When you are looking for the right partner to organise your events, sooner or later the choice comes down to one of the most established and familiar tools — event management software — and the newer, more agile event management apps.
So how do you decide? The first step is certainly an analysis of the needs you have in the short term — you choose a tool because you have to use it, often to organise a first event before long — but also over the medium to long term, because a good tool can become a valuable ally for every event that follows.
To help with that analysis, and since we have built both the software and the event management app and are therefore fairly impartial on the subject, we have put together a guide based on the questions our clients have asked us over the years, so that it can help you reach the answers that matter most.
1. What are the main advantages and disadvantages of event management software?
Advantages:
- Data processing capacity: desktop software generally offers more processing power and a greater ability to handle complex data.
- Complete features: more complete and more robust, event management software usually has advanced features that prove particularly useful for planning and managing the delicate stages of an event, such as designing content and spaces, managing invitations, building promotion and marketing tools, designing and managing exhibition areas, and analysing data.
- Integration with other tools: they are usually easier to integrate with other business software, such as CRM, accounting software and marketing tools.
- Data security: they guarantee greater control over data security and access management, with regular backups.
Disadvantages:
- Limited accessibility: because they are desktop tools, they can only be used in the office, which makes them less flexible during an event.
- Learning curve: they are generally more complex to use than an app, and so require a period not so much of training as of adjustment to the way they work.
2. What are the main advantages and disadvantages of an event management app?
Advantages:
- Mobility: they let you manage the event in real time from anywhere, which increases flexibility.
- Attendee engagement: they offer features that create opportunities for engagement in a few clicks, such as surveys, quizzes and challenges, or that send push notifications to keep attendee engagement high.
- Ease of use: they are usually more intuitive and easier to use, with interfaces that by now we are all more or less used to
- Real-time management: they make it possible to do away with physical points such as check-in desks and to make certain procedures faster and simpler, from everything connected to access control to updating materials and programmes and sending communications in real time.
Disadvantages:
- Limited features: they are often less complete than desktop software, with more basic functionality.
- Reliance on connectivity: in many cases their effectiveness can be limited by the availability and the quality of the internet connection.
3. So what does that mean?
So, as often happens, the best answer lies in the middle: ideally you would have both tools available, so that you can use each of them where it works best at every stage of an event. This lets you maximise the advantages of each one while keeping the drawbacks in check, or even making them irrelevant. What matters, of course, is that the desktop software and the mobile app can integrate with each other without friction, so that the workflow runs continuously and without interruption, and that the costs of this wider architecture remain sustainable, both for the organisation and for the event, or events, they will be applied to. Bear in mind that some desktop software can be expensive but delivers long-term value, while apps may carry additional costs for premium features or integrations. Two last elements not to overlook are the technical support offered by each solution, which can make a real difference if problems arise during the event, and scalability, not only in terms of how many events the system will have to handle, but also of their size and complexity.