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clipped from ezinearticles.com Event Planning Checklist Tips The key to successful event planning is being resourceful and avoiding uncertainties. The more you research your available resources, the simpler it is to overcome any obstacles to your objectives and pull off the perfect social function. When putting together any social function, business party, special event, or mini festival, you can’t begin advertising or producing promotional material until you have chosen and contracted a fitting location. Likewise, it would be putting the cart before the horse, to sign up a speaker or book your entertainment before your event visions have been brought clearly into view.

As the Mainstream Media denies Iran poses any threat to the free world while they test-fire missiles in defiance of said same free world that can reach Israel and its neighbors, it occurred to me that Iran is likely to now get a bad rap, even from the Mainstream Media, because even the most ignorant and/or liberal American can figure out that Iran possessing long-range missiles while refusing to give up its nuclear program cannot be a good thing.

So, I thought it would be a good idea to point out why Iran should NOT get a bad rap, especially when it comes to choosing a venue for your next event.

The following are the Top 10 reasons you should consider the country (or if you aren’t into the whole brevity thing: “Terrorist Sponsor Nation”) of Iran as your next event venue par excellence:

1 - No need for fireworks or pyrotechnic specialists - pyrotechnics in the form of missile tests are ongoing

2 - Comic entertainment provided by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad free of charge

3 - Plenty of parking

4 - Plenty of cheap fuel, including Nuclear

5 - Your Promotional Items can be inscribed with “I survived an Event in the Axis of Evil”

6 - No Jews to ruin your day

7 - No Dissidents to ruin your day

8 - Catering includes all-you-can-eat Hummous

9 - No chance of war according to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

10 - Security is top-notch

The next time you plan a business event, whether a formal dinner, seminar, conference or award recognition ceremony, the following corporate invitation websites can help you find the best style of invitation to fit the occasion. These sites cater specifically to business invitations, or have a section dedicated to corporate event invitations, whereas most of the other sites online are for wedding and other social occasion invitations.

I compiled this list so you don’t have to go hunting around for corporate function invitations the next time you need invitations for your event:

www.myexpression.com

www.paperandmore.com

www.irisb.com

www.paperstyle.com

www.invitationbox.com

www.finestationery.com

www.invitationconsultants.com

www.ballisticblue.com

www.thepartystartshere.com

www.announcingit.com

There are other corporate invitation websites other than those listed here, but these seem to offer the best user experience and professional look and feel.

Among the more successful Social Networking sites is LinkedIn, which is like a professionals’ version of Facebook (more business oriented, less social). Among the categories listed on their site is a major section titled Conferences and Event Planning, which includes Conference Planning, Conference Venues, and Event Marketing and Promotions.

Margaret Core shared her success with marketing her BIO 2008 Convention using LinkedIn, saying “We have more than 500 new email contacts because of the Linked In page we created for our convention.”

Read the full post at:

Still Loving Linked In

(By the way, she also had a group page up on Facebook - you can see the details by following the links in the above post).

They say there is nothing new under the sun, but entrepeneurs sure do find ways to mash up old ideas in new ways, and starting a business via crowdsourcing certainly qualifies.

Usually, when trying to launch a new business, or get a new product off the ground, the typical hunt for venture capital or institutional investors takes time, patience, perserverance and a LOT of work.

It’s refreshing to hear about a new business model termed ‘crowdsourcing’ which taps the power of social networks in a way big corporations could only dream about.

Upstarts: Launch Your Own Apparel Company for $50 - The apparel brand, which is still in the design phase, is using a creative business model, known by a variety of names like crowdsourcing, crowdfounding, and community managed, that raises small amounts of money from a large group of …

Read the above article for the full scoop, but the practical upshot of this business model is to get large quantities of people to contribute small amounts of money for input and managerial control of a new product line or business.

Crowdsourcing is also used for mass collaboration projects like Wikipedia or simply designing a new graphic or logo, but raising capital using crowdsourcing may be the ticket for a budding entrepeneur to get started using ‘other peoples money.’

Locating an Event Venue isn’t easy, and fortunately many websites exist that provide detailed venue information to help you locate the perfect venue for your event, whether you need a wedding venue, party venue, or business meeting venues.

The following list is by no means complete, but should provide a complete-enough list so that you don’t have to hunt around anywhere else:

www.gatheringguide.com

www.ultimatevenue.us

www.venuehunter.net

www.eventective.com

www.MyAffair.com

www.uniquevenues.com

www.cvent.com/destination-guide

www.agendaonline.com

The above sites have either a search feature to narrow down your selection by state/city, capacity, type of event, etc. or provide some kind of directory structure to browse and locate the type of venue you need.

More Venue Selection Info. From Around The Web:

The following list should save you time locating the type of event planning and event management tool you need for your upcoming event. Most of the sites listed here are not entire front-to-back solutions, in that they may lack some essential functionality that you require. Some are simply directories of events or event venues, but event planning and management features are soon-to-be released, so they are listed here.

These are listed in no particular order:

1) http://www.eventwax.com

A free, online comprehensive event planning and management site. Allows you to create an event and will host a website for your event (you can custom format with your own CSS), or you can link to your own site, lots of ticket pricing options (like Early Bird, Group Discounted, etc), integrated with PayPal for ticket purchases, creates mailing lists and email templates for invitations to be sent out and handles RSVP replies. Includes an RSS feed to track event activity and XML export of your data.

2) http://www.eventspace.com

A free, online event space directory as well as an event service provider directory. Also allows for creating and sending invites and finding upcoming events. More features to be released.

3) http://www.pingg.com

A free, online event management site with outstanding invitation design features, invitation sending, RSVP management, guest list management, photo sharing, reporting, but lacks the ability to handle processing payments for tickets at this time (coming soon).

4) http://www.eventbrite.com

A comprehensive, mostly free online site for planning, managing and marketing your event. Processing fees per ticket sale are charged, but more ways to pay for tickets are available than the other sites offer. Also, lots of event marketing functionality built in that other sites lack.

5) http://eventsbot.com

A mostly free online event management site. Allows for customization of hosted event webpage only with Premium account option. Handles event ticketing and emailing invites, but lacks robust invitation creation features. Has some event promotion features.

6) http://www.lovento.com/en/

Mostly a multi-national event guide and event venue directory and review site. Publishing of your own events coming soon.

7) http://purpletrail.com

A free, online event management solution that has unique features like a desktop application to download so you can stay on top of invites and other communication, chat features and event consensus features so attendees can all agree on a place and time, robust invitation design and sending features, but lacks ticket purchasing and other more business-oriented features.

http://www.activeciti.com

A free, online event management site more for social events than business events. No invitation creation or ticket sales functionality, but has basic event registration and calendar features.

9) http://www.ipartee.com

A free, online event management site for sending invites and tracking guests but lacks robust invitation creation and business-oriented features like ticket sales. Unique in that an event venue owner can publish and promote upcoming event details and gather feedback from attendees.

So, the next time you have an event to plan and management, check out some of the above sites to see if your job can become easier by utilizing one or more of these free tools.