r/EventPlanners

I’m interested in learning from people who’ve organised professional networking events.
Looking back, what’s one lesson you wish you’d known before hosting your first few events?

It could be about: attendee experience, venues, sponsors, ticket sales, timing, logistics, encouraging people to actually network or something completely unexpected.

I’m interested in hearing the things you only learn through experience.

Hey everyone!
My name is Beckett, I'm 18, and I work at a wedding venue in St. Louis. Through my work, I've seen firsthand how fragmented communication can be among planners, venues, rental companies, and clients, and I've been thinking about building software to fix it.
Before I build anything, I want to hear from people in the industry. Would love honest answers to a few quick questions:
What tools or software do you currently use?

What are your biggest frustrations with them?

Is there anything you wish they did differently?

What would it take for you to switch to something new?

Drop your answers in the comments or DM me. Really appreciate it!

Hi y'all!

What shoes would you guys recommend for standing all day at a booth? I mistakenly wore loafers my first time because I thought they were cute and professional, but hugeeee mistake.

Was thinking about New Balances or Hokas... any recommendations?

Question for event planners I've noticed that some event planners rely almost entirely on Instagram, Facebook, or referrals, while others have dedicated websites. For those of you who run an event planning business, what made you decide to have (or not have) a website? Has it made any noticeable difference in getting clients or building trust? I'm curious to hear about your experiences.

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

I'm a meeting planner working on a nonprofit annual conference, and leadership wants to focus on generating excitement during the final 15 days before early bird registration ends.

I'm looking for ideas that have actually worked, not just theory.

What have you seen successfully increase registrations in those final two weeks?

My thought is that it all depends on the situation. For a free, one-off event, sure. But for a regular events program? Definitely not.

Also might be a hot take, but I think the single most underrated RSVP feature is letting people save the event to their own calendar.

Because an RSVP shows intent but putting it on the calendar signals commitment. And the gap between those two is where all the no-shows live.

Curious if others have found a helpful RSVP platform that does more than just collect attendee registrations?

Had an incident last spring where a vendor's setup failed about an hour and a half into a 200-person dinner and they had no contingency. The client brought it up in the debrief. Since then I've been much more systematic about vetting before booking anyone.

I now ask for a list of recent corporate events specifically, not just any events, because wedding clients forgive a lot more than corporate ones do. I ask what software they're running and how many events they've done on that exact setup. And I ask directly what they do if something goes wrong mid-event. Vendors who've thought through that scenario answer differently than ones who haven't.

What are other planners doing here? Photo booth failures seem way more common than any vendor will admit upfront.

We're juggling speaker outreach, contract tracking, scheduling, and travel logistics across spreadsheets and email threads, and it's becoming hard to keep everything organized as our event calendar grows. I want to find speaker management tools that can centralize speaker profiles, availability, and communication history in one place. Ideally the system would also handle things like contract status, payment tracking, and automated reminders so nothing falls through the cracks. I'm also curious whether these tools can integrate with our existing event platform or calendar systems to cut down on manual data entry.

I’m launching a new jewellery business and looking at attending wedding expos in Australia.

Are they worth it?
Do you get business? Of tyre kickers?
What’s the best way to engage people to your stall?

We’re starting to plan our annual corporate holiday party and are looking for entertainment that’s different from what we’ve done in the past. Something new and unique for our guests.

The event is in December at a food hall that will be closed to the public. Guests can order from multiple food vendors, there is also a bar, and the entertainment space is wide open. The venue has told us there are essentially no restrictions on entertainment.

In previous years we’ve done:
Mini bowling
Dueling pianos
DJ with a speakeasy theme

This year I’d love to surprise everyone with something unexpected. It could be centered around a theme or just a unique entertainment experience.

Has your company done anything that people still talk about years later? Looking for ideas beyond the typical casino night, photo booth, or standard DJ.

We typically have around 120-150 attendees, and we’re open to almost anything as long as it’s fun, interactive, and works well for adults.

If I am looking to book artists for events which are trusted websites where I can book an artist online for events and weddings ? Are there charges that are better than direct booking ?

The first problem is that I have a subgroup in the community chat where people can talk and share things. This subgroup has a lot of people in it. Only about 15-20 people are actually active. They like to joke and have a lot of fun. I think this might be scaring off some of the serious people who join the group. They look at the subgroup, then leave without saying anything. The problem is that these active people are some of my most loyal members. I do not want to get rid of the subgroup because it will make them feel unwanted.

I think about it like a brand image. I want it to feel like an iPhone and less like a cheap Android. Does that make sense? It's not about leaving anyone out, more about the vibe and polish the group shows. Right now, the loudest 15-20 people decide how new people see us. It's very casual, joke-filled and wild. I think it looks messy and not serious to people who expect something more organized.

I want to know if anyone else has had this problem when their group grew. How do you make the tone better without hurting the loyalty of the members who have been with me from the start?

