How to Develop a Successful Venue Management Platform?
Modern life is full of various events. People attend professional conferences, celebrate significant events, participate in sports competitions, relax in the theater, concerts, and more. In medium and large cities, various events take place on a daily basis, so more and more people are involved in the event planning field.
A good venue management app can help event managers streamline their operations. It undertakes routine tasks allowing managers to focus on what's really important - providing great customer service and making a profit. The event management app also helps allocate resources more efficiently, so managers can increase capacity without sacrificing quality.
If you are looking for an area in which to start your own software business, event planning is a wise choice. This article will explain what to look for when developing an event app and what value proposition to offer your customers.
Who needs a venue management app?
The short answer is that anyone who deals with event planning, including:
weddings
birthdays
corporate evenings
professional conferences
thematic meetups
sports competitions
concerts
theater shows
food festivals
excursions
and any other events
would benefit from such an app.
A venue management app can help event managers do their job faster, better, and at a lower cost, by translating all business operations into digital format.
Imagine, for example, that a person needs to organize some kind of event, say anything from a technology conference to a children's party. To do this, they need to find a suitable room, organize the seating of guests, order food delivery, and more.
With event management software this task becomes much easier. All that needs to be done is enter the details about the event—location, date, time, etc. Then the app helps the user find a venue that matches their needs and budget. Once they've booked the venue, the app keeps track of all the important event information, from catering to seating arrangements. Users can even keep track of their budget right in the app.
Five features to look for in a venue management app
The venue management app acts as a personal assistant who undertakes a big part of the event manager's responsibilities. Any manager wants their assistant to be reliable, productive, and resilient. They also want the assistants to undertake routine work and free up time for more creative and non-trivial tasks for themselves.
So, here are the functions event managers could look for in their digital event planner:
Event organization
First of all, the event app should provide an effortless way to organize and manage events. This means having a built-in registration form, ticketing system, and paperless check-in for participants.
The app should also be user-friendly and easy to navigate. It should be compatible with a variety of devices, so the users can access it anywhere, anytime. And last but not least, it should be affordable and backed by excellent customer service.
Agenda creation
The agenda creation tool is one of the most important features to look for in a venue management app. With this tool, the users will be able to create a detailed schedule for the event, including all the different activities and speakers. They will also be able to track RSVPs and modify the event plan depending on the participants' list.
Speaker tracking
It can be a real pain to try and track speaker performance manually, so it's important that your app has this feature built-in. The speaker tracking functionality will help users stay up-to-date about who's speaking at their event and the time they've been allocated. Thus, event managers can rest assured that no awkward pauses arise and that event time is spent productively.
Budget planning
When planning an event, managers need to find facilities that will have the best price-quality ratio, taking into account their budget. With a venue management platform and AI technology, they can enter the amount of available budget and get various organization options. For example, the application can display the cost range for rent, equipment, staff, food, and more. Thus, event organizers save time on research and can manage all the options from one place.
Event analytics
This will help users track the success of their events and see where they can improve. Particularly, they can analyze data on attendance, revenue, and customer engagement. Any event analytics feature should be accompanied by handy reporting and great visualization. Given this, you should incorporate clear graphs and diagrams in your event management software.
In addition to the above features, your software should be intuitive, straightforward, and versatile.
Your venue management app should be able to adapt to your needs and change as your business turns from a startup to a stable enterprise. It should also be able to integrate with other software you're using so you don't have to switch between multiple apps.
Last but not least, your app should be reliable. You need to launch a program that is always there when users need it, with no glitches or errors. It should also have good customer support so the users can get help when they need it.
Five popular venue management apps
The event management software industry is growing rapidly with dozens of applications regularly appearing on the market.
If you want to develop a tool for the event-planning business, you should research the market, analyze available offers, and decide how you can establish points of difference. Finding the right examples for comparison can take a long time, so here are a few pickups to narrow down your choice.
Appointlet
This app makes it easy to manage bookings and appointments, and it integrates with Google Calendar, making it a great choice for businesses that are already using that platform. Appointlet allows users to create an unlimited number of meetings, has an easy and intuitive interface, and provides great customer support.
Even with all its advantages, the free version of the application has many limitations and also does not have a mobile app.
Bizzabo
Bizzabo is a comprehensive venue booking software that helps track RSVPs, send out invitations, compose agendas, and do all sorts of things related to event planning.
Users like Bizzabo for advanced event management tools and insightful analytics. However, they complain about the lack of customization and limited data integration
Eventbrite
This is one of the most popular event management apps out there, and for good reason — it's packed with features that make organizing events a breeze. Eventbrite can be used for managing events with thousands of attendees and is equally friendly for managers and guests.
With all that, the app has rather high prices, charging a premium of 2% + $0.79/ paid ticket in the essential plan and 3.5% + $1.59/ paid ticket in the professional plan. Also, there are some limitations in payment options for particular regions.
ShowClix
ShowClix is a great choice for venues that host a lot of events, as it offers powerful ticketing and online registration features. ShowClix also provides a comprehensive reporting tool, allowing managers to evaluate an event's efficiency and ROI performance.
With all this, user reviews indicate that the application is rather mass-oriented with many redundant features and that it is difficult to adapt it to non-standard businesses and tasks.
Whova
This is a cloud-based SaaS for fast and easy virtual event management. The users of Whova are freelancers, mid-sized businesses, and enterprises. It is available on the web and mobile platforms and provides all the necessary tools for organizing online conferences with any number of participants.
Some of the drawbacks mentioned by Whova users are difficult navigation, buggy integration with Zoom, and an unclear mechanism for switching between different sessions.
Custom venue management software development
The life of a CEO or event organizer is always full of surprises. One minute they are arranging catering for a small meeting, and the next they are dealing with the demands of a 500-person gala. The rapidly changing business environment and customer expectations require managers to be flexible and quick in decision-making. Therefore, a reliable digital event planner is the tool they have been searching for.
When developing a venue management application, you must know what your customers need. You should learn their work niche and understand the audience they are targeting. After a thorough market and competitor research, you need to list an app feature set and provide for the scalability of your software.
If you don't have an in-house development team, you can outsource event management project implementation to the remote experts.
At Erbis, we have 10+ years of development experience, and we know how to create software that brings profit and success. If you need help with venue app development, don't hesitate to get in touch.
