Meeting management software for conferences, trade shows and more

Manage your attendees, participants and event details in one convenient place with our meeting planner software

White Laptop

Meetings and conferences have many moving parts … our tools make sure they all work together fluidly

Planning Pod Tools List

Manage thousands of details in one place

Big events like corporate meetings, academic conferences and industry trade shows usually involve thousands of details involving logistics and participants. Our 20+ tools give you a centralized place to store and monitor everything.

Planning Pood Registration Tool Ticket Sales

Attract and track attendees with ease

Our conference management software helps ensure your targeted attendees sign up and show up. Build custom websites to promote your event. Collect registrations, payments and submissions via online registration forms. Easily check in guests at the door.

Vendor List

Collaborate with your team and stakeholders

Keep tabs on co-workers, contractors, vendors and volunteers who are working behind the scenes. Assign tasks and share calendars to keep everyone on schedule. Track emails via a centralized inbox. Create timelines with detailed assignments. Track vendors and venue bookings.

PERFECT FOR EVENTS LARGE OR SMALL

Built for planning any kind of meeting

Academic Conferences and Symposiums

Annual Meetings

Conventions and Congresses

Incentive Trips

Industry Expos

Networking Events


4.89 out of 5 stars

See why more event professionals rely on our tools to streamline their events!

See All Reviews

Learn why meeting planners choose our tools to manage their events

Attendee List in Floorplan

 End-to-end attendee management

From signup to check-in, our system streamlines the entire experience for your attendees. Create detailed event registration forms and sell tickets online via a custom event website. Allow registrants to upload and download files. Collect credit card payments online. Track attendee details and orders. Check-in guests at the door with QR code technology.

"A must have. We use it to keep us organized for all of our meetings and conferences."
- Chris Adam, Midwest Reliability Organization

Chris Adam, Midwest Reliability Organization

 Keep everyone on task, on time and on budget

Because meetings are huge projects, we offer a full suite of project management tools. Send, receive and track emails via an event email communications hub. Create and assign contacts. Build detailed event agendas with vendor and venue assignments. Track expenses, payments and due dates with budgets. Manage files and notes. Always know where you stand with at-a-glance event dashboards and reports.

Allison Sullivan, Kates-Boylston Publications

"Love the ability to keep everything in one place for our team to access. Also makes registration extremely simple."
- Allison Sullivan, Kates-Boylston Publications

Dashboard Uocoming Alerts
Application Icons

 Seamless integrations with other applications

Planning Pod integrates with 1,000+ other applications via Zapier so you can share your account data with platforms like Google, MailChimp, Slack, Salesforce, Zoho, Dropbox, EventBrite, Trello, Basecamp, Hubspot and Marketo plus sync electronic calendars.

 Manage business details to maximize revenues

Our meeting management software lets you manage leads, create colorful proposals, send detailed invoices and collect online payments all in one place, plus set up reusable templates to save you time. Perfect for managing and billing sponsors and exhibitors.

Invoice Payment Reminders
Planning Pod Venue Listing

 Track every venue, vendor and supplier

From our CRM / contact manager to our pre-built worksheet templates, our conference management software offers comprehensive resources to manage catering, venue spaces, speakers, entertainment, A/V and more . Upload vendor bills and track payments. Create detailed event floor plans and seating charts for your rooms.


Learn more about our tools for corporate event planners


RECENT POST
Jeff Kear · Owner, Planning Pod

How to compare online corporate event management software solutions


As a corporate event coordinator, you are faced with an often daunting number of challenges, which can include:

  • Shrinking budgets where you are expected to do more with less.
  • Shorter lead times requiring you to do everything on a rushed schedule.
  • Filling seats to your events and maintaining registration volume.
  • Getting stakeholder and upper management buy-in.
  • Tracking event ROI and justifying your event spend at every turn.
  • Maintaining communications with team members, clients and vendors who aren’t as responsive.

Moreover, you don’t really have much time to spare to assess and review new technology, let alone learn a new corporate event management software platform.

To that point, we wanted to give you a quick overview on how to save time in evaluating cloud-based corporate event planning software and the kinds of things we would look for if we were to search for such a program.

 GETTING STARTED WITH YOUR SEARCH

Before you dive into reviewing specific applications, here are a few pre-planning steps to take to keep you from getting overwhelmed.

