Friday, August 24, 2007

When Planning an Event

We haven't actually planned a major Feast site for a few years. Last year I put together the teens and parents surveys for the Rapid City site, but we really didn't get that many responses - and then, once we got those responses, we didn't have a good way to sort and use our information. Regardless, we did have a good number of young people there, which was really good for the kids. This year? I don't know.

I'm wondering if using some kind of corporate event planning software would have made things easier. Actually this site regonline would be better than that - there's no software to buy or install. It's all web based. All those things I had to handle myself, like sending confirmation emails, figuring out the cost of housing, and collecting payments? All done automatically. Now they also let event planners build a nice-looking web page (here's an example) to integrate the whole planning and registering process. All the information about the event is organized nicely, with the opportunity to "Register Now" while they are on the web page. I know I would be more likely to get my registration taken care of for something if it was that easy. If I get something in the mail and have to mail it in, I'm more likely to set it aside and then never get back to it. Of course, I do most things online, and I hate not having that option.