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I thought I would spend the time and just update this list of tools – times have moved on and technology has changed – I thought it would be interesting to see what has changed…

On his post a few weeks ago, Julius listed 75+ tools for event managers – well inspired by his list, I’ve compiled my own list. Now you can tell the difference between myself and Julius – his list contains almost every conceivable piece of web 2.0 software, online marketing tool and web resource, whereas mine contains a little more hardware..!

So, without further ado, here are the top ten things I use every day to plan, deliver and manage my events.

1. Mac Book (Black) – my fave piece of kit ever – my B-E-A-utiful Mac Book. It runs my life and I use it all day everyday. The hard-drive is nearly full, but that doesn’t stop it from running sweetly from morning through til night.
   I now have an even better MacBook Pro – I upgraded whist working out in the US this summer.  Still runs my life and is used and abused every day – in the office, on the road and at events
2. Nokia N95 – even though its held together with gaffer tape, my trusty N95 has been with me through thick and thin (and rain, snow, being dropped from the roof of a 4×4, mud etc). Because I don’t wear a watch, my phone spends most of its time being my clock – but for phone calls (lots of phone calls) and the odd text, my N95 has done me proud.
   A couple of summers ago I moved over to an Apple iPhone 3Gs (can you see a theme here!).  Synced to my MacBook Pro and Exchange Server (see below) so that I can keep track of my world – and the rest of my team.
3. Laser Measure – now its not that I don’t trust hotels when they tell me how big a room is, but, simply, I don’t trust them – my favourite was the hotel with the ’12 foot ceiling’ which was actually only 11 feet high – which meant that the 11.5 foot custom built set didn’t fit!!
4. Microsoft Office 2007 – despite the fact that I’m a Mac man for build and OS, I can’t get away from Excel and Word for running all my projects. I use the latest version of office, with all the bells and whistles (mainly because of my work with Microsoft) but day-in-day-out, you can’t beat Office for usability. I quite like Groove as well, but its been replaced in my everyday life with Basecamp (see below)
   Yep – still using Basecamp to share information both within and outside my team at event management company, Entourage Live.
5. OSX Widgets – on a Mac, you get a dashboard (which floats over the rest of your programmes) in which I run a couple of cool widgets which I use everyday. Included in this are the calculator (because other people in the office steal mine all the time), currency exchange calculator, Twidget (which allows me update my Twitter Profile from my desktop) and Address Widget, which lets me quickly find my contacts.
6. Speaking of Twitter – follow me here or the official eventsecrets twitter – updated when I remember, and a little dull at the best of times, catch up with me and my event planning ideas on Twitter! I must confess I’m getting slightly addicted!
7. maps.google.co.uk – My weapon of choice for working out where I’m going, what I’m doing and where I am! Festival planning is made easier when you can see aerial photos of your event sites.
8. WordPress – download from wordpress.org – I use WordPress every day. Not only to manage this event management site, but also my freelance event manager site over at robhaworth.com and now for event management company Entourage Live – if you are looking for an extendable, easy to use, customisable content management system then this is for you.
9. Exchange Server and Entourage (now using Apple Mail – I made the switch about a year ago when Apple started supporting Exchange Server) – with WordPress looking after my websites, Microsoft’s Exchange Server and Entourage (think Outlook for Mac) look after my email. I use email all day every day, with Exchange and Entourage looking after the lot – they keep my address book, calendar and mail sync’d meaning that my team can work collaborate better with shared calendars and contact lists.
10. Basecamp - last but not least is Basecamp – I probably don’t use this to its full power, but Basecamp is great for sharing docs, managing projects and keeping an online, sharable to-do list. I invite clients, suppliers and colleagues to a Basecamp site and then keep all the project files and to-dos in one place.

So that’s my list – what I use day-in-day-out to create the events that I do. From festivals to conferences all of these tools are used together to help me plan and execute all my events, in a collaborative and successful way. Let me know what you use, and what you think of these tools I’ve listed!

As an event manager (or if you’re in the US, event planner!), I like to think that events are one of the (if not THE) best way for organisations to meet and communicate with their customers – so its a bit of a shock to see that computer giant Apple are pulling the plug on their involvement in the IDG organised MacWorld Event after the 2009 convention in January.

Despite excellent visitor numbers and over 500 exhibitors, Apple will not be partaking in the event after 2009 – when they’ve pulled out of similar events in the past it usually means the end of the viability of the event.

At first I was a little concerned at this story – OK the economy isn’t brilliant at the moment but I should have thought that this event (which has been running for 25 years) would be a great place for Apple to meet with their buying public? Actually – maybe its just that Apple are changing. They now have numerous Apple Stores all across the world which means that they can meet with consumers on a daily basis (and if you go in an Apple Store they are usually rammed!) – so maybe a large presence at a trade show isn’t working as well as it could for them.

