Obviously, hearing things is important because I have 2 sets of headphones and a set of speakers. The internet is also key because I have a wireless router and repeater to boost the signal.

One of the things that I find amazing about social media for meeting and event planners (marketers) is that our very attendees can be our biggest army of marketing foot-soldiers. When your event is an amazing success, they will talk about it, they will share it and they will let everyone know.

This has changed the event marketing landscape for the better and has made our jobs as event marketers 1000 times easier.

One of the ways that your attendees love to share their experiences is through Twitter, they tweet, and others retweet and that amazing testimonial rages across the internet like a nuclear bomb in a gas factory but in much the same way, those Twitter testimonials tend to flame out fast.

The Twitter medium does not lend itself to longevity because it is designed that way, Twitter is a raging stream, a  river of data that flows over the waterfall never to be seen again. Even though this is the design, you do not need to lose the mojo that these compliments and testimonials provide. You can grab them and show them to the world as easy as pie (Pun intended).

Capturing A Tweet for Your Website

It used to be that if you wanted to capture a tweet, most of us would take a screenshot of the Tweet, do a little edit job, resize the image, upload that image to your website and them insert it into a page or a post. Yuck, this is messy, inefficient and time consuming.

There is an easier a way… if your meeting or event website is using the WordPress platform.

A Big Slice of Blackbird Pie

Blackbird Pie is an extremely useful plugin for event marketers because it allows you to grab a tweet and insert it into your post with little muss and no fuss. Basically, Blackbird Pie allows you to add embedded HTML representations of tweets in your site using simple shortcodes that the plugin inserts on its own.

Here are some of the features:

• TinyMCE  editor button to easily search and embed a tweet
• A tweet URL on its own line will be converted to a “pie”
• Now tweets looks pretty in RSS readers!
• Exact same look and feel as the respective Twitter profile.
• Allows for multiple “pies” in a single post.
• Uses the Twitter profile text color.
• Uses the Twitter profile link color.
• Dates are displayed like on Twitter i.e. “real time” date-time of when the tweet was tweeted.
• Auto-linking of URLs, hashtags, usernames within the tweet text.

For a full rundown on the plugins features, you can visit the developers site for more information.

Cost

OK you SAY! These are some great freaking features. It must cost a fortune! Well, cool your jets there Uncle Pennywise, the plugin is free.

Ease of Use

Let’s have a look at a couple of real world examples, I will go into detail on how to use the plugin below.

Here are a couple of Tweets that I came across this morning and embedded into this post in about 10 seconds.

How Facebook Social Plugins Increase Engagement On Your #Nonprofit Orgs Website #smassn by @johnhaydon http://t.co/aVyGwdNX

January 23, 2012 1:35 pm via HootSuiteReplyRetweetFavorite

@JeffHurt

Jeff Hurt

Planners Access Social Media Reviews to Vet Venueshttp://t.co/c5O44FdA

January 23, 2012 1:20 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@HSMAIMEET

HSMAI MEET

So, How do You Use Blackbird Pie

The first thing you need to do is install Blackbird Pie to WordPress (if you are using the WordPress platform, you should know how to do this, if not, shoot me an email).

Once it is installed, you sit back and wait for a Tweet that you really want to put in a post…… days pass by, now a week and you have forgotten your excitement of installing the plugin…. UNTIL!!!!!!!!

BAM, the most amazing testimonial pops up on Twitter! It is amazing and it rocks so much that you fall over backwards in your amazing chair and knock yourself out cold. You are so out that you have to be brought back around by that weird little guy from accounting.

You come to, spring to your feet, knowing that you must act now to capture all of that amazing event lovin before it is gone forever.

You open up a browser, launch your WordPress dashboard and get to work!

First, you write the most amazing post about the testimonial because it was from the most amazing person in your amazing industry and this is the most amazing day and holy crap, everyone is going to be amazed!

You find the spot in the post where you want to insert the Tweet and you click the little blackbird.

Up Pops the little box and you insert the Tweet URL. (You can insert the Tweet in three ways, via the Tweet URL, the Tweet ID or by Searching. For this post, you are using the Tweet URL because it is easy).

You click insert, the plugin inserts the shortcode, you do a quick preview to make sure that it looks awesome and you hit publish and before you know it, the New York Times is calling to put you on the front freaking page because that Tweet was simply stupendous! How did the world exist before this one little Tweet and you have shared it with the world.

