Watch an Online Invitations Primer: How Swiss Institute Manages Event Registration

No matter what kind of events you organize, invitations play a critical role. Here's what Alexandra Zigrang, the Development and Administration Manager at Manhattan-based leading art institution, Swiss Institute, thinks after switching to online RSVP.

Good event planning takes an eye to detail, and traditional invitation lists put that to the test. Sorting different guest lists, food preferences, responses, making sure everyone on your team has the latest Excel sheet - you get the picture.Alexandra summed up the death-by-Excel process in one sentence: “Counting, constantly tracking, hoping that you spelled everyone’s name correctly.”

Online invitations turned that process on its head for Swiss Institute. Alexandra landed on using zkipster for custom online invitations, which led to a redesigned process from the ground up. In her words, “You take all of those elements out of the process, and you can streamline it so you don’t spend your entire day checking, cross-checking, and putting things back in Excel.”Streamlining your event invitation process has benefits that span beyond just making it easy to invite people. It puts all your event data in one place, which Alexandra finds opens up possibilities that were just sources of frustration before.With easy access to combined data, she can answer corporate sponsors and her development team when they ask her things like “How many people came? Who from the press showed up? How many media impressions?” And for her work building relationships with guests and analyzing events to improve future ones, having instant answers to those questions is crucial.So with death-by-Excel in the past, what’s the last word on online invitations? Alexandra thinks that it “allows the event planner to really take a step back from being an administrative assistant to doing what they know how to do best: plan events.”If you’re thinking about making the leap to online invitations, you can try out Alexandra’s method and get started using custom online invitations with zkipster for free.