Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with eventplanning

Evite for professionals?

thebazilist — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 10:07:31 -0800

I need an online-invitation/RSVP-management solution for a small non-profit. Something between evite and cvent? I'm at a small non-profit that's hosting an event. The event is free, but RSVP-only. So like a wedding. However, it's for an organization, so evite is out (also because evite is disgusting) and so are the newer, cutesier, fresher versions of evite (Mypunchbowl, PurpleTrail) because we need to be able to make it professional-looking with our logo instead of theirs.

We can pay to get rid of ads etc, but not the hundreds of dollars that the huge sites like cvent and regonline want, especially since we don't need "marketing" and "ROI improvement." Sendomatic looks pretty good, but it seems like they charge a lot for very little (per event fees, monthy licensing fees, additional annual fees to customize the invite e-mail and the thank-you page, etc.).

Eventbrite would be perfect except that I spoke to them on the phone and there's no way to remove the "ticket sales" language from the invitation. The person has to click to "buy" a free "ticket" and has to go through a free shopping cart and pay $0.00.

We have our own website, and so I was looking at FormLogix, and just publishing some kind of form on the website, but it seems a little crude, especially for e-mailing out invitations.

Our last option is CorpNote, but it seems a little Windows98 to me, and it's really not that customizable.

Basically we want e-mail invitations, RSVP/attendee management (no complex reports or anything), and as much transparency as possible (the invitee doesn't feel so much like they're going through some other site). Are there any other companies I've missed, or is there a somewhat simple way to do this on our website with forms or something? We don't have a designated tech person but we do have volunteers who are tech-capable.

Event Planning software for DJ

lifeofthunder — Fri, 22 May 2009 21:51:32 -0800

What is a decent event planning website/software solution for a mobile DJ company? I've tried Event Planner and DJ intelligence, and quite honestly, they both (along with almost every DJ company's website I've ever seen) have the usability of a stick in mud. Aren't there any web 2.0 solutions for this kind of thing? I'd prefer something that integrates well into a website that I control- maybe something that can connect to Google docs?

Thoughts, hive mind?

How do we plan a high school reunion without having to put large amounts of our own money into the budget?

bristolcat — Tue, 12 May 2009 08:34:40 -0800

How do we plan a high school reunion without having to put large amounts of our own money into the budget? A classmate and myself recently agreed to plan our 10-year high school reunion. It seemed like a good idea at the time. We're both enthusiastic and have lots of good ideas, but our plans stalled out when it hit us that this isn't the kind of event that has a budget that we can just draw from.

There is no money, no alumni foundation to support us and the school can't offer anything except use of the gym. Neither of us feel comfortable fronting large amounts of money, but we don't exactly know what kind of plans can be made without dropping large deposits ahead of time. What to do?

A few reunion details:
-We live in a small city in a rural area. There is not a lot to choose from as far as dining and recreation options. Our ideal event weekend would include a Friday night adults-only "social hour" event with party food, adult beverages, a presentation and mingling. For Saturday, we would book a city park, provide lunch and have activities for both kids and adults.
-Our class is very small. We graduated with approximately 34 people, and after counting who all would probably arrive as couples and singles, we estimate about 60 people attending.
-This will be a late summer event, so we need to make solid plans as soon as possible.
-When we checked with classes that graduated a few years prior to us, we learned that none of them had actually had reunions, so no help there.

My co-planner is very budget-minded, good with money and has lots of great ideas on how we can make this event as reasonably-priced as possible. The park would be free and we found ways to ensure that the Saturday lunch would cost very little. It's the more formal event on Friday night that is problematic, as well as some of the side items that will cost money - invitations, programs, decorations, etc.

So, have you ever planned a high school reunion? How did you do it? Should we just suck it up, eat the deposits and costs ahead of time and then sell tickets as early as is reasonable? Is it reasonable to ask banquet halls or party rooms about having our attendees pay at the door?

