Seven Stress-Busting Apps for Event Project Management

Event planner is consistently named among the top five most stressful jobs in the world (usually just after being a fire-fighter or serving in the military). Over the past year, working from home and up-skilling to virtual would have done little to calm the nerves of professionals who thrive under the pressures associated with staging events.

However, as in-person events begin to return and virtual elements remain valued add-ons, planners have an opportunity to change how they work by turning to technology to reduce stress and aid the project management of the hybrid iteration of their next event.

The performance of the virtual event platform is only one part of the jigsaw. There’s myriad apps and digital solutions out there to ease project turmoil, aid collaboration and reduce time spent on repetitive tasks.

Here’s our magnificent seven, which event planners swear by.

1) Coggle
Coggle is a mind mapping web application for those times when ideas need to branch-out across the screen so you can see where they may lead. Unlike linear or tabular planning documents, Coggle is a more visual process planning tool.

A couple of author friends of mine swear by Coggle as a way of developing and visualizing plot narratives and character development. For event teams, it allows real-time collaboration, the ability to comment on items and the promise that it will be ‘free forever’ although privacy and advanced features do require a paid subscription.

2) Basecamp
Before Basecamp, projects felt scattered, things slipped, it was tough to see where things stood, and people were stressed. After Basecamp, everything’s organized in one place, you’re on top of things, progress is clear, and a sense of calm sets in.

The benefits of this event planning app include centralized to-do lists, message boards for quick questions and answers, and automatic check-ins to keep everyone on track.

While Basecamp is less visual than options like Trello, it was designed to aid remote working and has been particularly useful to virtual event planners during the past year.

3) Pocket
Found something interesting, but don’t have time to look at it now? Save it to Pocket. It’s an easy way to keep track of all that inspiration, valuable articles and supplier ideas you come across online.

You can also share articles to social channels directly from Pocket. More intuitive than bookmarks and easier to keep track of than multiple stickie-notes, it’s a handy, on-the-go library tool.

4) Canva
I don’t suppose there’s many event planners yet to discover Canva. If you’re one of the few remaining who is still struggling with Photoshop and haven’t tried this creative application for marketing design and social media content creation, now is the time to switch.

It offers ready-made templates for common marketing assets like flyers, posters, and social media posts for different channels. Plus, if you choose a Pro plan for under £100 per year, you get access to Canva’s rights-free stock image library, which personally I couldn’t live without.

5) Wordly
We love this translation application. Imagine how excited we at Glisser got when we first understood the potential for simultaneous interpretation and how it could vastly improve audience engagement both online and during in-person events by expanding inclusivity and enhancing participation.

Since May 2020, we’ve been able to support our multinational customer base translate speaker presentations in mainly virtual event environments. But with the return of in-person events, Wordly’s ability to remove language barriers will allow planners even greater flexibility for hybrid solutions, since there’s now no need for multiple in-room translators or on-stage sign language interpreters.

6) MagicPlan
The next time you’re out on a site visit, pull-up the free MagicPlan app and using the camera on your device, mark the corners of the event space and watch in awe as it aggregates a floor-plan.

It’s been a secret of the US real estate trade for years and now event planners everywhere are beginning to see the benefits of being able to create room sketches with detailed dimensions alongside stored photos and notes, which can then be downloaded as branded PDFs and other file formats.

7) CamScanner
Turn your Android phone into a digital scanner with this incredibly useful CamScanner app and be ready to digitize all kinds of paper documents such as receipts, notes, invoices, whiteboard discussions, business cards etc.

Smart cropping and auto enhancing ensures the texts and graphics in scanned documents are clear and sharp while e-signing, tagging and optical character recognition allows you to create, categorize and search by words within the text.