5 Web Tools that Make Event Proposal Management Such a Breeze

There is so much going on when you’re managing and planning an event, if you don’t have the right tools, you’ll get left in the dust. It’s a little daunting to think about how it was to plan an event and manage it successfully without the internet or a solid set of software tools. Throw in the effort and work it takes to incorporate a proper event sponsorship strategy and no wonder the stereotype of an event manager is stressed out, overworked, and carrying around a binder full of notes.

There are oodles of tools that allow you to actually manage your event- we’ll cover some of those below, but there’s a massive gap in the sponsorship acquisition efforts of an event management team. Dozens of hours are spent on Powerpoint to try and create an acceptable sponsorship deck, then there’s the nightmare of managing the Excel sheet to track everything. Often, sponsorship campaigns leave event organizers feeling like they are running a marathon.

The digital revolution has really changed all of this. No longer are we chained to our binders and notebooks or even Excel to stay organized. You’ve got things to do and today’s tools will make the individual pieces of it all even easier. These tools will make the entire event easier to manage while allowing you to kill it when you’re pitching sponsorships and sending out event sponsorship proposals:

  1. Wrike Project Management Software

    Wrike is a one-stop team collaboration and project management tool. It has the ability to give your team increased visibility, allows you to turn strategy into action, and enables collaboration. It’s an immense benefit to have a single hub for all the work that organizing an event entails. The user-friendly navigation simplifies things for managers and their teams and the mobile app allows work out “in the field” while an event is taking place.

    Why we love it: the real-time reports and analytics integrations give a central location to track KPIs across teams and ensure you’re hitting all of your goals in an event without having to search for 100 reports in different locations.
  2. CVent

    Cvent is an institution in event management and planning. They’ve been around for years and provide software and services for event managers like venue sourcing, travel, online registration and more. The venue sourcing is limited to hotels, which means that it’s a tool that is more suitable to high budget affairs. The comprehensive features of Cvent are a draw for users, but it can be a bit complex for smaller organizations trying to make a dent in their respective markets.

    Why we love it: it’s a comprehensive tool that’s great for large or high-end events. It’s a bit costly, but for bigger budget productions, it’s a fantastic tool.
  3. SocialTables

    Social Tables is a fantastic tool that simplifies seating arrangements, room layout design, guest check-in, and even event attendance tracking. This is an ideal tool for event managers who are extremely detail-oriented and is perfect for small and mid-size events. The tool gives you the capability to collaborate with caterers, venue providers, and other organizers. It’s perfect for business conferences due to its check-in feature that will aid conference organizers, allowing them to focus on the attendee experience.

    Why we love it: The ease of collaboration and the seating/layout design features are ideal for small to medium-sized events. This makes it ideal for nonprofits or startups looking to grow awareness in networking or fundraising events.
  4. Sponeasy

    While we’re partial to other sponsorship proposal tools, Sponeasy bridges the gap between tracking and event proposal management and generation. Sponeasy got off the ground in 2014 to answer a need in the marketplace. They saw a world of event management devoid of Excel and the hassle of building decks in PowerPoint. The result? A robust proposal management tool that takes you from deck building to a powerful analytics suite allowing you to easily track and analyze results.

    Why we love it: the analytics and reporting effectively solves the issues with spreadsheets that many event management teams run into. It streamlines processes and allows teams to get back to what they should be concentrating on- perfecting the pitch and sealing sponsorships for their event.
  5. Qwilr

    Qwilr allows event managers to cut down on the time they spend building pitch decks and allowing event sponsorship management to become an efficient part of the overall event management process. Quickly create beautiful and intuitive pitch decks and proposals for your event sponsorship strategy. Qwilr gives your team the autonomy to quickly create consistent proposals to send to potential sponsors, allowing you to scale your efforts quickly without losing quality of work.

    Reimagine the pitch deck and create inspiring communications that will improve the conversion rate of your event sponsorship strategy.

    Why we love it: Qwilr gives event management teams simple building blocks that allow them to use their best work while staying on brand. It’s efficient to mix and match, allowing teams to create with ease and consistency. Qwilr also gives teams the ability to improve their upsell efforts with interactive pricing. It streamlines the pitch process by allowing sponsors to quickly sign off on event sponsorship proposals and incorporating inbuilt payments with the integration of Stripe.

In Conclusion

Let’s face it: event management and organization is hard. It takes a village to create a successful event and that village needs the right set of tools in order to be able to scale events by utilizing event sponsorships and making all initiatives churn forward successfully to hit goals. Ultimately, it’s a combination of planning, talent, and the right tools that make not only event management successful, but the generation of additional income that event sponsors bring as well.

If you are able to make your event registration experience solid, you have a solution that works for event registration and check-in, and you have tools that help you expedite the event sponsorship efforts, your team will be able to navigate the road ahead with ease. Get back to planning and pitching event sponsorships and spend less time creating documents, managing proposals, and handling registration hurdles.

Author Bio:

Kristen Bowie is a marketing leader, forging the path with data-driven decisions. When she’s not writing for thought leadership and creating sponsorship proposals at Qwilr, she’s hanging out with her two urban dwarf goats, painting, or is out watching a local band.