I can't help but think that we're not the only people who have been caught in this situation before, so hopefully AskMe can come to our aid! Any tips on how we can best do this would be very helpful, as well as any reunion planning tips you might have. Thanks in advance!

Where to host a happy hour for 100 in Seattle?

joseph_elmhurst — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:22:37 -0800

Need help planning a happy hour event in Seattle this September. I work for a college in Portland, Oregon. We're going to be hosting a happy hour/networking event for alumni in Seattle this September. I know Seattle fairly well, but am not up to speed on the bar/restaurant scene.

What I'm looking for, ideally, is:

A location that is easily accessible for an after-work happy hour, can accommodate 60-120 people with drinks and maybe hors d'oeuvres, and would be a cool place to go for both long-term and newly-arrived Seattle residents.

Tall order, I know. Bars, restaurants, clubs, galleries, etc. are all okay.

What is the most streamlined and effective way to use Sharepoint to track and manage events?

thewrongparty — Mon, 12 May 2008 09:04:59 -0800

Hello, cat-herding, project management expert mefites! Please help me figure out the most streamlined and effective way to use Sharepoint to track and manage events. I work at a non-profit currently going through some growing pains. We added more people to our education department and are taking on much more work than in the past. We are updating our systems to manage that work. The chosen system, by managerial fiat, is Sharepoint. The additional work that I am responsible for is the management of our outside speaking engagements.

Here is what the tracking of a typical speaking engagement entails:

*We are hired to speak at someone else’s event, so I need to gather all the details of their conference (due dates, location, agenda)

*Set up all of the travel arrangements & accommodations for the speakers (our staff)

*Set and meet lots of deadlines, different for each event (Oh, I wish this was automated somehow. Since I manually add these to people’s calendars, it’s like I need reminders to add reminders)

*Make sure everyone on both ends understands what is going on, has all of their materials, the final versions of presentations, etc.

*Be able to quickly and easily report on the status of each several events that are all at different stages – what’s due when, what is missing, what the different players need to do, what’s been completed, what’s been discussed between various players.

I don’t really come from a meeting planner/events management background and struggle a bit (okay, a lot) with time management. I feel like there must be a simple strategy to get a handle on this stuff beyond the one used by the staff member who used to do this. She just kept everything neatly filed and scheduled in her brain. My brain lacks that feature; I need something external.

I have been told that I make things way too complicated and I agree. I have been using this ugly access database as glorified checklist, loose pieces of paper with scribbled notes, and flagged outlook emails. This non-system system is a big FAIL in many ways too boring to go into detail. Also, the outside speaking engagements are only one of many projects I am keeping track of in my department and it really gets in the way of completing other things, so that’s another issue.

So, I am writing this because I thought some input from experts might help me figure out if some of the ideas I’ve come up with to transition all of this from my current method of operation to Sharepoint were off track and the beginning of another ineffective mess.

Also, yes, I realize that the ineffective mess in this scenario may primarily be me and a new system won't really make a difference. I’m a bit embarrassed to admit how much I’ve been befuddled by all of this, so yay for the anonymity of the tubes.

I don’t want to make this question even more long and boring, so I’ll pop in and answer your questions if this is all too vague…

What's your go-to site for events happening locally in the weeks and months ahead?

mrkinla — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 13:47:22 -0800

What's the best web site out there for local events going on in your area? New examples of these types of sites pop up every day, so it's hard to keep track of the best of the best, but what are some of MeFi users' favorite sites to take a look at upcoming events of all kinds, including concerts, art exhibitions, festivals, arthouse/revival film showings, etc? I live in Los Angeles, and a cousin of mine recently called me to say, instead of their usual family vacation spot, they would be visiting Southern California for the first time. She was wondering if I could suggest some "things to do" in So Cal during a specific time period (mid-to-late March). Of course, I know the usual things -- Disneyland, places to go shopping, the right beaches -- but I was curiously dumbfounded that, given all I use the web for, I had no "go to" site when it came to what was going on in the coming months in my neck of the woods. LAWeekly.com's calendar seems intent on making you come back again and again, parsing out info on a weekly basis -- I'm thinking of something like yelp.com that may be a combo of professional information as well as user-submitted "things to do/reviews of whether they're worth doing." And searching Google for "things to do in [your area]" seems to only give you paid-linked pages of little worth.