Assess your needs first

How comprehensive are your needs regarding corporate meeting planning software? Do you need a true all-in-one solution or do you have a few must-have features followed by a few nice-to-have features and don’t need your software to do everything under the sun?This will dictate the type of application you will be looking at as well as the packages and pricing involved. For example, there are corporate event software suites like Planning Pod, Cvent, Social Tables and EventPro that are very strong in back-end event planning tools and other applications like EventBrite, Whova and rsvpBOOK that have strengths in registration and attendee-facing tools.

What is your budget

There is definitely a wide range of prices when it comes to this kind of software, so make sure to ballpark what you can afford and include that in your event budgets from the start. This way, when you start looking, this can be one of your leading criteria.

How and where will you be using the software

Many corporate event planners are on-the-go at all times, so you may need an application that is mobile-friendly and works as well on an iPhone, iPad or Android mobile device as it does on Mac and PC computers. Also, you should consider if the application can work as well on a cellular connection as it does on a WiFi or Ethernet connection.

Do you need to connect to other applications

It is not uncommon for corporate planners to already be managing data and processes in other applications like Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Slack, Hubspot, Salesforce, Google, Dropbox, Trello, Basecamp, etc. And you may want to still use those applications because you are comfortable with them and they get the job done. So the corporate meeting software that you choose should be able to integrate and share data with your other applications.

What style of interface suits you and your users

This may sound like a silly question, but how an application looks and how you navigate through it are big factors in how quickly you adapt to it. So when you first start reviewing tools, pay close attention to how the system is laid out, how easy the tools are to use and how they align to the way you plan and think. Of course any platform will require some level of learning and acclimation, but the more you can shorten the learning curve the better.

 FEATURES TO LOOK FOR

Now that we’ve covered the initial steps in your search, here are the categories of corporate meeting planner software software tools that are available. Note that no two software applications are the same or offer the same tools, so make sure to keep a tally of which platforms you review and which platform had particular tools.

Attendee Management

Many solutions will include some level of event registration and ticketing functionality as well as registration form questionnaires and RSVP collection. Often included with this some sort of credit card processing capability to collect payments online. Some solutions will also offer:

  • Guest list managers
  • Check-in tools
  • Attendee email communications
  • Forms and surveys for collecting feedback
  • Attendee engagement features like event apps
  • Accommodations, room block and travel management

Event Project Management

These are the tools for getting basic stuff done, like building budgets; managing checklists and worksheets; and uploading and storing files and images. In addition, managing and assigning tasks and tracking calendar appointments and items fall into this category as well as things like:

  • Event space layouts
  • Seating arrangements
  • Logistics management
  • Reusable templates to save time
  • At-a-glance dashboards
  • Downloadable .csv and PDF reports

Collaboration and Staffing

A huge benefit of most Web-based applications is that multiple users can log in, share information inside the platform and communicate with other parties easily. Look for software that offers the ability to invite additional users, lets them create their own logins and lets you set permissions for them. Also look for platforms that offer an email communications tool that integrates with your exsiting email addresses/platform and that gives you and your team a central inbox for tracking all event-related emails. Some applications also offer staffing management features like staff scheduling and shared event calendars.

Vendor Management

It takes a team to pull off an event, and every event professional knows that the success of your event is as dependent on your vendors as much as anyone. Corporate event management software apps that offer vendor management often let you track contacts, assignments, schedules for catering, venues, audio/visual vendors, rental companies, speakers and more.

Business Management

The business side of corporate events can be simple and straightforward or very nuanced and involved based on the complexity of your event. Standard features can include lead management; CRM and contact management; event proposals and sales tracking; and event billing and merchant account integrations. More advanced features could include:

  • Online contracts and electronic signatures
  • Exhibitor management and booth sales
  • Sponsorship management
  • Inventory and resource management
  • Venue management systems and tools

Event Marketing

There are two approaches that corporate event management software platforms can take regarding event marketing. One approach is to offer marketing tools like bulk email sending, event website builders and social media promotion as part of the entire suite. The second approach is to integrate their suite of tools with external marketing applications that are specifically built for marketing (like MailChimp or Constant Contact for email marketing; Wix or Squarespace for building websites; Hootsuite or Agorapulse for social media marketing; Hubspot or Marketo for integrated marketing software).

Security and Data Integrity

At minimum, any piece of online software should offer server-side firewall protection, SSL data encryption, daily data backups and best practices for preventing data breaches.


Learn more about our tools for corporate event planners