Why You Should Start Planning the Holiday Party Now

With the fall season starting to settle in, not many people are tuning into the holiday spirit.  As an event planner, or simply one who plans holiday parties, try to use this down time to your advantage.  There are so many benefits to placing yourself ahead of the holiday ball, so to speak.  Here are a few reasons why you should start planning the holiday party right now:

The Early Bird gets the…

Best venue!  Early fall, venues' calendars are wide open, so pick your date.  If you are looking for a deal, there can be deep venue discounts for the early planner, say planning 90 days in advance or choosing a Sunday through Thursday event date.  Also, there could be a specific date that a venue is looking to sell, sort of like a clearance rack for days, and a holiday party might be a good fit.

Food and beverage is the second big component to planning the holiday party.  A coveted caterer loves to have plenty of time to plan in advance.  The time that you spend meeting and communicating with your caterer will ensure that you get exactly what you want.  Seasonally sourced craft cocktails?  No, problem.  Corporate logo on a caramel drizzled cookie- a snap.

Timely Trends

By early fall you’ll have a strong sense of trending themes.  Are moustaches still fun?  What patterns and colors are on the top of everyone’s list?  By planning early you’ll have ample time to research and special order unique decor that will place distinctive touches on your party and make your event everyone’s favorite of the year.

Calendar it!

Parties aren’t fun without attendees, right?  Planning the holiday party nice and early gets it on everyone’s calendars, before all the other holiday festivities populate it.  A well forecasted party date also gives people something to look forward to, and a chance for them to plan to attend with their best foot forward; well rested, well-dressed and ready for fun.

Pat Yourself on the Back

For a job well done!  Taking the guess-work out of party planning early on makes the job a whole lot easier for the party planner.  Sure, there are small details that might need addressing, but overall you’ll be able to sleep a lot better and enjoy yourself a lot more knowing that the big details are squared away.  And isn’t having a wonderful time what the holidays are all about?

Productivity Apps for Event Planners

As any successful event planner will tell you, times can get hectic. Even the simplest event can have a seasoned event planner multi-tasking like crazy which can lead to feeling frazzled and inefficient. Luckily for us, with the dawn of technology, a wonderful array of apps has developed that not only make your life easier, but more productive! Here are a few of our favorites and why we love them:

Trello:

Throw away your sticky notes and say “Hello” to Trello. This organizing app can get a whole team on the same page, and fast. Arrange anything from to-do lists, group projects and long-term goals. You can add media, checklists, due dates and even attachments.

MailChimp:

MailChimp is an email marketing tool. It’s a great productivity app to manage contacts, send emails and track results. If you have an existing email list, try sending an invitation their way or report on the success of an event. MailChimp also has a fantastic testing feature to fine tune your message.

Guidebook:

Build apps with this app. We know that dedicated event apps are all the rage, but who has the time and resources to work with an app-developer? Enter Guidebook, the app provides upfront pricing and functionality to help you take your event to the next level while saving money, time and headaches.

PlanningPod:

Tired of all those spreadsheets and emails floating around? Check out the productivity app PlanningPod. Designed specifically for event professionals the PlanningPod system is really a dozen planning tools in one app. You can create floorplans, manage guest lists, track budgets and create templates for future use. There is also a website feature and credit card processing.

FullContact:

Updates, job changes, emails and phone numbers have made contact mis-management a constant in the lives of many professionals. FullContact has been developed to handle just that. It takes phone, file, google and social media contacts and syncs them in one spot. It also updates and deletes duplicates and for the very cautious, you can export to hard copy. Magic. A bonus is that you can use this with multiple Gmail accounts.

JotNot:

Put a scanner in your pocket. For those important documents that you have to save and share like contracts or invoices, check out JotNot. Many professionals find themselves on the go and not necessarily carting around a scanner, so take a snap shot with your mobile device and save the image as a high quality PDF, then email to anyone.

Paperless Post:

This productivity app is too pretty to leave off the list! It’s an event app that lends a sophisticated aesthetic to designing online and paper invitations. Popular for weddings and small events, you can even design the online envelope.

Many of these productivity apps offer slick “How-to” videos and free trials. Try one or two out and see if you have more fun staying organized!