There are lots of interesting web based applications which can help you in the planning and execution of your next event. Consider how the following tools can help:

1. Group Scheduling of Meetings – Do you find yourself coordinating meetings with people in different companies or organizations? Do you find it    difficult to identify a common date/time for a meeting when you cannot view their calendars? Meeting Wizard (http://www.meetingwizard.com/) is one tool which assists in coordinating meetings with a diverse group of people. With Meeting Wizard you can send invitations with suggested dates and times, send meeting updates and meeting reminders.

2. Electronic Invitations – If you find yourself ditching hard copy invitations, tools such as eVite (http://www.evite.com/) make it easy to invite people to a party or an event and to record who is coming. Another vendor to consider is www.sendomatic.com. Some of the online registration tools (listed below) also offer electronic invitations and attendee tracking.

3. Event Registration – Often when you host an event, there is a fee to register. If your company does not regularly host events for a fee, it may make sense to use a third party application to manage the event registration and fee collection process. There are a variety of vendors who offer services such as this. A few to consider are as follows: www.ersvp.com, www.regonline.com, www.memberclicks.com and www.eventbrite.com.

4. Maps and Driving Directions – You can create a map within Google maps (www.googlemaps.com) and save the map with your event location highlighted. You can also add markers to your map for surrounding areas of interest such as hotels and sightseeing locations.  When you are done creating your map, Google provides you a URL that you can share or the html code to embed into your website so that the map automatically displays on your event page. MapQuest (www.mapquest.com) also offers maps and driving directions but only provides a URL that you can share with others for directions.

5. Virtual Meeting Tools – If you find that your meeting can be conducted virtually, there are lots of cost effective options for web-based meetings. Tools such as GoToMeeting (www.gotomeeting.com), WebEx (www.webex.com) and MeetMeNow (www.meetmenow.com) are all tools which can host meetings for 2 people and up. Microsoft also offers a product called Microsoft Office Live Meeting. This tool is more targeted towards companies who conduct frequent meetings amongst each other or have a need for recording meetings.

The web has exploded with tools for managing many facets of online meetings. Do you have a favorite tool that I missed?

Happy planning!