Guide to Event Planning Software

Can you rely on a committee to keep track of it all? Yes — but you can streamline even further by using event-planning software as your right-hand assistant. Here's why:

1. The software works like a roomful of assistants. It helps you locate vendors, store data about them, check out music and numerous other Web-related tasks at the touch of a keyboard. It also tracks registrations, creates badges, generates letters and gives you an event-end report on attendance and budget.
2. It eliminates the need for hard-to-track printouts and bulky binders.
3. Most planning software includes a journaling feature that lets you pour out your thoughts on the event the way you might not be able to do with a committee — what you want to accomplish, how you want the event to look, sound and feel, and what you want attendees to remember most about it.

Tips & Tactics
Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• Simple software costs less than $100. For high-end, enterprise applications, software involving company-wide data flow and accounting can cost from a few thousand dollars to more than $100,000.
• Choose a vendor offering a help desk or other support to handle your questions as you install and use your software.
• Insist on trying a demonstration version before buying.

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