Basecamp vs. Cvent Event Diagramming

Basecamp is a wonderful tool for teams of varying degrees of technical knowledge, teams managing lots of different types of "agifall" and waterfall projects, and teams that are remotely distributed. It's probably less useful for more strictly agile-focused development teams, compared to other more flexible software applications like Jira and Asana.

Incentivized

It's the best software I've used. It allowed me to collaborate on a huge event with multiple stakeholders to ensure the main planner understood the venue and capacity issues. It's also allowed me to realize the scope of venue needs and abilities. Very helpful in visualizing a space

Incentivized

• Task management - It is very easy to add, organize and discuss tasks within Basecamp's interface.
• The "Campfire" function is great for communicating when you just have a quick question for someone on the team.
• Notifications - Basecamp lets you decide how often and about what you'd like to be notified. The ability to respond to messages in Basecamp directly via email saves a lot of time.

Incentivized

• Scaling - I love that you can scale a layout in the program, and it tends to be pretty spot on. For example, we could have 20 different measurements for a street, once we type in a single measurement the rest auto fills (and is REALLY close to accurate).
• Uploading - I love that you can upload images and mark all over them. Particularly, you can upload google earth images for outside festivals, and scale them accordingly.
• Creating - In the program you can create a diagram based on the size of the room. For example, if you know you have a 40x80 tent, you can make a custom layout and build the whole thing.
• Setup Templates - These templates make it easy for you to auto fill an entire room with rounds, rectangles or other formations without having to fill them all in individually.

Incentivized

• High Learning Curve. It's true that it can be easy to use, but to use well and effectively takes some time to learn. It's recommended to have an agreed-upon system in your team of what tools to use and when.
• Notification Overload. If people aren't careful they could send a notification to everyone when only a couple people were meant to be prompted. And since emails are sent by default, you could have your mailbox overloaded with unnecessary updates. This is where it takes a bit of training in your team to have an agreed-upon system.
• Lack of organization with Archived Projects. I will often need to reference an archived project to make a new one, but there is only a list of archived projects in alphabetical order, with no way to organize by archive date, or even search.

Incentivized

• A development that would be useful would be the ability to reorder the diagrams to a custom order in one event so that when exported as one document, they are in an order that can be customized to flow well for the meeting planner.

Incentivized

When I bring new people onto a project, it's immediately obvious how to use Basecamp. I don't have to worry about teaching them the features or walking them through it, it's just incredibly user-friendly. For this reason, I'll continue to renew my subscription even as new people are brought onto production jobs or the client changes.

It is easy to use, even for clients who have no experience with the platform. It can only get a little cumbersome to ensure that a client can't see certain documents you might want to keep in the Docs & Files folders. And sometimes, getting a client to actually use an unfamiliar platform can be a challenge.

Incentivized

Cvent Diagramming really does cover the bases for us. It's an easy to use program that anyone can figure out. It's got collaboration features so we can share with clients and they can make their own edits. Venues can send us there floorplans and send directly to us for edits. Overall: their templates, table numbering feature, measuring, scaling and shape/object tools make building floorplans easy

Incentivized

I've never experienced downtime while using Basecamp, or been unable to access it when I needed it. That's not to say they've never had downtime, but I've been lucky enough not to encounter any, and I work odd hours, including late nights when maintenance is often undertaken.

Incentivized

For the many reasons I've given, Basecamp is a very strong program. There are a few features I can imagine that might make it even better, but I don't have a basis for comparison to be able to say that there is definitely a better one out there. I've noticed that Basecamp has evolved a bit from the time I started using it until now, so that makes me think that the producer of this program values it and believes in continuous improvement. If you could use the features offered by Basecamp, I would think you could use it with confidence.

Incentivized

The support was exceptional, and they remained an arm's reach away for when we ran into any questions after we began using the tool. Overall, we experienced phenomenal customer service. We also had more than one web-based call where their team would walk us through examples and answer any questions we had.

Decide the process before implementation - i.e. when it's due 8/9 does that mean 8am, noon, 5pm, 11:59pm? Check your to-do list frequently Set-up templates - just not with the dates (they can be funky)

Pretty good, but [Basecamp] has its drawbacks. Honestly I find the interface non-intuitive and sometimes have trouble figuring out how to change the status of a task. Perhaps it has something to do with the way it was originally set up by the admin, but I'm not sure. I liked Jira's drag and drop obvious functionality, but the project management side of the software was lacking. Smartsheet has excellent project management functionality, but the task management isn't as good.

Incentivized

It has similar tools that MeetingMatrix has, but the Collaboration, or allowing vendors access is the feature that I appreciate the most that Cvent Event Diagraming offers that MeetingMatrix did not have. It is also easier to save as a PDF to print and email a version to vendors as well

Incentivized

• It has saved me time when having to get the same message out to multiple restaurants
• It has helped us make smarter operational decisions because we can all collaborate on an answer in a shorter amount of time (instead of calling a meeting!!!)
• The calendar function allows us to plot out our marketing agenda for the month and add/change it together as needed. The chef will post his recipe, the managers will cost it out, the social media manager will post pictures on it, and ultimately we will get that information out on an info sheet to the staff by printing the page.

Incentivized

• Has saved us 10+ staff hours per event.
• Has streamlined our registration and check-in process, saving us an hour+ on-site, plus ensuring a safer and more enjoyable experience for staff and attendees.
• Has saved us up to $1,000+ for signature events when managing F&B budget items.

Incentivized