Discover the Best Event Platform: A Six-Step Guide

As businesses grapple with today’s ever-changing event landscape, having the best event platform is no longer a luxury—it’s a necessity! However, with countless tools and services on the market, selecting the right platform for your business can feel overwhelming and confusing. 

Nonetheless, in a world where digital connectivity is king, it’s essential to find the right tools to captivate your audience and deliver memorable experiences. That’s why we’ve put together six essential steps to help you find the best event platform for your organization. By following these steps, you’ll be that much closer to providing unforgettable events for your attendees.

1. Define your needs

Selecting the best event platform for your business requires careful evaluation of your company’s needs and goals, as well as an understanding of the available options and their capabilities.

Start by creating a list of every single issue your new events platform needs to address based on your needs assessment. This first step is essential since the best event platforms will enable your team to handle numerous tasks, including registration, creating a professional event website, email marketing, attendee management, speaker scheduling, and analytics. Knowing which features you need (and which ones you don’t) will not only help alleviate stress for you in the short term, but for your organization in the long term, too.

Skipping a needs assessment can have some serious consequences. Whether delays in planning, frustrations due to lack of proper organization, arguments amongst team members, and the need for extra meetings to address any issues that may arise, these problems can eventually lead to someone else taking over the project. Worse, your transition to a new event platform could stall completely and cause a reversion back to the status quo. No one wants that!

Therefore, it’s essential to invest time in defining the needs of your organization from the start to avoid any complications that may arise due to poor planning.

2. Create a comparison grid

To make an informed decision on the best event platform for your business, create a comparison grid.

A comparison grid maps out all the essential attributes you’re looking for against each platform you’re considering. The individual platforms are then rated based on how well they meet your criteria, giving you individual scores for comparison purposes.

Why create a comparison grid to evaluate event platforms? Simply put, it’s one of the easiest ways to visualize all the necessary features and capabilities required for your organization. Most importantly, it allows you to evaluate how well each platform stacks up objectively.

By giving each criterion its own score based on which platform you’re auditing, you can get a clear picture of which tool will meet all your company’s needs, rather than picking a platform that only does one or two things exceptionally well. This ensures that you don’t miss out on any essential features or capabilities that your organization requires.

Additionally, the scorecard that you create can be used as a reference point when people start pushing back or second-guessing how to proceed. It provides a clear, unbiased assessment of each platform, making it easier for everyone to agree on the best event platform for everyone.

3. Score each platform based on your organization’s priorities

When filling out your comparison grid to find the best event platform, it’s crucial to establish a system for scoring each tool based on your priorities.

Adopting a simple scale from 0 to 5—where 0 denotes that the platform does not meet your criteria and 5 signifies a perfect match—can help streamline the evaluation process. It’s also essential to be selective about what you include in your comparison grid, prioritizing only those attributes that are vital to the success of your events. If there are additional features that you’d like to consider, create a separate section called “nice-to-haves” and rate them accordingly.

You’ll want to avoid overloading your grid with too many ratings, however, as this may skew the results and obscure the most important criteria.

By scoring each tool based on your priorities, you can identify the events platform that best aligns with your organization’s specific needs and goals. This approach will enable you to narrow down your options and select a platform that provides the features and capabilities that are crucial to delivering successful events!

4. Engage key stakeholders in your evaluation

Once you’ve completed your comparison grid, including all the relevant criteria and companies under consideration, it’s important to share your ratings with the relevant stakeholders to eliminate any potential surprises during the decision-making stage.

Keeping open channels of communication and encouraging feedback at this stage is vital, as it fosters dialogue and constructive criticism that can aid in addressing concerns or questions. It’s also a good idea to share any questions or concerns with the companies under consideration and obtain their feedback to share with stakeholders to provide additional insight. 

By soliciting input and securing initial signoff at this stage, you will make the final decision-making process less complicated, as everyone involved will be on the same page and understand how each platform compares to your organization’s priorities. Additionally, this collaborative approach helps build trust and buy-in from key stakeholders, enhancing the likelihood of their support of the final decision.

5. Trust your gut

Although the comparison grid you’ve created is an essential tool in selecting the best events platform for your organization, it’s equally important to trust your instinct. If several companies have similar scores, don’t be afraid to rely on your gut to make the final decision.

The evaluation process is a balance between art and science. Yes, the grid may provide valuable insights, but it’s important to remember that it’s just one of many tools you can use to evaluate different platforms.

By this stage, you’ve invested the necessary time and effort to make informed decisions. Therefore, you’re in the best position to determine which events platform is best suited for your organization’s unique needs.

6. Get key stakeholder approval to address pushback

When selecting the best event platform, obtaining key stakeholder approval is a crucial step that can ensure a smooth decision-making process and help overcome objections.

As mentioned, it’s important to obtain initial sign-off or consensus from key stakeholders on the comparison grid, which can be achieved through a meeting or email with all involved to ensure everyone is aligned. Additionally, sharing the likely direction with other employees affected by the decision and soliciting feedback from the team can help minimize pushback.In doing this, it’s important to let the team know that key stakeholders are all aligned on the decision. This part of the process isn’t always sunshine and rainbows—expect pushback and delays, especially if you’re working with a large team—but it’s always best to address concerns before you negotiate a contract with your new platform provider.

Summary

Finding the best event platform for your business is essential, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. In this guide, we’ve outlined six tried-and-true strategies that will help take the overwhelm out of the process so you can focus on what is important. By defining your needs, creating a comparison grid and scoring each platform, engaging key stakeholders, trusting your gut, and getting final approval, you can feel confident knowing you have selected the best possible tool for your organization.

In a sea full of event platforms that fall short of your expectations, Attendease is sure to make you say, “Wow!”

Our foundational platform helps take the stress out of event management, allowing you to execute flawless events with ease. With comprehensive features for virtual, hybrid, and in-person events including flexible registration and ticketing, an agency-grade website builder, multi-event management tools, and more, your team will love Attendease!

Thanks to our transparent, flat-fee pricing and white-glove customer support, your bosses will love it, too.

Book a call and learn more today!