A happy ending! But WAIT…. How in the hell do you find a Tweets URL?

You see the Tweet, you must capture the URL!

• Locate the Tweet in Your Timeline (or someone’s timeline)
• Click on the details stamp
• This will open up the individual tweet
• Copy that URL from the Address bar

There you have it, one Plugin that got your event on the cover of the New York Times, you were promoted to Chief Marketing Officer and you were able to fire your old boss.

Life couldn’t be better.

Pie Image: docentjoyce

What a voice, if you watch this video, the song makes an awesome transition at 1 minute 40.

Did you ever wonder how secure your password is?

This is a question that should nag at every person who is involved with meetings and events for a number of reasons. We are increasingly online with our attendee databases, our event financials and our entire event marketing strategies and this is information that some people would pay good money for.

You are only as secure as your staffs’ weakest password.

You may not be able to control the passwords of all of your colleagues but at least you can make sure that you are not the source of the data-leak that winds up on the homepage of the Huffington Post.

Find out how secure your passwords are by heading over to “How Secure is my Password” and type away. The site updates as you type telling you how long it would take an average PC to crack your code.

You might be amazed to find out that you are not as secure as you think.

So, if you are a regular visitor here, you will notice a few changes! I have ditched the narcissistic header in favor of something a little more streamlined with the new logo and more accurate categories (God, about time, I have no idea what that Planner Life category was all about).

One thing that I said that I would do is turn my post on great event industry blogs into a page and you can find it here. One of my goals is to get each of the bloggers behind these amazing sites to write a few sentences about another blog on the list.

Thanks to everyone for their readership and good words, it really does mean a lot and I want everyone to know that I truly appreciate the fact that you are here.

Anyway, I hope that everyone digs the new digs and let me know what you think!

Original Image: GWire

I wrote this post on Friday with the intent of posting on Monday. Over the weekend, there were some dramatic changes in Washington. Specifically, the White House made the following statement:

While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.

In addition, many of those that were behind SOPA are now pulling their support in what must be amazing moments of clarity.While this might “kill the bill”, we need to stay on top of this and not let our politicians do stupid things.

That being said, the image that you see above could have this website slammed off the internet, it could make it disappear in an instant. Why? Because I did not create the image and even though I give credit (the image is from this post over at Forbes where the author is calling for large internet sites to join in his call for a massive protest)

We need to focus and keep our eye on the ball because this post is about a real issue that needs to be addressed by the meetings and events industry and so far, our industry associations are silent (surprised??).

Our industry associations are always silent on major issues because God forbid they piss off a sponsor because we all know that they are in it for the money, some (not all) of our associations act like giant cash sucking machines. They do not actually help meeting  and event planners and the real world issues that we face. Oh, sure, they will help you learn how to divide the square feet of a ballroom to get the square meters, but they will never actually take a stand on anything of substance because they are chicken-shit.

The Current Problem

The major item that is facing meeting and event planners (this time) is SOPA and PIPA. Two bills that are currently making the rounds in Washington that could effectively kill the internet or at least how we use the internet, leaving us with only what the Corporations and Government want us to see.

This is the WORST legislation to come before us in YEARS and has the power to effectively change the way we do business and could potentially CRIPPLE the small businesses that are the backbone of the meetings and events industry.Do you hear me associations? Small businesses make up most of the industry, not the huge mega-conglomerates that you call friend (or cash cow)….. but I digress.

What is SOPA

SOPA (and its companion Bill, PIPA) is designed to stop online piracy. This sounds good on the surface, everyone can agree that stealing shit is bad. What SOPA really is though is an internet censorship tool that will be employed by corporations that feel a website has infringed on their rights.

A company thinks you infringed, they submit a request to the Justice Department and then the site is removed (without trial or hearing). The site being attacked has 5 days to appeal and that is all. 5 days…. could you muster a response in 5 days if someone was threatening your business?

Now, pro-SOPA people will say that they are only targeting the bad guys and that may be true… at first, but once the corporations realize they have the power to hack their competitors off at the knees, they will use it. How can they use it? Let me tell you.

The problem is that the Bill is written so broadly with such vague terms that sites that use song clips or even post a review of a product or movie could potentially be forced to remove the content or be shut down entirely.

