finish.
Access the template from anywhere with our mobile app and invite external stakeholders to collaborate. You can also take advantage of multiple views to see how everything fits together. Ditch the juggling and plan your next corporate event like a pro!
