An essential skill for an event manager is to have a keen eye for design. I’ve listed my favourite design sites for event managers. They are brilliant for creating flyers, posters, social media updates and even videos! And so much more.
There’s no job quite like the job of an event manager. One moment you are signing off a five figure sponsorship agreement, the next you are guiding a Government Minster on to the stage. Then you are serving coffee to attendees and then wiping whiteboards. We are masters of so many different things.
An element that has become an event essential, since really the uptake of digital marketing, is the ability to quickly knock up digital images. I highlighted this as one of the “essential skills for event professionals” last year and it has definitely secured its place as an essential skill in 2018.
I manage my own events, as well as our consultancy business and events for other clients, so I often find myself knocking up digital images. Here are my three favourite sites for quick, easy and effective digital collateral.
1. Canva
This was the first design platform I stumbled across. My client Nicky at Practically Perfect PA had been using it for all the images on her blog. So when we started to organise their events Canva seemed like the natural place to create all the event images. And I was blown away at how easy it was to use!
Like many event professionals my key skill is not design so I was a bit apprehensive about creating my own designs. However the layout of Canva and the simple functionality made it very easy to start to create images.
Design platforms can be used to make quick and effective cards for your speakers
Almsot all of the images on the Practically Perfect PA website are created with Canva. Have a look around that site to see the whole host of formats and styles available.
It’s a great platform. And it’s free, like all of the three platforms we have recommended.
2. Adobe Spark
Many of the social media platforms are gently persuading you to add video. But we all know that video is hard and expensive to create. Or if we do it ourselves, what event manager has the time to spend to edit and upload a complicated video? Without time or money video isn’t an option. Or is it?
Well, to be honest, neither is an issue if you use Adobe Spark.
Adobe Spark has an exceptionally easy process for creating a video. It has easy templates to follow and they enable you to seamlessly add pictures, motion clips, text and images all into the one video.
It has recently added more design templates for other images like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn headers etc, but video is where it excels.
We started using it earlier this year and with a bit more practice over the summer we are sure we can super charge the quality and the impact of the videos for our next events.
We used this video across all of our social media platforms including LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. It took us about 1 hour to make. We created three videos in total for the Homeless Hackathon.
You can embed straight from Adobe Spark or you can upload the video to your YourTube channel. Check out our channel.
We were lucky that we were able to speak to some brilliant musicians who allowed us to use their songs for free.
3. Be Funky
Be Funky is similar to Canva but it has a more professional photographer feel about it. The site offers some great tutorials which will ensure your images are perfect before you start using them.
It is especially useful if you don’t have the confidence to get stuck in straight away.
Probably the best tutorials don’t show off the platform but rather help you become a better designer! There are tutorials which will help you take and use the right type of pictures. It’s a great resource for anyone taking and using pictures on line.
There’s no substitute for great design
If you have the time and the budget there is no substitute for using professional, skilled and trained designers to do your artwork. This is our default when the client or the individual event has a budget for design. It really does make a difference.
Sites like Fivver will give you access to a world of wonderful designers.
But sometimes the job falls to the event manager. And with these three design sites for event managers you have everything covered!
