Year in Review: 10 Ways Social Tables Got Smarter and Faster in 2017

2017 was another big year for the group business industry, which we saw grow 4% over the previous year. This means it’s also been another big year for Social Tables. Planners and properties created a record number of events with our diagramming software, and hundreds of new connections are being made all the time through Social Tables’ planning network.

With that growth comes change. We had to work fast in 2017 to ensure you always have the tools you need to create just the event your clients desire, or to find just the perfect venue.

So, we thought we’d highlight the ten updates from this year that made the biggest, most positive impacts for our users”just in case you needed a refresher on all the cool new things you can do in Social Tables.

1. Join Social Tables for free

We’ve always had the goal of helping as many people as possible plan and host face-to-face events. And it’s in that spirit that we decided to make Social Tables free for event planners with our Social Tables Planner Essential Package. Now anyone anywhere can sign up and start diagramming new events in minutes. And if down the line you need a little more than the free package offers, no problem. Learn more here.

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2. Make as many rooms as you need

But we didn’t just make Social Tables free and call it a year. Now, planners with paid packages can add as many rooms as a given event requires. Need to schedule multiple breakout sessions or set up a registration center separate from the main event space? It’s easy, all from within the same event. And while you probably won’t need to create an event with 10,000 rooms or more, you certainly can with Social Tables. We didn’t want to take any chances.

3. Keep an eye on all the objects in your diagram

While you’re busy placing 700 new, custom objects”or the countless ones you can customize on your own”you might also want to check out one of our favorite updates from 2017: object transparency. We built this because every planner knows that slight miscalculations in the placement of logistical elements like rigging, can cause not-so-slight problems on the day of the event. With object transparency, you can always keep track of all the objects in your diagram”even they’re above or below other important objects. No more event day hiccups.

4. Create diagrams faster”and make them as big as they need to be

We thought to ourselves, if we’re going to open up Social Tables to thousands of new event planners, let them add as many rooms as they want, and keep track of literally any object in the diagram, we better be ready to handle any kind of event they decide to plan”and now we are. Social Tables is now way faster and can handle very large event spaces. Hop into our diagramming software and enjoy quicker load times”yes, even if you create an event 10x larger than our previous limit.

5. Search faster and smarter

Our planning network has always been a powerful network where venues could get in front of a hard-to-reach community of planners creating 3,000 events a day. But now, the experience is much richer and more rewarding for both planners and venues. For starters, venues now can add photos of event spaces and information about their meeting space, beyond their Social Tables floorplans, to their profiles.

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6. Let venues know how they’re doing

Not only does Social Tables’ planning network look better, it’s smarter and more user-friendly. Planners can now leave written reviews of their experiences working with any venue along with ratings on a 5-star scale. These reviews not only give planners an opportunity to make their voices heard, but it gives other planners a simple, clear way to evaluate the quality of a venue before they get too far along in the sourcing process.

7. Claim your venue today

If you work at a venue, you may be thinking How can I setup my profile and start meeting some of these planners? We’re glad you asked. That’s another great update we made: the ability for you to claim your listing. Just head to our planning network, look up your property’s profile, and look out for the button you see below. Click it and we’ll connect you with one of our awesome Customer Success Managers. They’ll walk you through the whole process so you can start putting your best foot forward right away.

8. Respond to RFPs the right way every time

Last year, we gave venues a great tool for showing off their venue space online, and capturing leads at the same time, when we debuted our conversion tool. This year, we gave venues a convenient way to turn those new leads into clients fast with our RFP response software. The moment a lead submits an RFP, you can get to work creating a personalized, photo-rich proposal that not only looks great on any device but also sends back valuable analytics that you can use to follow up in exactly the right way”and reduce your sales cycle.

9. Never lose an email lead again

We took things a few step farther recently when gave you the option to replace the many disorganized inboxes you’re currently using to intake email leads. Now, anytime a lead submits an RFP via email, our proposal software will receive it and organize it on your dashboard according to your preferred assignment rules. They’ll show up in a clean, easy-to-use dashboard along with the leads from all of your other sources.

10. Get smarter leads now

Not only can you now organize your email leads with other types of leads in the same place, but all of these leads are smart. Here’s what we mean: any time a lead that comes in, Social Tables will search the internet for any extra information you need to make a smart business decision. If our software finds some information, the lead’s profile will be automatically updated. That way, you don’t have to waste your time researching leads that aren’t the right fit. We’re all about helping our customers create and host events smarter and faster; the same should be true for the RFP and sourcing processes.

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Join us for an even bigger 2018! You can sign up for free now because you shouldn’t wait until 2019 to plan events smarter and faster or make that perfect connection.