Event Tech of the Week: @avforplanners

Today, we’re talking about AVforPlanners

Company/Tool Name: AVforPlanners
Website: AVforplanners.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mmcallen or https://twitter.com/avforplanners
Facebook: http://bit.ly/avforplanners

What is the “problem” that your tool seeks to solve?

We save event organizers and planners time and money when contracting audiovisual and the labor associated. Ensure they have the best/right equipment and labor for their meeting or event. Having your own personal meetings technical director who is sitting with you when you are making all your meetings and labor technical decisions. He knows the different AV equipment which varies and labor rules changes from venue to city. Not to mention alert you of service charges, power and internet. Why not have a trusted partner help you?

What is the best audience for this tool? Corporate events? Social? Other? Large? Small?

Any size event or meeting. Event planners, meeting planners, administrative assistants, marcom professionals producing events, 3rd party planners, hospitality students, non event industry people who are in charge of meetings/events, and government planners who need to satisfy procurement and validate spend.

What does your tool help event planners do better?

A free option of building a concise effective RFP for audiovisual and labor, a free dashboard for archiving RFP’s, a nationwide audiovisual companies database (both in-house AV and independent AV companies), an evaluation summary of three AV company proposals with a recommendation and notes and suggestions to make negotiations easier and ensure you get the right AV and labor for your event.

How is your tool different from/better than the competition?

Our competitors have networks of av companies and they get a commission from the winner of the proposals . AVforPlanners receive no commissions and are non biased as possible since we receive no compensation from the competitors.

What is the single coolest feature of your product?

It gives the power to the planner! Saving time and money on audiovisual and labor!

Anything else we need to know?

The analogy I like to give people about AVforPlanners is having your car break down. Your next door neighbor is a car mechanic but does not have time to fix your car. But he will walk into 3 car mechanic shops and get three different proposals with you to make sure you get the right equipment and labor. He then sits down with all three proposals puts them side by side and gives you a one page summary and evaluation of what each car mechanic shop is offering for equipment and labor to fix it. He then makes a recommendation of which to go with and some pages with notes and suggestions all the proposals if you want to negotiate with any of the shops. He gives you the knowledge to confidently negotiate getting the right parts and the amount of labor it takes to fix it. You don’t have to know a lick about cars but the mechanics will think you do.

Basically buying AV is like buying a used car. You will get the best car and best deal if you have all the correct information in front of you. If you don’t have the information you will pay more and quite possibly get a lemon. So why roll the dice on your meetings audiovisual? Get the information to make sure you save time and money evaluating your av and labor.

This weekly series spotlights a new tech tool that is designed to help make planning events much more seamless. Whether it’s using event software to track every detail from start to finish or mobile apps that deliver content to attendees’ fingertips, these technologies allow planners to divert their stress to more critical issues like deciding which napkin color looks best.

Liz King Caruso

Liz King Caruso is an Event Strategist, Consultant and Speaker. As CEO of Liz King Events and techsytalk, she has helped countless thought leaders grow their audience and sell their products through in-person, virtual & hybrid events. Liz is a big-picture person – passionate about tying events into an overall sales and marketing strategy and being efficient at every point of the process. Technology is her niche and she’s obsessed with helping organizations of every size leverage technology to produce more engaging and seamless event experiences. In addition to her client work, Liz connects & educates her industry colleagues through platforms she has built – techsytalk GLOBAL, the techsytalk community & IGNITE Consulting program. Liz has been featured as Eventex’s 50 Most Innovative Virtual Meeting Planners, Successful Meetings list of 25 Most Influential People in the Meetings Industry, Top 5 Women in Event Tech, amongst other awards.