From time to time GovEvents will come across information we feel our members and audience would benefit from. Here's something we wanted to share:

Originally posted on Cvent.com

For those event planners who have started to really embrace technology, we find that there are too many products we are using. There's our mobile app company and the registration company. We have a badging vendor and an online networking vendor. Our heads are spinning because we are managing 10 different technology vendors in addition to all the people we are working with for our event. So, how do we address these and make sure we're integrating all of these products successfully?

Here are 3 tips:

START BIG
When you are doing your research, always look for the most comprehensive products. While I haven't seen anything "out there" that will meet all of your needs in a single product, there are some great companies that can do more than one thing well. You may get registration and your mobile app from the same company, like Cvent. Or perhaps your networking app will come with the online community. Whenever you can do this, you're saving yourself from the hassles of dealing with multiple vendors.

FIND COLLABORATORS
The next step is to make sure you find products that are collaborative - syncing is going to save your life in this event tech game so you want to find products that integrate well with others so that all your info is updated regularly without having to export and import excel lists over and over again. Many event tech companies are integrating and sharing APIs so this is a great thing for planners. It makes our lives exponentially easier.

WHEN IN DOUBT, WORK TOGETHER
If you've found a few companies that you really enjoy working with, don't let the fact that they aren't integrated turn you away. However, make sure that the companies are introduced to each other and know that you expect them to help you work together in whatever ways they can. This could be as simple as them manually doing some of the imports/exports for you or helping you set up your community since you've already done it multiple times. Event tech companies are usually very willing to help you out to get your business and it's important that we ask for their help when it comes to pulling off a successful, tech-integrated event!

Photo: Courtesy Steven Warburton via Flickr cc