So, you post a picture on Facebook of a movie poster and Facebook could be shut down…. No shit, the bill is written that poorly. The problem is the not what they want to accomplish, it is HOW they want to accomplish it.

Watch a video that explains this whole mess.

Want to know what others are saying?

Here is a snip from a CNET Article

On November 15, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Zynga, eBay, Mozilla, Yahoo, AOL, and LinkedIn wrote a letter to key members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, saying SOPA poses “a serious risk to our industry’s continued track record of innovation and job creation, as well as to our nation’s cybersecurity.” Yahoo has reportedly quit the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over the organization’s enthusiastic support for SOPA.

Laurence Tribe, a high-profile Harvard law professor and author of a treatise titled American Constitutional Law, has argued that SOPA is unconstitutional because, if enacted, “an entire Web site containing tens of thousands of pages could be targeted if only a single page were accused of infringement.”

Here is a snip from LifeHacker

It puts power in the hands of the entertainment industry to censor sites that allegedly “engage in, enable or facilitate” copyright infringement. This language vague enough to encompass sites you use every day, like Twitter and Facebook, making SOPA a serious problem.

Basically, the bill will be no good at stopping piracy—what it was apparently designed to do—but excellent at censoring any web site capable of providing its users with the means of promoting pirated content or allowing the process. This includes sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr, and many more. If it’s possible to post pirated content on the site, or information that could further online piracy, a claim can be brought against it. This can be something as minor as you posting a copyrighted image to your Facebook page, or piracy-friendly information in the comments of a post such as this one. The vague, sweeping language in this bill is what makes it so troubling.

How about the Electronic Frontier Foundation

Let’s make one thing clear from the get-go: despite all the talk about this bill being directed only toward “rogue” foreign sites, there is no question that it targets US companies as well.

Howling at the Moon

As you can see, SOPA is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, it is a law that on its surface seems harmless enough but it is designed to allow corporations and the government the ability to shut down websites simply because they want too, with no due process. They may simply not like what a website is saying and get an order to shut it down.

In my opinion, this runs contrary to the American Constitution.  This Bill is ANTI-AMERICAN.

SOPA tells you that it is designed to stop online piracy but is supported by the same morons that gave us DRM systems for our digital music (that worked well) and by other companies that wish to control what we see on the internet. They are looking for a back door to snuff out their competition and are using legislation and lobbying to get this power.

Here are some companies that support SOPA

• Universal Music
• Ultimate Fighting Championship
• Time Warner
• Tiffany and Company
• Walt Disney
• National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences
• Roseta Stone
• Revlon
• The PGA
• Nintendo
• NBCUniversal
• CBS
• Comcast

Right off the bat you can see that these are not the companies that you want controlling what you have access too. They have only one desire and that is to snuff out (legal) competition and sell you shit. These companies are looking for a power grab. Here is a link to every company that supports SOPA.

Here are the companies that are lined up AGAINST SOPA

• AOL
• American Express
• Boing Boing
• Creative Commons
• Daily Kos
• Disqus
• eBay
• Etsy
• Facebook
• foursquare
• Google
• LinkedIn
• Mozilla
• PayPal
• Tumblr
• Twitter
• TechCrunch
• Yahoo!
• The Huffington Post
• Craigslist

Here is the complete list of companies that oppose SOPA.

You will notice that there are some heavy hitters in opposition to SOPA, some are good and some are bad but at least they want to keep the internet as it is; an open forum where we can all share ideas, thoughts and opinions without the fear that some big bad company or the government is going to come in and squash a website because they do not like what we have to say, which they will do by the way in case you are one of those idiots that thinks that companies have your best interests at heart.

What Does SOPA Mean for Meetings and Events

OK, let’s take a really simple example.

• You have a conference, conference video plays on homepage, in the background of the video there is a song playing (just happened to be playing at the conference venue)…. BAM, goodbye to your whole website.
• A speaker gives you a video to post on your site and unbeknownst to you, there is copyrighted material in the video…. BAM, there goes your site.
• One of your competitors TELLS (ahem, lies) to the Justice Department that there is copyrighted material on your website… BAM, there goes your site.

I can think of a million other examples and all are not good. There are also more personal reasons why you should oppose SOPA, but that is for another post.

