Event Planning Software Disobedience: 4 Rules We’re Breaking

Event planning software should serve event planners. But I believe there is a cold aloofness, an inauthenticity, to the available options. When we first started designing ThymeBase event planning software, I took a look at the other guys and didn’t like what I saw.

Event planners are doers, go-getters. Planners are pull-it-off-no-matter-what geniuses who eat constraints for breakfast. But the event software out there? 

They’re bores. Plain and simple. They’re fusspots and busybodies. They’re boxy and square and staid and clunky. They insist on you adhering to their enforced mediocrity. They demand you stick to their path. Well, screw that. 

Below you’ll read the four rules that we’re breaking, and we think others should too. Maybe you’ll break some of them in your own way. And if you do, let us know. I’d love to chat with you about it. 

Let’s start a movement!

Rule 1: Pack Event Planning Software Full of Features

Do your clients expect you to handcraft papier-mâché swans, wrangle their budget, style the florals, and build a mood board of hairstyles for the bridesmaids? All at the same time? Sucks, right?

Something similar occurs in the event software world too. Some competitors (ahem, they know who they are) labor under the belief that they need to offer a minimum of 50 features. Oh, and they charge you for it too. They charge good and hard.

The result is a complex system that feels like you’re in event planning inception. It makes work a chore when it ought to be a joy. And paying a premium for features you don’t even want is pretty lousy. You don’t charge your clients for what they don’t want, so why does your software?

Let’s break that rule right now. ThymeBase is designed to be flexible. Sure, we’re new on the scene, but we’re going to keep our software simple. Our learning curve will be about as curvaceous as a snake’s hips.

We’re starting small and getting the little things right. Our task management and timelines are easy to use, on your phone or laptop. And as we add features, they’re going to be a la carte. Pinky swear.

Rule 2: Communication Belongs Elsewhere

So much of a planner’s work occurs via email. It doesn’t make any damn sense to keep communication relegated to the inbox while your files are stored in a different place, the to-do list in another, your timeline, yet another. And your contact list? Well, that’s way over there.

And when the client emails over a change? You need to update three documents in three places, reformat the pdf timeline, export it, and resend it to everyone with a FINAL FINAL UPDATE CONFIRMED kind of email subject. Then the bride says she’ll need an extra 20 minutes with the makeup artist, just when the photographer wants the bridal party at the venue, which incidentally won’t be available for an hour. That’s when your eye starts to twitch.

ThymeBase syncs with your inbox, syncs with your calendar, stores your files and contacts, but the magic happens when the changes do. ThymeBase auto-updates timelines for everyone with whom you’ve shared it. And we’ll alert them too.

Communication and getting-work-done are indelibly, inextricably linked. So we linked them.

Rule 3: Be Glamorous

Maybe this is a rule you’ll break too. Instead of being glamorous, let’s be authentic.

Your clients won’t know how many clothes you’ve ruined making their events perfect. You’re busting your ass out there, sweaty, dirty, and over-caffeinated, while your client thinks you’re taking it easy. That’s because you make it look easy. That’s how good you are. 

Our competitors only feed into this pressure, that event planning is a soft, gentle, glamorous job. We all know it’s rough and tough, requiring split-second pivots, weeping clients, and a caterer who thinks the reception is tomorrow.

We’re going to be genuine. We’re your workhorse. Instead of styling ThymeBase around elegance and pastels, we’re designed for an efficient workflow, professional communication, and, most of all, for clarity.

At ThymeBase, we won’t impose ourselves on you. We’ll be ourselves. We’re all just out here to get it done!

Rule 4: Be The Expert

I need your help to break this rule. You’re an expert on weddings. You’re the guru of conferences. No one pulls off a social mixer like you. And yes, your clients expect to pay for your expertise. And that’s more than alright. 

But maybe, just maybe, we don’t have to be the expert. I don’t need to teach you how to do your job. In fact, I’d like you to teach me about you. Not only about your work, but you. 

And that’s the rule to break. I want to learn what you think; what I can do to make your life easier. The ThymeBase team is great at building event planning software, but that doesn’t mean we have to front that we know event planning better than you.

When it comes to your own unique way of planning events, you’re the expert. I want to build software that’s flexible enough to rock your workflow, no matter how different it is from someone else’s.

Let’s do it together. You’ll tell me what you need. I’ll do my best to make it happen. You do your best for your clients, my team and I will do our best for you. 

This One Weird Trick to Rule Breaking In The Event Software Industry

I got in trouble often as a kid. As an adult, too, to be honest. I broke plenty of rules, so I reckon I know what I’m saying here. 

Breaking rules is better with friends. 

Let’s break the industry rules together. I’ve got your back. When you rebel against the restraints of clunky, user-unfriendly event planning software, we’ll be there laughing uproariously beside you.