In many ways this shows savvy thinking from Apple – in the press comments about the decision they talk about their more specialised events and launches – so maybe this just shows that they are using their marketing spend more wisely and measuring their ROI more closely.

What this does mean is that event organisers are going to continue to have to work hard to deliver events that their customers want, to ensure visitor numbers don’t drop off as the economy tightens, and to make sure they keep hold of their sponsors and exhibitors.

So whilst I don’t think that this is a good thing for the industry, I think that it could be the start of the wake-up call all event planners need. What do you think – comments are open below…

I had a call this week from Napier University to let me know that their Business School’s Centre for Festival & Event Management (CFEM) will be welcoming Sydney Olympics supremo and leading world event management expert Johnny Allen back to the capital in January, to share his expertise at the university’s Executive Certificate in Event Management.

From Edinburgh’s Hogmanay and Festival Fringe, to the Government’s ambitious programme of 2009 Homecoming Events, to Glasgow’s 2011 Commonwealth Games and the 2012 London Olympics, the public appetite for events shows no signs of diminishing. And in a climate where the public gobble up spectacular events, and keep demanding more, a career in event management is that rarity: a dynamic, “glamour” industry, thriving despite the economic downturn.

But with the public gaining an increasing taste for the fantastic and flawless, where do events professionals go to gain the edge? Edinburgh is the obvious answer, given the city’s world-wide reputation for events. And Napier University is expecting demand to be high for it’s unique, tailor-made four-day professional festival and event management programme, when it commences on January 26th 2009.

Organised in conjunction with the Australian Centre of Event Management (ACEM), based at the University of Technology in Sydney, the course is run by some of the world’s leading experts, including the renowned Johnny Allen, a key player in the spectacular 2000 Sydney Olympics. Since its 2003 inception, Napier’s Event Management training has proved a year-on-year sell-out.

The 2009 Executive Certificate in Event Management starts in Edinburgh on 26th January. For further details contact Napier University Business School on 0131 455 4504.

This is something that all serious event professionals should want to see – so if you’re interested get in touch with the University.

I’ve been thinking about this for a while.  With various news stories about companies cancelling their Christmas parties, or AIG getting a kicking for yet another expensive event, I’ve been wondering if more and more organisations are going to look to save costs by reducing the formality of their conferences.

As I’ve mentioned before, Julius (from the eventmanagerblog.com site) talks a lot on his site about how events are changing shape and style – but is the credit crisis going to push this even further (or faster).  The truth is that I don’t know.

A new event is taking place over at the Stanford Open Source Lab – a free, user generated conference about all things open source.  Now, this makes sense to me – the whole ‘open source’ thing and ‘user generated’ go hand in hand, but I just can’t believe that my role as an event manager is dead.  Some events – particularly business focused training and conference events will always need some aspects of management because the speakers (professional speakers or otherwise) aren’t going to want to be bothered with helping their delegates registration or worry whether the tea and coffee are being served.

I can honestly see event managers specialising in organising unconferences (or bar camps as they are known) even though the irony is they shouldn’t need organising…

But, back to my question… Will organisations use the credit crisis to cut costs and standards, by using the bar camp model in an effort to save money?  I think they might experiment with it (there is no better time than the present to save a bit of money) but I would urge them to still seek professional help, to make sure that they venues aren’t taking advantage, and that all of the health & safety, legal requirements and technical equipment is correctly arranged.

What do you think? Comments below or on the forum.

No sooner did I mention that AOL have launched when.com, but another major website have added events listings to their site.  For those of you that don’t know, Linked In is a business networking site which lets you connect to people who you know – or make connections through people you know to other people.

If you have a linked in profile (click here to join) then their automatic system will now show events that match your profile and interests.  You can also post your own events, which in turn will be posted as suggestions to people with similar interests.  You can search for events by area of interest, date or location, and see who, from your network is planning to attend.

You can also show your interest in the event, and whether you are planning to attend.

Linked in have partnered with event registration site EventBrite to provide the information for the site – and claim that on launch they have over 8,000 events listed – this is sure to rise as members start posting their own events.

You can find out more, visit the Linked In blog or view this video which shows the system at work.

It’s interesting that two big players have launched similar services in the past couple of weeks, and it will be even more interesting to see if their audience start to use them to suggest events and show which they are attending.  There’s a definite push towards linking live events with social networking sites – maybe it won’t be long before you can show which events you’re attending and meet up with people at events you know from social networking sites.

Billed as ‘the local search engine to discover things to do!’ – when.com is a new innovation from AOL.  Despite the fact that they are cutting back on services (like their online storage solution) when.com is set to be the next ‘big thing’ in social event promotion.  Why?  Well people can imput their own events, as well as the website taking the information from other event websites and directly from promoters.