We Know Piracy Needs to Stop

I understand that we need to stem the tide of piracy because it takes money from the artist, the people that work on these projects and the companies that sell this merchandise.

I do not think that giving Sony Music the power to kill websites is the answer, I do not think that telling BMG that they have the right to willy nilly have websites blocked is going to stem the tide of kids downloading music or dudes in China making illegal copies of the latest blockbuster.

I hate to tell SOPA’s supporters, but that fucking cat is already out of the bag and in fact, it left the bag last decade and is already on the way to Miami. They missed the boat, they missed the cat and now they are trying to catch the cat by killing the dog…. it makes no sense.

Many bad things start out as good things.

We should take the time to craft legislation that is fair to the recording industry, artists and others while at the same time, does not trample the rights of meeting and event professionals that may inadvertently run afoul of some hideous piece of legislation.

STOP SOPA, DO IT RIGHT

I really hope that this does not devolve into some left/right political thing because I find that the morons that slide down that slip and slide tend to be idiots that probably sit at home kicking their dogs for sport. Just thinkin….

I love being involved with Site (the Society of Incentive Travel Executives) and being a Board Member for the Chicago Chapter.

This is why I am totally psyched that we are putting the final touches on our new website.

We are just about ready to pull the stops out for the members and send them their log ins so that they can go behind the scenes and check out all of the amazing features including the new forum, educational sections and member directory.

A Resource for Everyone

The website is also great for non-members because we are building a great resource that will feature industry news including destination info,  hotels, resorts and even some of the movers and shakers that are getting hired and promoted.

Everyone in the Meetings and Incentives Industry Invited

I invite everyone to check out the new site and let us know how it looks. If you are interested in grabbing industry news, you can subscribe to the rss feed or sign up for the once a month newsletter.

Site Chicago is Social

Our Facebook page and  Twitter feed will feature our daily posts so follow us or give us a like! We are even looking to get a little Google action pretty soon.

Send us Your News

If you are a destination, hotelier, supplier or anyone that has industry news to share, drop us a line at site@sitechicago.org. If it is something that would interest the industry, we will post it and share it across all of our social media outposts. (Members will use the form in the members section).

Industry Job Board

We will also be rolling out our new job board because even in the best of times, we feel that job postings are something that your association chapter should be letting you know about. Look for this to be live on Monday and open to all.

If you are an incentive house, meeting planning company, hotel, resort, destination or incentive industry supplier with an open position, we would love it if you would allow us to post your opening because there are some amazing people out there that would love an opportunity to shine.

Members

Are you a member of Site Chicago? Let me know, we are looking for some of our members to act as Guinea Pigs and help us work out any bugs before the members only section goes live! Just drop me a line and let me know!

Email marketing for events, specifically for conferences and meetings has been around for a long time and there are some marketers out there that do an amazing job. Their emails are first on my read list when they come in and you should strive to be this good.

Your attendees should want to open your emails because they are good, attendees should not get them and cringe.

For many conferences and events, they still treat email marketing like a red headed step child and just like that little kid of old, neglecting email marketing is a bad thing to do because it might just be the best thing in your marketing arsenal. Think about it, the little red headed girl might go on to be an amazing scientist that cures the common cold and email marketing might be the tool that puts your attendance levels at a new record, don’t ignore either of them.

Email Marketing Done Correctly:

First, you do not want to be the asshat that gets a business card from some poor unsuspecting schmuck and adds it immediately to your database where you proceed to slam the poor dude with marketing emails every day until, in exasperation, he unsubscribes from your list and reports you to the CIA, the FBI and Interpol in hopes that they will string you up from the nearest pole and beat you with a piñata stick.

We know that hotels and CVBs are notorious for this and although it does not actually run afoul of CANSPAM laws, it is freaking annoying.

CANSPAM

Briefly, this is what the FTC website has to say:

Do you use email in your business? The CAN-SPAM Act, a law that sets the rules for commercial email, establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives recipients the right to have you stop emailing them, and spells out tough penalties for violations.

Despite its name, the CAN-SPAM Act doesn’t apply just to bulk email. It covers all commercial messages, which the law defines as “any electronic mail message the primary purpose of which is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service,” including email that promotes content on commercial websites. The law makes no exception for business-to-business email. That means all email – for example, a message to former customers announcing a new product line – must comply with the law.

To learn more, you can skate over to the FTC website and read on but follow basic etiquette and you are good.