How can I ban someone from an event?

PatoPata — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 14:58:38 -0800

What is the most graceful and legal way to exclude a scary person from an event? I want to organize an event but refuse entry to a person who has problems that make him aggressive.

The person has a long history of shoving, cursing, creeping out women, etc. I've known him for 10 years and haven't seen a clear improvement in his behavior, so I doubt that he could keep his behavior under control at my event.

One approach would be to let him come and then evict him if he misbehaves, but he's well known here and his mere presence would keep others from coming. An event that doesn't exclude him has suffered a drop in attendance. Based on feedback from others in the community, I've decided that the most effective approach for my event is a quiet ban.

I want to make the event "private" so if the problem person comes, I can say, "I'm uncomfortable around you and this is my event, so you have to leave."

1. If I rent a privately-owned hall in my name, is that enough to make the event "private" and give me the right to determine who enters and who doesn't?

2. What if I rent a private hall but do standard publicity (fliers, newspaper calendar listing)? Is it still a "private" event in the sense that I can exclude somebody who has seen a flier and shows up expecting to be admitted?

My instinct is to limit the publicity to word of mouth and "invitations" sent to my MySpace friends and an email list.

I'll be charging admission, if that makes a difference.

I know you're not my lawyer, but I'd like to hear your ideas. Is there some other approach that would be simpler? This is really bugging me. I want to respect the rights of someone who is clearly struggling, but I also want to be able to look forward to the event.

Can you teach volunteers to follow a recycling plan?

a_green_man — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 17:10:39 -0800

Looking for tips on implementing a recycling program during a two week "event". I do seasonal holiday work for a large (65,000+ gift) holiday drive. This year, acting as a volunteer, I started the ball rolling towards "greening" the organization, starting with the crunch time of our warehouse operation the two weeks preceding Chistmas. We've had a few meetings over the past few months that have been productive and all of our action items have been followed through on.

A few pertinent details:

120,000 square-feet of warehouse, broken down into ~20k office/volunteer reception area - ~10k "store" area with unmarked gifts - ~90k floor area (split roughly in two by the "store") where the gifts are organized.
8,800 volunteers over two weeks with the largest shift being ~325 people + staff
Food and beverages aren't allowed on the larger floor areas, they will all be collected in the volunteer reception area.

Items slated for recycling are:

Cans/bottles (In reception area and what sneaks out to the floor).
Paper - Office paper and what gift wrap our recycler can handle.
Corrugated Cardboard
Polyethylene (aka grocery) bags. Approx. 20-40,000 of them!

The main concern is the "zoo" portion of the warehouse floor. Approx. 50,000 square feet where most of the unpacking, (un)wrapping, and general waste is generated. We will incorporate proper practices into our volunteer orientations (roughly 5-10 minutes when they arrive for their shifts), have clearly visible signage as to what and where, and will have containers about every 40-50 feet, closer in the reception area. We do have a few do-it-all staff that aren't afraid of messy stuff, so we won't worry about asking our precious volunteers to do anything gross (Plus, Boy Scouts will do anything :).

My specific question deals with being prepared for those aspects I can't prepare for; I've only implemented a recycling program for a small office and that took months to get everyone trained. This situation is much different in that there is little time to train, it's more along the lines of "inform and hope they just do it. We have a staff of 20+ spread throughout the building that know what's going on, but I will be the primary coodinator 10-12 hours a day for those two weeks, along with my other duties.

