Digitalization has brought us a lot of new ways to run our daily lives. It has made our lives easier and we get things we desire a lot faster. Also, social media has brought a whole new world in front of us. There are some dark sides in digitalization (this blog post is not about that!), but it surely has brought us a chance to ditch old, costly, and slow habits. In event planning, we can use many tools to plan better, be more organized and as a bonus, many of these digital tools can help us to save the planet from unnecessary trash.
I wanted to share a couple of tips here with you:
1. Invitation process The paperless invitation process might not feel as personalized compared when you send paper invitations. But there are so many amazing benefits in e-invitations, how an online invitation tool can help us and how much easier it is, not only for you but also for your guests.
With e-invitation, you can follow your rsvp's, manage your guest lists, see who opened your invitation and who didn't. If you have an event website (this is a good way to share more information about our event – all in one place and easy for your guests to access from anywhere!), you can conveniently guide your guests to your site. When you have your guest list, it's very easy to print name cards (if you have decided to do so) and design your party's floor plan. Many e-invitations also has Google maps that will not only show your guests where your party is located, but guide them to the location with one tap. If your party includes gifting or accommodations, you can manage them both with some e-invitation tools.
Good e-invitation tools:
Punchbowl - best tool for kids parties, if your theme is around a popular character that kids like for example Frozen, Spiderman or My Little Pony.
Paperless Post - good for weddings, birthdays, graduations, etc.. amazing, beautiful designs, offers gift list and accommodation coordination.
Ojolie - Go crazy and send an animated invitation!
2. Planning process
We all know planning a party can be stressful. If you are doing it as a team it's a good idea to share ideas, todos, and lists of responsibilities somewhere. With a digital event planning tool, you can have everything in one place and everyone can get access to the important files. Usually, in these tools, you will see when someone modifies files and you can leave comments for each other.
Good planning tools
Trello or Asana - online project planning tools are a very good tool when you need to create multiple documents and you're planning as a team. It is actually a good tool when you are planning alone, too. Just because you can have everything in one place and access to the tool from anywhere if you just have internet. Create boards and upload important files like menus, guestlist, floor plans, contracts, etc.. You can leave comments for each other and see who in the team modified files.
Social Tables - If you need serious coordination in your event this is a great tool to create your venue's floor plan. The best thing is that you can include your vendors in the planning process and share your ideas in Social Table. You can also upload files and import your guest list!
3. Event presentations A lot of event spaces offer a projector and a screen, with either a small fee or for free you can use it during your event! Many times during speeches it's fun to have some pictures running in the background. But why not take this chance to the next level and run some material in the background during the whole event. Any kind of videos, pictures or presentations can be part of your event decoration! This is also a fun way to create conversations and help guests to interact with each other. This is a good time to also mention that sometimes considering sound and light effects instead of material is a powerful way to decorate your venue eco-friendly. You might be surprised positively how much it costs to rent lights and sound from your local event production company. I want to share this picture with you (you will find more info and photo's ownership on my Pinterest account) because I think this is a great example of what you can do with lights. If you look at the picture, the venue is very simple and not fancy itself. There are only chairs, a few flower bouquets and a couple of lounge sofas, not too much other material. The venue is finished with the flower-shaped lights which bring nice tropical and colorful feeling into the venue. Just amazing what lights can do, right?
4. Social media
Having your event in social media is a great way to market your event. Of course, if your party is only for your friends and family then there is no need for special marketing. However, it is a great place to share some pictures that were taken in the event, and talk about the event even after the party.
Share a hashtag at your party and ask your guests to use it when they post photos to social media. You can also create a private event page for your guests, where you can talk and share about the event before, during and after.
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