Getting Started with Email Marketing

Now, I am going to assume that most people reading this post are event professionals that have had some interaction with email marketing and at least understand the premise. Hell, if you have been getting emails anytime in the last decade or so, you have received an email marketing piece, wanted or unwanted.

Collecting Emails from Attendees and Prospects

You must collect emails correctly and this means collecting your emails in a respectful way that will be appreciated by the end user. This means, asking people if they would like to join your list. You do not add anyone to your list that did not ask… specifically… to be on the list.

On your website:

Put up a subscribe box like the one that I have here (top of page, to the right). People that fill out this form get an email that asks them to click a link to confirm their subscription. This is called “double opt in” and the surest way of getting people that want to join your list. When they have to do two things to get on your list, you know that they really want to be on there.

At a Tradeshow or Other Event

When at a tradeshow or networking event, ask people to join your list and have them fill out a little card where they check a box that says “add me to your list”. This covers you and lets you know that the person wants to join. Another option is to have a couple of laptops set up where people can fill out your online form.

From Your Members or Attendees:

This is where many organizations get it wrong so let’s clear this up. When new members sign up for your event or join your association, they are not asking to get your email newsletter, they are asking to join or to attend, nothing more. You must ask them if they want your marketing email… GOT IT.

You can build the “ask” right into your online sign up form, it is that easy. Have a little box that says “would you like to receive our newsletter” and then follow the “double opt in” rule and have them click a link that comes into their inbox.

Remember, just because I joined your association, attended your event or stopped by your booth,  it does not mean that I want your newsletter and just slapping me on some list is going to make me hate you.

Email Marketing Content

So what do you put into your email marketing pieces or your event or conference newsletter?

I would love to be able to spell everything out and make it easy, but this is where your creativity comes into play. You must put in information that your target market would like to receive, it is that simple. Talk about new speakers, sponsors or the content that they will be getting when they attend your event, you have the power to do anything.

How Often Should Your Newsletter Go Out?

Again, this is a reflection of your event or association and how often you have news to share. I will say that any more than once a week is really overkill and sure to piss people off.  For associations, I like to receive information about once a month because really, is there anything so pressing that it needs to go out weekly? This will also offer you the in-between times for really important communications like the appointing of a new executive director.

The RSS to Newsletter Option

One option that is particularly helpful, especially for event blogs is the RSS to newsletter option that many services offer. You design a template and then once a week the service automatically sends your week’s posts as a newsletter. Simple and very effective. This also eliminates the need for a formal “newsletter” since all of your website’s new content is being delivered on a schedule.

Choosing an Email Marketing Service

There are  four services that I recommend for email marketing and only four. I have used them all and can recommend them all equally, they each have pluses and minuses but all are excellent products.

They all offer the basics:

• All allow you to send email marketing pieces
• All have online sign up forms that can be integrated into your website
• All allow you to manage your email subscribers and segment your lists (really helpful if you have different audiences in one larger group)
• All have a template system to get started fast and allow you to customize your marketing pieces
• All have an RSS to email option
• All show tracking information like who opened the email, forwarded the email and more
• All offer excellent delivery rates

Beyond the above, many of the following, excellent services do even more. One offers auto-responder follow ups, while yet another offers full blown social media monitoring, direct mail and even some event related items. They do a lot but today we are only looking at the email deliverables and they all excel at this so let’s just get to the good stuff before you feel the need to go have a peanut butter sandwich or worse, a cocktail….I know that I can drone on and on.

For the Beginning Email Marketer

There are two choices that I think work well for meeting and event professionals that are just jumping into the world of email marketing services. In fact, MailChimp is the service that I use for PlannerWire. Just because I think that they are good for newbies does not mean that they are not very powerful tools.

MailChimp

MailChimp kicks ass, it is as simple as that. The basic plan is free, yes,  free. You can pick your jaw up off the keyboard now. Even though the basic service costs no money, it does offer a lot of bang for very little dough. MailChimp makes putting together email marketing pieces a snap and for those that get stuck, all of their tutorials are video and easy to understand. They offer RSS to newsletter functions and more.

Here is what the MailChimp Website has to say:

MailChimp helps you design email newsletters, share them on social networks, integrate with services you already use, and track your results. It’s like your own personal publishing platform.

