Software & IT

[BarcampLondon4] Julius Solaris - The Quest for a complete open source event management solution from Melinda Seckington on Vimeo.

Julius (from the eventmanagerblog.com) talks at BarCamp about his collaborative event management project MyEvent which is what he’s trying to get off the ground.

Its an interesting debate about what people are looking for in a system - you should check out the project and also let Julius know what you are looking for in a piece of software at his site.

By Olan Butler

Just the fact that you need event planning software uncovers you have a lot to do. Since you have a lot to do, wisely, you will create to-do lists. This should be more of a reminder more than something new. That’s OK. We need reminders every now and then.

It may be old hat to some but just in case you haven’t thought much of this, here are a few benefits of to-do lists:

• Trains you mind to focus/refocus. We live hectic lives and things can easily get out of control but if you keep a to-do list you can get yourself back on track quickly.
• Indicate your productivity. On any given day your to-do list will show you how efficiently you are completing tasks.
• Helps you remember what needs to be done. We have all forgotten something we’ve needed to do. When you write your tasks down on a to-do list, you don’t have to rely on your mind to hold it all together. As you and I both know, the “all” is getting bigger everyday.

Your event planning software should allow you to create to-do list categories so that you can segment them based on any criteria that you wish. Each to-do list category in your event planning software should give you a monthly view of your to-do lists.

You should be able to make customizable lists that are free form for maximum flexibility.

In conclusion, to-do list find their place in the group of essentials for event planning software. It is good to be reminded of some of the benefits of to-do list so that their incorporation into your use doesn’t get overlooked.

Monthly views of to-do lists are a good idea and you should be able to create multiple to-do list categories in your event planning software. This concludes this 4 part series on “event planning software: a beginner’s guide.”

(c) Copyright 2005 Olan Butler All Rights Reserved

Olan Butler is the Chief Architect of BHO Technologists, a computer productivity software and service provider http://www.bhotechnologists.com with headquarters in Kansas City. His works also include the Appointment Calendar Software Store and the Kansas City Computer Repair Site.

Article Source: Ezine Articles

By Olan Butler

When using your event planning software, undoubtedly you reach the point where you need to perform project tracking. Depending on the size of the event, you will have one or more projects to accomplish prior to the big event.

Your event planning software should at least allow you to do the following two tasks:

• Label the days of your project. You must have the ability to label each day of the week according to your project estimate. In other words, each day you estimate in your project timeline will have the name of the project attached to it.

• Make notation about the details of the project on a daily basis. Your projects will have unique characteristics and challenges on a daily basis; so, you should be able to notate your project on each day. In your event planning software, you will be able to review roadblocks to your project and you will be able to see successful activities that have assisted your project moving forward. You will be able to notate specific techniques that have been instrumental in overcoming unique challenges.

As you can see, there are some particular features that must be in your event planning software that will allow you to properly assess your project at any one time. You saw that you must be able to associate the days of your project estimate to the actual name of your project. Additionally, you must be able to notate details of your project on a daily basis. You should be able to notate your successful techniques and the challenges you face along with the notable successes you experience.

(c) Copyright 2005 Olan Butler All Rights Reserved
Olan Butler is the Chief Architect of BHO Technologists, a computer productivity software and service provider http://www.bhotechnologists.com with headquarters in Kansas City. His works also include the Appointment Calendar Software Store and the Kansas City Computer Repair Site.

Article Source: Ezine Articles

By Olan Butler

When you enter the world of event planning, the one thing you realize very quickly is that flexibility is a necessity. Your event planning software will need to track appointments you have set, events you are planning, your journal or diary entries you are writing, projects you are working on, and the tasks on your to-do list. In this beginner’s guide article series, you will receive insights into each of these categories and some productive ways to use them.

First, let’s take a look at appointments in event planning software. This is the most obvious category. When picking an event planning software package, make sure that you have a monthly view of your appointments. This view allows you to see your month at a glance so that you can make decision quickly and get a grip on your schedule flow to prevent costly schedule errors like double booking.

Second, let’s take a look at your events in the event planning software. Your software should also give you a monthly view at this point too. Let me give you more detail on the characteristics on the monthly view. Your monthly view should be interactive without the need to compromise the view in your event planning software. In other words, you can make notations onto the calendar’s monthly view without leaving that view. This is where you will get your biggest bang for the buck because you can make notations directly onto the view without popping up any extra screens and yet have full visual to every day of the month.

If you are like me, you have had to fumble with software that took you to a totally different window to add notes and while you were writing the notes you needed to go back to the original window to assess some critical data. You may have even had to copy out your notes to another program temporarily until you could flip back from the original screen. What a pain!

The flexibility to work on your appointment and events in an unencumbered environment are crucial to your productivity success. As you can see, there is at a basic level some important event planning software design issues to address when choosing package. In the next article we will tackle the journal.

(c) Copyright 2005 Olan Butler All Rights Reserved
Olan Butler is the Chief Architect of BHO Technologists, a computer productivity software and service provider http://www.bhotechnologists.com with headquarters in Kansas City. His works also include the Appointment Calendar Software Store and the Kansas City Computer Repair Site.

Article Source: Ezine Articles

By Olan Butler

As I said in the first article in this series, when you enter the world of event planning, the one thing you realize very quickly is that flexibility is a necessity. Your event planning software will need to track appointments, events, journaling or diary entries, projects, and to-do lists.

In this article I will discuss the benefits of journaling. Before we talk about the event planning software journaling feature, you need to know that journaling or diary writing is very important; however, the importance may not be readily apparent from an event planner’s perspective. Let’s look at just two benefits:

1. Your ideas can flow inhibited onto the page. Let your uninhibited thoughts lead you. Since you don’t have to proofread your writing, your real feelings come out about your day. This is where you will be able to uncover how you are feeling about the people and things of your event planning career. This will also allow you to realistically see where you need to make changes to enrich you life.

2. When you journal you end up writing what you need to know. You will discover valuable insights about yourself that will allow you become more successful as an event planner. You will be able to lean on insights about yourself to guide you into more productive work within your niche. Remember you are unique and knowing more about yourself will undoubtedly show you that you are strongest in a niche within your event planning niche.

The most important features of your event planning software in regards to journaling should be your ability to make flexible entries and your ability to view an entire month of entries in your event planner software at once. Your software should be able to provide you with a text entry area to write your journal entries. This will serve two purposes:
1. This monthly view of your journal will allow you to find certain journal entries quickly at a glance.
2. This monthly view will allow you to see from a monthly perspective how consistent you have been at making journal entries.

Event planning software in the management of journals can be a great help in this process provided you have the minimum features above. There are other great features such as multi-category journals. The 2 features above are essential to productive journal management for your event planning software.
(c) Copyright 2005 Olan Butler All Rights Reserved
Olan Butler is the Chief Architect of BHO Technologists, a computer productivity software and service provider http://www.bhotechnologists.com with headquarters in Kansas City. His works also include the Appointment Calendar Software Store and the Kansas City Computer Repair Site.
Article Source: Ezine Articles