Organization is a critical component of a successful event. Planners have to juggle vendors, contracts, Âschedules, bios, venues, team Âmembers, and more. Rather than Âold-fashioned binders, planners are turning to online project management systems to handle documentation and communication. Here’s a look at three of the newest digital Âoptions to help event and meeting professionals stay organized.
Launched in December, Trackolade is a collaboration software that creates a shared online workspace so team members can create and assign tasks, share and discuss documents, and track progress in real time. As tasks are created or completed, users receive notification via email. In addition to prioritizing tasks within an event, users can also prioritize tasks assigned to them across multiple events. Trackolade also allows files to be linked with a task or attached to a conversation, creating a complete stream of communication. Completed projects can be archived for future access.
Smartsheet, a spreadsheet-style collaboration tool, is now available as an Android app to accommodate planners on the go. The system allows teams to collaborate in real time—sharing documents, assigning tasks, tracking vendors, updating schedules, creating budgets, and more. Planners can invite others to collaborate on the event by sharing the entire sheet or by sending a single row with attachments. Smartsheet sends automated reminders about deadlines, and it can send email notifications when someone makes a change in the system. Smartsheet is integrated with Google apps, such as Drive, Gmail, and Calendar, and also offers interactive Gantt chart capabilities.
Hilton ÂWorldwide announced in January that it now offers a cloud-based planning and collaboration tool to its meeting clients. GetPlanning allows planners to consolidate all documents, such as contracts, speaker bios, menus, floor plans, and schedules, in one system that can be accessed by multiple team members from an Internet-enabled device. Documents in the GetPlanning system are encrypted for security. Users can track communication and action in real time and can also respond to GetPlanning correspondence directly from their own email inbox. In addition to Hilton, GetPlanning is offered by several other hotels, and it’s also available for use by individual planners. GetPlanning is a product from RoundTable HQ.
