Technology has drastically changed the event industry—and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. For starters, technology helped the event planning industry shift to virtual events and online streaming in 2020 when the COVID-19 outbreak started. And today, you can use it to make event planning easier for you and better for your attendees. That’s why we rounded up the six best event planning apps for 2021. Whether you’re planning online events or in-person ones, these apps can help turn your event into a success.
We’ve said it again and again: Event planning takes a lot of work. In addition to communicating with vendors, you also have to communicate with attendees. And that gets more complicated if you’re co-hosting the event with coworkers or friends. So if there are ways to make event planning just a little easier, why not give them a try!
Below, we recommend two apps to help create floor plans, two apps to engage attendees during events, and two apps to handle everything ticketing related. Plus, if you’re interested in apps from a category that we didn’t include, let us know in the comments below. We just might include them in our next post!
For Floor Plans
Creating a proper floor plan is a work of art. First, you have to make sure the seating areas aren’t too close to the food. (No one wants to their chair bumped by hungry attendees!) Then, you have to make sure every table has a view of the speaker or guest of honor. As if that’s not enough, you have to account for present tables, bars, and entertainment. It’s a lot of work—especially if you’re not familiar with the venue space. While you can ask the venue to recommend configurations, you’ll still want to see it all laid out before the big day. Well, there’s certainly an app for that!
Floorplanner
Cost: $0+ per month (individuals) and $59+ per month (teams)
Floorplanner is perfect for beginners who want an easy way to visualize their space before the big day. You can create custom rooms with to-scale dimensions in a matter of minutes, and then share those layouts with collaborators or venue owners.
Highlights & Features:
- Create 2D and 3D floorplans
- Add tables, chairs, centerpieces, and tableware
- Send layout to a co-host to collaborate
Allseated
Cost: free (for <10 events per year)
Allseated is a robust platform for the event planner or venue owner who’s focused on digital events. Whether you want to create detailed floor plans, host virtual tours, or map your seating charts, Allseated can support your needs.
Highlights & Features:
- Host virtual tours of the venue
- Create seating charts and table settings
- Meet virtually with team for online walkthroughs of a venue
- Check guests in and share floorplan with them
For Attendee Engagement
We can’t say it enough—if your attendees don’t have a good time, your event wasn’t successful. At least, not entirely successful. Even if you met your personal or corporate goals for the event, that’s only half the story. Engaged attendees leave positive reviews and spend more money. They’re also more likely to attend future events—they might even bring a friend. So it’s important to do everything you can to keep the attention of your guests. This is even more important (and difficult!) at virtual events. But that’s where two of the best event planning apps for 2021 come in handy.
Slido
Cost: $0+ per month
Slido is a live polling platform that lets you check in with your audience in real time. Whether you’re hosting an in-person meeting or virtual webinar, you can engage with your audience without waiting until after the event. This makes Slido’s easy-to-use platform perfect for any planner.
Highlights & Features:
- Choose between polls, quizzes, and questions
- Use with programs like PowerPoint and Google Slides
- Review and export results
- Purchase annually or per event
CrowdCompass
Cost: contact for a quote
For more robust attendee enagement, turn to CrowdCompass from Cvent. CrowdCompass lets you easily create your own event app to communicate with attendees. You won’t just be able to poll your audience—you can share important documents and let them connect with each other, too.
Highlights & Features:
- Incentivize attendee engagement with gamification
- Let attendees message and book appointments with each other
- Review the robust reporting on your event
For Ticketing
Much like floor plans, ticket management requires a unique skill set. While contacting speakers and booking venues takes organization, keeping track of registrants and checking them in is a time-consuming process. In general, we always recommend using a ticketing program or online RSVP tracker to manage your guest list. Of course, you can manage tickets on your own if the event is small. But the larger the event, the more important it is to get some ticketing help.
Boomset
Cost: contact for a quote
Boomset is one of the best event planning apps in 2021 for registration and ticket management. Like most ticketing plaforms, Boomset lets you create your own landing page and, of course, sell tickets online. But it also lets you create sign-in kiosks using the app and even offers facial recognition for check-in.
Highlights & Features:
- Accept walk-in registrations
- Use facial recognition for check-in
- Receive text notifications when guests check in
Showpass
Cost: starts at 1.0% + $0.59 per ticket
While Boomset makes check-in easy, Showpass make ticket creation easy. Whether you need assigned seating, discounted tickets, multi-day passes, or product add ons—Showpass can accommodate you. They also boast an almost click-less buying experience. That means that attendees have to make fewer clicks to reserve a ticket, which, in return, means fewer dropped sales.
Highlights & Features:
- Eliminate redirects and reduce lost sales
- Sell tickets at the door for cash or credit
- Integrate with Facebook
Conclusion
There are so many helpful event planning apps for 2021! Whether you need to set a floor plan, sell tickets, or engage attendees—there’s an app for that. Many of them are free or only charge a small fee, too. But they’re all designed to make your event planning just a little easier. And we think they’ll all do just that! Of course, if you’re in the early stages of event planning, you can always browse our venues or compare the best event websites. Like we said—there’s always an app for that.
What are your event planning needs? What other types of apps would be helpful to you?