Cleverly, the website tracks your IP address, and therefore knows where you are accessing the web from.  This means that they can easily provide results that are closest to your current location.  So the website knows that I’m in Gloucester, and gives me results for events taking place at Gloucester Guild Hall and Cheltenham Town Hall.

The only thing the site is really missing is the ability for viewers to vote on how good events are (or might be!) but widgets are promised for social networking sites – as well as giving users the ability to store their upcoming events in the MyWhen feature – sending them reminders about upcoming dates.

I think that the only way this will work is if people have enough interest to add events to it – without the data then it won’t be of much use – but I really like the fact that it knows where you are and suggests events to suit.

Check it out at when.com

I came across a link today for a website that helps people name their business/ project/ whatever!  Looking deeper I found that someone is looking to name their events business…

NameThis! is a really clever concept – you can post your idea/ business on the website and people will suggest names for you – then people can vote for what they think is the best – and for those that pick the winner they get money – genius.

The really clever thing is the thought process it makes people go through when coming up with their names – the event company are two women, based in Texas and have K and G in their names.

The wider view also shows what is popular and what people think of ideas – the worldwide collaborative knowledge is undoubtably better than a couple of people thinking of names in a bar…

For $99 this seems really simple and effective – and I really like some of the suggestions:

• Your Events Enthusiasts Hip And Wise (Y.E.E.H.A.W.)
• LetUsPlanIt
• 2cando
• Conflux

Why not check out NameThis.com and maybe even make a suggestion?

So the end of the summer season has come and gone and the memories of the 2008 festivals are beginning to fade, which means it must be October and time for the Showman’s Show (hurray!).

For those of you that don’t know, the Showman’s Show is a UK tradeshow for the events industry, with its main focus on the infrastructure and services of and to outdoor events such as concerts, festivals, fairs and sports events.

The event takes place at Newbury Showground and is split into two main sections – there is a traditional shell-scheme-style exhibition in a marquee at the entrance, and then there is the outdoor display area.  This is where some of the UK (and Europe’s) largest marquee, staging, technical, fencing, power and entertainment companies build massive stands – often out of their own products!

If you are around on the 22nd or 23rd of October then you really should consider checking out this show!  There’s still time to register, otherwise you can register on the day.  I’ll post some photos after I’ve been, later this week.

There’s major building works going on outside my office as the developers rush to finish the new Gloucester Quay Outlet Village and I’ve been watching today the amazing logistical operation they have going on.  I’m particularly impressed by the massive machine that they have just outside my window for stripping the top layer off the road, and spitting it into the truck behind it. continue

You can’t really get away from the credit crisis here in the UK at the moment, with our banks going under left right and centre (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7658096.stm), as well as job losses and general doom and gloom. Of course the trouble with the events industry is that we aren’t making bread or toothpaste – we aren’t in ‘necessity industries’, so as usual, the first thing to get cut is the event budget, travel and training.  Whether you are organising a high end business conference or a music festival you’ll be thinking hard about how to make sure that your event can survive.

Julius from eventmanagerblog.com has an interesting take on this, suggesting that events as we know then are over and that free, user generated events are the way forward. Whilst I agree with some of what he says, I don’t agree that this means the end of the ‘event manager’ role as we know it, and nor do I believe that events in the future will be organised by the users:

The conventional infrastructure around events is shaking.

Why do I think this – because I know that the majority of people can’t be bothered…  In my role as an event manager I deal with corporates, charities and other businesses who organise events for their customers, partners and guests. If these events didn’t exist then people wouldn’t go, and they certainly wouldn’t organise them off their own back. People might get together for a drink after work, but getting people together in any major way takes planning and someone to be the catalyst. This person IS the event manager – OK they might be wearing jeans and drinking with people in the bar of a hotel, but they are still the person that has put it together – and this is where the problem arises.

Julius is right that you can put the meeting together with a social networking site, a bit of Facebook and a pinch of Twitter but who is responsible for the event?  Who makes sure its coming together and who makes sure that everything is safely done and that no-one is going to get injured?  I fully understand the principle of user-generated events, but at the first sign of something going wrong, everyone walks away. Who does the risk assessment, organises the venue, checks the food is prepared properly and makes sure that everyone knows where they are going? From a marketing perspective, Julius is on the button – the day of the £3000 conference might be drawing to a close, but the role of the event manager has never been stronger.

For example, we talk about businesses looking to cut the costs of their events, and what will happen in this economy (this is an interesting take on things on the Pathable website) but that is exactly where a skilled event manager comes in. We are the people who can save clients’ money, protect them from getting sued and make sure that the venues and contractors deliver everything they should. In the days of tighter belts, getting the logistics right is very important, and getting the right person with the right skill set is even more important.

So what I think this means for the industry? I think there will be events, suppliers and agencies that go to the wall because they can’t adapt and move with the times – but for those businesses who understand the ins and outs of events, and have a particular strength in event logistics this could be a time to grow…

Let me know what you think either here or on the event management forum.