Earlier this week, a friend of mine stopped by my office and was showing me all the cool apps that he’s found by watching the SxSW activity remotely. There are some pretty cool ones like SpinCam and Smartr Contacts (which also has an awesome Gmail plugin). We spent the afternoon geeking out, and I enjoyed having someone take the world of apps and simplify them into the ones I really needed to know about. Today, I’m sharing my favorite apps for business that I think you should absolutely download. Do you have others you use? Please share in the comments!
World Card Mobile
This app does have a cost (rare, I know!), but it’s totally worth it. Download this app and then take a picture of a business card. It takes all the content and pops it into the contact fields which you can edit and then save to your contact list. It’s amazing, and I honestly don’t even know how they do it. Especially in the event planning business, I’ve seen some UNIQUE cards – very image heavy with the content spread around. But World Card Mobile could care less. They just figure it all out and put it in. I’d say it’s 90% accurate!
Qrious
So I’ve only used this app once so far, to be honest, but I’m already a huge fan. Qrious is free and syncs with an event organizer’s Eventbrite account. Attendees register for your event and then click on a link that opens in the browser on your mobile device. Link it to a social network like Facebook or Twitter and Qrious will scan your profiles and compare it to the other attendees. Within seconds, it gives you a list of the people attending the event who are most relevant to you – ranked in order. It’s incredibly accurate, easy to use, and finally helps make sense of networking events.
Square
I don’t know about you, but I run a lot of events where it’s $25 in advance, $35 at the door. When people arrive for the event, they are scrambling to find an ATM, or worse, they turn around and leave the event. Square is free and simple to use – just add the Square attachment to your phone, open the app, and swipe a credit card. The money is deposited to your Paypal account. The attendee gets a receipt via text or email within minutes and everyone is happy!
G-Whizz
Are you a Google maniac, like I am? For all the events I work on, I am constantly creating and updating Google docs. In a meeting, it’s the most frustrating thing when I can’t instantly pull up a doc (on the rare occasions I don’t have my laptop). G-Whizz manages all your Google accounts, but I use it especially for the docs. It’s great! Definitely don’t expect it to be a good editor, but it’s great for scanning and seeing updates/information.
Related articles
- Event Tech of the Week: @QriousApp (lizkingevents.com)
- Use Eventbrite like a Pro: Get a Free Mobile App (eventmanagerblog.com)
- SXSW wrap-up: Apps, homeless hotspots and nonsense (intomobile.com)