Keep in mind that as well organized as we are, this is an absolutely crazy, busy, sometimes random sight to behold. Also, our volunteers are of all walks of life, ages and experience with recycling. Despite being in the Bay Area, CA, I'm guessing this won't fit into many of their worldviews.

If any of you have done event planning, what can I expect? Are there certain tricks to obtain compliance? Aspects that are easy to miss while planning something like this before it actually happens?

Before we start we just wanted to say that this gig sucks!

Weebot — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 15:21:32 -0800

So, how do you hire a big-name band to do a private event? I work at a medium-to-large sized non-profit in a well-to-do area that is going to be having a 50th anniversary celebration in late 2008. It's going to be big, and there is a big opportunity to raise a lot of money for the organization. As such, we're going to be spending relatively lavishly for the event. We've allocated about $40,000 to hire a band (though the organization is willing to pay up to $100,000). The questions I have are: how do you go about hiring a somewhat well-known band for an event like this? Is it really just a matter of going through their management, or are there any tricks involved? How well-known a band can you even get with that amount?

Oh yeah, bonus points for band/artist suggestions, though that's not really necessary.

(One of the administrators had quixotically wanted to see if we could get Bruce Springsteen to do it—someone had some sort of connection in the office—but when we contacted his management they politely told us that his asking price [$2.1 million] and our offer weren't exactly a match. If only we were Mr. Burns.)

Braised rabbit, a la Fatal Attraction, ain't gonna cut it.

justonegirl — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 10:40:05 -0800

Need creative ideas for a high-end gala event with a decidedly low-end theme: the 1980s. I didn't choose the 80s theme, but I am signed on to plan one of my clients' gala event and am hoping for some creative inspiration. This event is for 600+ people and will be held at a really ritzy building in Washington, D.C. I need to pull off an elegant menu of dinner and hors d'oeuvres, decor, and some fun entertainment (i.e. interactive things people can do during the cocktail reception).

I am a child of the 80s and can rattle off pop culture references with the best of them, but I'm having trouble pulling ideas that will work well on such a large scale. I need ways to really incorporate the decade into this event and have it be very obvious (to a diverse crowd of just about every age group and nationality out there). Subtlety won't work in such a giant venue with such a big crowd. In addition, the food and decor don't have to be black-tie appropriate, but the event is high-dollar and so the kinds of things you'd serve and decorate with at a small home party wouldn't be sufficient. We're putting big money into this event to ensure that the theme really comes through.

Any ideas would really be appreciated!

How do I quickly clean broken eggs off of grass?

Jenna Roadman — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 14:26:03 -0800

What is the best method for cleaning broken eggs off of grass during an event? This must be done in a timely manner over a fairly large area, with the help of 4 people. I am planning an outdoor event with a potential of 100 broken eggs on the ground after an egg toss event. The area used is too large for a tarp, and I must get the glass clean soon after the event. I 'll encourage people to clean up after themselves, but who knows how far that will go.

Where can I find a special effects makeup artist to do a demo for teens in L.A.?

HotPatatta — Tue, 08 May 2007 19:19:22 -0800

Where can I find a special effects makeup artist in the Los Angeles area who would be willing to do a demo for a room full of teens for a cheap-ish price? I have no event planning experience, nor am I a trained librarian. I'm just a part time library assistant. Now I've been put in charge of the teen component of the summer reading program at my library in southeast Los Angeles (15 minutes south of downtown) and I need to find someone who can do a presentation. It would be done some time in July, and since it's still early, I have some flexibility regarding time/date. Ideally, I'd like the person to do a demo on one or two people. There will probably be between 10-30 kids. My last event, how to draw Manga and comics, had about 10 kids. I'm trying to do something a little more interesting this time. The theme is "You Never Know" and we're going in the UFOs/unsolved mysteries/aliens/urban legends direction. Who can I contact to find someone? Is there a special effects makeup school that would have wiling students? Are there Hollywood professionals who would be willing to do a presentation for around $150? (Price is negotiable, but I have to run everything by the Library Director.) If so, where do I find them? Can I call a movie or tv studio and ask? What department do I ask for?