The second problem is that not many women are coming to our events. I made a group for women so they can feel safe and comfortable joining in. At our last event, only one in five people who came were women. This means that just having the women's group is not enough to get them to come to the events.

On top of that, I've noticed a few other women-only groups/communities popping up around the same space recently, so I'm also wondering how to actually stand out and feel like the better, more worthwhile option. I want to be a group women would actually want to be a part of, not just one that exists.

I also want to know how to make my group feel more organized and put together as it grows. I do not want to lose the energy and excitement that made people want to join in the first place. It feels like these two things are working against each other now.

I am open to any advice, even if it is very honest.

I hope someone can help me with these problems. I really want this to be a place where everyone feels welcome and has a good time.

Forgive me for not being able to express myself clearly. I don't have any intentions of hurting anyone.

TL;DR:

Started a fast-growing community/events group 2 months ago.

(1) A loud, joke-heavy subgroup of 15-20 regulars might be scaring off newer, more "serious" people, want to fix the vibe without alienating my earliest members.

(2) Women aren't showing up to events despite having a women's group, and now other women's groups are popping up too, want to actually stand out and not just exist.

Had a vendor come in for a 150-person corporate dinner last month with what looked like a solid setup on paper. About ninety minutes in the software crashed. The vendor couldn't get it back up for almost twenty minutes. In a room full of people waiting to use it that's a long time. The client noticed. I noticed. It came up in the debrief.

Been coordinating events for six years and it's the third time I've had a photo booth related issue at a corporate event. All three times it was software, not hardware. The booths looked fine. The software either crashed, produced inconsistent output, or had settings that weren't configured properly for the event environment.

Started asking vendors much more specific questions during vetting now. Not just how long they've been doing it but what they're running, how many events on that specific setup, and what their contingency is if something goes down mid-event. Vendors who've thought through those scenarios answer differently than ones who haven't.

I'm curious how everyone handles communication once an event is actually underway.

Planning tools seem to do a great job before the event (registration, schedules, ticketing, etc.), but I'm wondering what people rely on during the event itself.

For example:

• Communicating parking or entrance changes
• Letting attendees know about last-minute updates
• Knowing who's actually arrived versus who's still on the way
• Coordinating meetup points for different groups
• Answering the inevitable "Where are you?" messages

Do you primarily use:

• Group texts
• WhatsApp
• Slack/Discord
• Event apps
• Email
• Walkie-talkies/radios (for staff)
• Something else?

Is there one tool that covers most of this well, or is it usually a combination of several?

I'd love to hear what your workflow looks like and what tends to work—or not work—for your events.

Hi everyone!

This is an idea I've had for a long time, and I'd love to bring it to life within the next year or two. Since last September, I've been hosting fitness-focused social events in our community. My goal has been to build connections, grow an audience, and develop relationships with other fitness-related businesses before taking on something bigger.

One event I've always wanted to organize is a community Field Day for adults! A chance for people to get active, meet new people, and relive some childhood memories for a day.

I'd love to include classic field day activities like tug-of-war, sack races, water balloon tosses, relay races, and other fun team-based games. Beyond that, I'd like to partner with local businesses and organizations to create activity stations throughout the event. For example, a local running club or shoe store could host racing challenges, a pickleball facility could run mini games, a gym could host a fitness challenge, and so on.

I also realize not every business would want to be present on event day, so I've been considering a "Sponsor a Station" option where businesses could still be involved and support the event without having to staff an activity.

At this point, I'm mainly looking for feedback and ideas. Are there any logistical challenges I'm not thinking about? What activities, stations, or partnerships would make an event like this even more fun and engaging?

I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts!

I'm planning a 400-person corporate conference in the fall and leadership keeps pushing me to add some kind of points or leaderboard system to boost engagement. I've looked at a few platforms but I can't tell if attendees actually care about badges and prizes or if they just ignore the whole thing. My worry is we sink budget into an app feature that 30 people use and everyone else tunes out.

For folks who've run gamification at a midsize event, what did you use and did it change anything measurable? Did sessions get better attendance, did people network more, or did it mostly just sit there? Also curious how much extra work it added for your team during the event itself.

I'm responsible for organizing our company's annual business meet-up, and I'm trying to figure out which conference planning platform will actually make my life easier rather than harder. This event matters to us. It's the one time each year our whole team and our key partners come together, so I can't afford for the logistics to fall apart.

Right now I'm juggling a lot of moving pieces in my head. I need to handle attendee registration and ticketing, send out invitations, track RSVPs, and manage a schedule that probably includes multiple sessions or breakout rooms. On top of that, I'm thinking about things like badge printing, a venue floor plan, catering headcounts, and maybe a mobile app or agenda that attendees can check on their phones. I also want a way to collect feedback afterward so we can improve next year.