I receive around 3 pitches a day. That is not huge when compared to major blogs, but it is hell of a lot for me. It is difficult to keep up with new ideas in the event startup scene.
Most of the tips I receive are about awesome tools. I come across as very arrogant, I know, but it is difficult to give space on the blog to all of them. I try to highlight the most innovative ones but I always feel I need to make it up to great ideas who don’t make it to the blog.
In the past I released a similar post and I can tell it made a lot of founders happy.
I am doing the same today, trying to highlight the most innovative, quirky and fun ideas you probably are not aware of.
Here they are:
Event Tools
1. SlideDog
Slidedog lets you combine Powerpoints, PDFs, Prezis and a whole lot of file types into a unique playlist. This is particularly relevant for conference planners who want to avoid showing the dreadful desktop view and open different files by hand.
I believe it is an awesome idea and whatever makes Powerpoint presos less boring is super welcome.
2. 49st (sorry, this site no longer exists)
Plancast may be dead but 49st is quite happy about it. Essentially the service is very similar to Plancast with a touch of attention to event promotion. And we quite like that. For North America only at this moment in time. Let’s keep an eye on 49st.
3. VenueWize
VenueWize is an interesting check-in app to make event reception easier. It synchs between iPads and iPhones and it also features team collaboration. The juicy bit is the automatic importing of Facebook and Twitter attendees’ handles.
4. Gantto (sorry, this site no longer exists)
Event planners feel vulnerable without a Gantt chart. The problem with Gantt chart software or platforms is that it is difficult to use and, well, boring. Not the case of Gantto. I had a look at their demo and loved it.
5. Social Pix
Very cool idea. Offline Facebook integration is hot in 2012. I am slapping myself for missing SocialPix. I could have suggested this to dozens of clients. It is a simple and effective idea. The photographer takes a pic, they send it to an upload kiosk and voila it is ready for upload and Like to Facebook. Amazing. Learn how it works here. It surely won’t be free but I like the approach.
6. Timekiwi
If you are not ready for the Facebook Timeline you can give TimeKiwi a go. The service lets you create a timeline for your event in seconds. I believe timelines are a great way to display different stages of the event or create a more interactive schedule. Give it a try.
7. QuenchBuggy
I never said this post was about technology only. I loved how the guys at QuenchBuddy made clean water their mission. If you are in North America and plan festivals, give QuenchBuggy a go.
8. plannr
plannr is the perfect tool for the event lover. The average Jane, the event planner to be, will use plannr to make shared decisions about the party she is planning. She will enjoy the mobile compatibility, threaded conversations and private gallery to see the event pics. Well done Rich!
9. eContact.me (sorry, site no longer exists)
eContact creates a micro social network for your event. It allows to group attendees according to topics they are interested in. It allows attendees to create an eCard with their interests that organizers can print in QR code format.
10. DoubleDutch
Last but by no means least, DoubleDutch, a great event guide app provider. Flock is DoubleDutch’s white label event app with powerful analytics and social integration. I’ve seen the app for events such as TED and it looks awesome.
If you recently started an event startup or you are gutted your startup is not listed in the post above, send a message to tojulius@shortmail.com or use the contact section on the blog. I’ll do my best to feature you in the next one.
Photo by M31