To Learn More Visit the MailChimp Website

MadMimi

I have to tell you, MadMimi is such a good choice that we use it for the Site Chicago Website. Adding images, content and segmenting lists is a breeze and they have so many features that I cannot even begin to list them. But know that they are recommended by Mashable, Virgin Mobile and AGA Digital. Over 89,000 businesses make them the service of choice.

Here is What the MadMimi Website has to Say

Mad Mimi is a simple, intelligent and powerful email marketing utility that anyone can use. Mad Mimi makes email marketing easy for the creator, and easier on the eyes for the receiver. With ground-breaking technology, Mad Mimi is the simplest way to create branded, well-designed newsletters and promotions. Sign up free today and get started with simple, lovely email marketing.

To Learn More Visit the MadMimi Website

For the More Advanced Email Marketer

There are some marketers that are going to need to beef up what they are using and this could be for a variety of reasons. Perhaps your event is huge, you have more than a bunch or you just want every bell and whistle ever made. For the more advanced email marketer or for someone who is looking to get more tools than just emails out of their service, I am going to recommend the following two services.

AWeber

AWeber is a massive tool and the choice for many of the world’s A-List Bloggers. That should tell you something because A-List bloggers live and die by their email list and they cannot afford screw-ups. They need a tool that will get the job done well. Let me tell you, if you sell digital products with your event or conference, then AWeber should be one of the tools you look to first. If you are selling digital products with your conference, you also do not need me to walk through a feature set, you can check them out for yourself.

Here is What the AWeber Website has to Say

Create profitable customer relationships for your business! AWeber’s email marketing tools like professional email signup forms & autoresponder services make it easy for you to build your email list and stay in touch with prospects.

To Learn More Visit the AWeber Website

Vertical Response

Vertical Response is also a wicked tool for serious email marketers that does more than send 12 monthly newsletters. VR has just acquired Roost and are now in the full blown social media monitoring business. They also have integrated event marketing, direct mail integration (yes, postcards and other mailers), surveys and more. They are a powerhouse.

Here is What the Vertical Response Website has to Say

Whether you’re new to email marketing or are a seasoned pro, we have email creation options to suit your style. Our tools take the work out of email creation and guide you through, step-by-step.

Learn More at the Vertical Response Website

Conclusion

You must market your event, conference, trade show or meeting and you must market using email. The tools that you use are up to you and your team but it pays to use the best one for the job or you will end up hurting more than helping.

That is why I love the internet! Those little internet fairies build and construct some of the most amazing things in the middle of the night when we are all sleeping snug in our beds. They use their magic fairy dust to produce products that make me a better person because when I do not have to do the heavy lifting on accounting chores, I am a much nicer person. Really… just ask people that know me.

I am not going to give reviews or in-depth info, just enough so you can see what the product is about. This is one of those times when you have to do the final research yourself because many of the offerings are similar and some are excellent so it is a matter of personal choice… which works better for your needs.

Helping Meeting and Event Planners get Control of their Accounting and Start the Year Right:

Online Accounting Software

Wave Accounting

An online suite of FREE accounting software. Yep, you read that right, it is FREE. They make their money promoting other products that you might need.

Less Accounting

Ya gotta love a company who’s tagline is “All small business accounting software sucks, we just suck the least.”. Seriously, they know the realty of accounting.

Kashoo

Kashoo is a suite of powerful online accounting software, enough said!

Xero

Full blown online accounting package that handles everything from payroll to inventory.

Free Agent

A total package that handles most accounting jobs, great for freelancers

Invoicing and Time Tracking

FreshBooks

Fast and simple invoicing and time tracking services that is very popular

MarketCircle

Billing, invoicing and time tracking for the Apple crowd

Bill.com

Bill.com automates vendor bill payment and customer invoicing. Automation is good….

Harvest

Tracking time and invoices… I see a pattern here.

Expense Reporting

Expensify

Serious, heavy duty stuff for tracking expenses. This is one wicked tool

Outright

Organize your small business finances…All in one place! No more spreadsheets and paper stacks!

Shoeboxed

Get rid of Receipts & Business Cards. This is another cool one, you mail, they scan and input making your life as a meeting and event professional a little easier (OK, A shitload easier). You can also scan and upload yourself which comes in handy too!

But first…. I look at my desk this morning. I love the creative process that goes into event planning!