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planning posts

Filed under: Windows, Office, Productivity, Freeware

Free esyPlanner is a powerful, attractive calendar and scheduling app


Like many of you, I use a web-based app for my calendaring needs. My customers, however, aren't necessarily keen to make the switch from desktop applications just yet - and I have a number who need a good way to manage appointments and schedules from their PCs.

esyPlanner is a nice option. It sports a nice looking interface and provides both a full-featured calendar and Post-It style notes. Create and color code your categories, and set up multiple calendars to keep things like customer appointments separate from staff meetings.

Support for recurring events is excellent. Apart from daily/weekly/monthly events, you can set up "every X number" -- like every 3 days, 2 weeks, etc. It makes marking things like due dates and routine maintenance easy.

The learning curve with this app is kept to a minimum, so it's perfect for shop owners who aren't so computer-savvy. Tooltip balloons let you know which button does what, and they're small enough that they don't get in the way.

Filed under: Internet, Productivity, Web services, web 2.0

Plan your next team meeting with When is Good

When is Good
Need to schedule a meeting with a group of people spread out across multiple offices in multiple time zones? When is Good offers a simple web-based interface for scheduling meetings or events.

The organizer just needs to select a group of times when they are free and enter their email address. When is Good will send you an email with a URL that you can share with other attendees. Each participant will see just the list of times you've already flagged as good, and they can highlight the times that work for them. Their responses will be sent back to the organizer, making the process of planning a meeting a lot simpler.

If participants are in different time zones, just click the "use time zones" option when setting up your schedule. And if you visit the page on a mobile device or web browser that doesn't support Flash, you'll get a simpler HTML-only page.

[Thanks Keith Harris!]

Filed under: Fun, Productivity

Get your holiday party started right with MyPunchbowl

Get your holiday party started right with MyPunchbowl
The key to starting off your holiday party is with a great invitation. If you start slacking there, things could go downhill. Ok, so we are exaggerating, but a great holiday invitation does set the mood.

MyPunchbowl, the online party planning website, has undergone a little facelift for the holiday season. The changes start off with invitation templates for Christmas, Hanukkah, New Years Eve and a few other winter holidays and grows from there. New visual design elements like tabbed layouts and easier navigation have been added to make for a much more enjoyable party planning experience. Complete with easy uploading of contacts through .CSV importing.

Start things off right this holiday season with some slick invitation templates and an easy to use system. If your still stuck on how to plan your party, MyPunchbowl does offer planning and idea advice from a party expert.

Filed under: Fun, Internet, Web services, Social Software

Get your event dates automatically with Punchbowl

MyPunchbowl, the online party planning application, uses an algorithm to pick the best date for an event based on the actual responses of people that RSVP to the invitation. The "Pick a Date" feature recommends the best date from a set of dates that are supplied by the hosting party, in real time. As responses are received, the algorithm then recalculates the best possible date based on individual's status and VIP stature. The best date can either be selected by the host at anytime, or a new date can be easily made without the recommended date as a guide.

This sure beats spending hours sending out invitations and calling around to try and organize a party that everyone can attend.

Filed under: Fun, Internet, Web services, Social Software

Plan, organize and manage with Setdot

setdot event managementEvent planning and management driving you crazy? Setdot could be for you.

Setdot is an easy way to manage and plan events online. Registration isn't yet open, but there is a list to join if you are interested in getting in on some hot Beta action.

Through Setdot, users can create stylish and professional looking events using different themes. Setdot can be used for a variety of events including anything from corporate functions, to house parties. You can check out a sample of Setdot in action here. There is support for location maps and a guest collaboration feature.

There is no word yet as to whether this will be a free service, or if there will be a fee for use, but from the sample shown, it is sure to help in the organization of events.

Other online event planning applications include Socializr, MyPunchbowl, Planzo, Skobee and EventWax.

Filed under: Business, Internet, Web services

dclicio.us event aggregation

dclicious event aggregationFeel like partying in the DC area tonight, but don't know what's going on? dclicio.us is going to help.

dclicio.us is built with the lovely Ruby on Rails and aggregates events for the Washington DC area. Users sign up for a free account and add their favorite artists, or import them from iTunes, so they can be monitored and notified of the events arrival in the city. dclicio.us Show aggregation shows a listing of events in the DC area, where users can click off and bookmark shows of interest that get added to a special My Shows category. Events can then be read through an RSS feed, and imported and updated through iCal or Google Calendar.

This type of site has a lot of potential for other markets as well, but no word as of yet if dclicio.us plans to expand beyond the beltway.

[via Web2.0Show]

Filed under: Internet, Web services, Social Software

Party planning with MyPunchbowl

mypunchbowl party planningI'm sure a lot of you had holiday parties over the last few weeks. How did your planning go? You could surely have used the new MyPunchbowl service. MyPunchbowl is set to launch its online party planning service on January 15th. Built by Punchbowl Software, it allows users to create an online community for celebrations. Members can use the service before, during and after parties to coordinate events, research ideas from the community, and share party memories after the event.

Unfortunately I was not in on the beta testing for the service, and it is now closed awaiting the January 15th launch. So we will have to stay tuned to check out the how well this service helps us party plan. Similar services in this sector include Evite.com, Eventful, and Upcoming.org.

Filed under: Web services

Skobee: Make plans

SkobeeSkobee is an interesting web service that's supposed to make it easier to get people together. Having this very week utterly failed to organize a gathering when an old friend came to town, this appeals to me immensely. The main concept is "start general and get specific as needed": you add a bunch of people to an invite list with a vague plan ("dinner soon") and as people get your invite they can suggest places and times ("Mexican, early next week") until a consensus is reached ("Hacienda, 8pm Tuesday"). You can switch back and forth between suggestions and see when friends are available, and it even has built-in local search and maps. Skobee also has a cool feature whereby you can CC Skobee on an e-mail to a friend with a few keywords and it'll automatically set up an event on the web site. I'm definitely trying this out the next time I want to arrange a get-together.

[Via TechCrunch]

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