Please give me any ideas you have. If you have a friend who might be interested, you can email me privately (see profile) with their phone number or email address. Thanks, everybody!

Putting a professional spin on my Burning Man experience.

lannanh — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 13:19:23 -0800

How can I spin my experience so it sounds more professional? I am trying to switch careers and move into professional event planning. I have tons of experience doing this for my Burning Man theme camp yet I do not want to say outright that a bulk of my event planning, promotion experience is derived from Burning Man due to the stigma(?) surrounding it.

Camp planning and fundraising are a lot of work all of which would be applicable in a professional setting. How do I show them the extent of my experience without them thinking I'm a drugged out hippy raver freak? Unfortunately, our camp name doesn't sound remotely professional. We do toss around a name as a joke that may pass for something less silly, would it be misleading to use that name. And I'm still stuck trying to explain why we throw these events.

Any helps appreciated and I'll invite you all to my blow out party if I land a job in the field.

acontecimiento muy impopular

cior — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 09:21:33 -0800

What's the best way to promote a Flickr/MeFi Meetup to ensure decent attendance/success? I'm trying in vain to plan a Flickr/MeFi Meetup in DC this coming Sunday, and posts to MetaTalk, Flickr and upcoming.org, there's been little response. As the date draws near, I fear that the event will end up flopping. What can be done at this late date to pull it off?

Know anything about online event planning or shopping carts?

willnot — Tue, 20 Sep 2005 14:00:43 -0800

Does anybody have any experience with online even management systems and or e-commerce shopping carts? I'm in the early stages of planning the web systems for a company I'm planning to start. I'm more of a front-end guy than a database guy, so I will be hiring somebody to put those systems together for me. I'd rather not reinvent the wheel though, so as I develop a functional spec to take to somebody, I'd like to build it with current open source modules in mind that can be glued together to get me roughly where I'd like to be. If anybody knows of systems that are close to what I describe, I would really appreciate hearing about them.

Broadly speaking, users will be able to browse events, which can be in multiple categories (i.e. Location, date, attendee profile, etc.). Users will be able to browse based on any of those criteria or even a combination of those criteria.

There are two types of users, subscribers and non-subscribers. There are also two types of events, standard and premium. Subscribers can attend an infinite number of standard events, and they get credits for a few premium events each month that will expire at month's end. Subscribers can purchase additional premium credits as they need them.

Non-subscribers would purchase premium credits or standard credits as they need them. Standard credits would be significantly cheaper than premium credits.

Users will RSVP to events. Events must have at least X RSVP/attendees before the event is confirmed via e-mail and credits are applied towards the event. Events will close down once a maximum number of attendees is reached.

There will be an area for users to create profiles. Profiles will only be visible to other users that the profiled user has flagged or accepted.

There will be a forum area for users to discuss whatever. This area is visible to everyone.

There will need to be a robust web admin section that makes it easy to add events each month -- possibly set up recurring event, event categories and credit people with credits for events and the like.

I'm assuming the site will be built for a LAMP environment.

I found a hosted (I think) solution, Sporg for online event planning. The hosted part alone probably makes it a bad solution for me, but does anybody know of an open source project that is similar?

I don't know if an event system would have shopping cart elements built into it or not. If I need a shopping cart as well, I get the impression that Zen Cart is a good solution. I understand it is a branch of OS Commerce, but I don't understand what the difference is. Does anybody know?

I also get the impression that these shopping carts have a lot of 3rd party modules that can be added in. Is there a clearing house for these somewhere that describes what they are, what they do and how you would use/integrate them into the main package?

Once I have the functional spec created, I will be going to Craig's List to look for a developer. Is there any place else that I should also look? Are there any particular questions that I should ask to ensure the person I will be hiring is capable of building a robust system that will do what I want it to do?

Thanks