What's it all about?

To work together on anything, people - even just a few - need to be able to rely on shared information: contacts, numbers, deadlines, plans, definitions, assumptions and expectations. When like-minded people put their energy and enthusiasm together and start building a cultural event, they usually take a lot of things for granted - rules and discipline are not very exciting subjects when you're focused on creativity.

And that's how it happens that our predominant clients, film festivals - organisations that usually attract people who prefer spontaneity over system, that regularly suffer from losing team members because it cannot offer all of them permanent jobs, and whose ambitions rise and drop in sync with the health of its budget - often end up realising that they're sitting on a heap of valuable data which they cannot view at once, cannot connect, and as a result, almost cannot use.

The features try to illustrate how you can deal with a situation like that - and why Eventival is the answer.

Centralised contacts and content

At the heart of the Eventival platform lies a powerful, customisable and expandable database - or rather five interconnected database modules - in which you can store personal, company, film, event and project files related to what you do both year-round and in relation to your events. Each module contains predefined fields as well as an area where you can add fields of your own, and like in real life, the persons, companies, films, events and projects can be interlinked to give you an overview of who does or did what and when. The database is built and designed in a way to become your main data resource - you can keep adding to it without fearing that the old and new data will get mixed up, flexibly adjust categories whenever you need, create unlimited search filters and save useful queries, import and export data into spreadsheets and other formats, in other words, do anything you need to finally have all your data in one place, always ready to be used, updated, exported, displayed or shared.

Searching, exporting and importing data

Storing all your data in Eventival doesn't mean that you should stop using spreadsheets when they are useful. You can use tools for searching through all thinkable criteria (if there's a field for it, it can be searched and exported), and make complex searches that find pretty much everything you ever stored. And because the queries and exports can be saved (and shared with all or only selected colleagues), you won't need to do this over and over - if you spend some time building useful queries and exports beforehand, you will always be just one click of a button away from getting the results you need and exporting them into Excel, PDF and other formats. And of course, the same goes for moving data in the other direction: every spreadsheet with useful personal, company or film data that you'd like to keep should always end up back in Eventival, and the Excel import tools will even prevent you from creating duplicates and let you merge different files of identical people or companies. 

Importing personal and film data from Cinando

Cinando, created by the Cannes Marche du film in 2003, is the world's premier film industry database, with currently about 110,000 film entries and over 65,000 film industry professionals. In 2010, an integration between Cinando and Eventival was created, and since then, festivals using Eventival have been able to grow and updated their database of films and personal and company contacts by importing data from Cinando to Eventival. Considering that it takes a couple of minutes to create a personal or company file in Eventival, and a little more than than to save data of a film, it's a very welcome prospect to be able to simply move data from Cinando into Eventival with a few clicks.

Receiving film and project submissions

Create unlimited and customisable online film and project submission forms, publish them on your website, and receive entries directly into your film database. Eventival can process submission fee payments via Paypal, Stripe and other payment systems. Create submission fee discount codes. Combine Eventival submissions with the use of other film submission platforms, preselect the films in them, and imports the selected films into Eventival where the rest of the film entry processing is done.

Storing film information and materials

The parts of the Films module where you can store and organise any data related to the films you receive, import, enter, select and publish. Besides all the usual fields for production details, synopses and all relevant additional information. Attach important documents and links to external folders in Dropbox or Google Drive. Link the films to people or companies and create custom fields for any information that did not fit elsewhere.store all data related to the films at any stage of creation (that is, including film projects). your films. You no longer have to go through several folders and spreadsheets, you will find everything you are looking for in one place.
Store film titles with production details, synopses and all relevant additional information. Attach important documents and links to external folders in Dropbox or Google Drive. Link the films to people or companies and create custom fields for any information that did not fit elsewhere.

Collecting and organising film reviews

While the core programmers usually review films directly in Back Office where they have access to all film information, the external reviewers (screeners) usually do this in Visitor Page. Different festivals do things differently: some assign certain films to certain reviewers, others assign everything to everyone, and others let reviewers pick the films they want to review. The Film Selection interface provides all their need for their work: film titles, preview links, customisable fields where they write their comments and recommendations, adjustable ratings, etc. The bottom line is: whatever they reviewers write goes directly in the Film Selection submodule in your Eventival database - no more emails with comments, no more Google sheets.

Selecting films and film projects

Keep track of your progress by assigning selection status and program section to the entries. See the big picture thanks to customisable overviews and communicate easily to inform the submitters about their selection thanks to the built-in mass mailing tool with customisable email templates.

Communicating with submitters and selected filmmakers

Once the films have been preselected, you let the filmmakers know using personalised emails (sent through Eventival's mass mail tool), and then give them access to the films so they can provide you with updates. No more endless copy-pasting of information from your email correspondence, no more tedious extra work for you. Eventival enables the filmmakers to provide you with film catalogue entries, press kits, film copy technical information or anything else related to their film through a simple-to-use online interface.

Handling film logistics and keeping track of fees

Keep track of all digital and non-digital film copies, their technical details and movement. Create overviews and print logistics sheets. Keep track of all expenses and income related to a particular film in one place and export fee overviews.

Programming films

Once you have selected the films you want to snow, it's time to begin creating the film schedule. All festivals usually do this on the wall first, printing stickets with the film names and placing them in rows and lines that represent venues, dates and times. Once the wall is full, someone sits down with Eventival, and using the drag & drop feature, recreated the schedule inside the system. Unlike the wall, Eventival lets you narrow the focus on films by categories, sections, etc., and even more importantly, it warns you of all kinds of wrong moves - time collisions, format conflicts etc. When programming screenings, you can assign to them special categories (press, private, etc.) and add Into / Q&A session with links to people (moderators, translators, directors) or companies, and because everything in Eventival is relational, this information will be automatically added to the relevant people's itineraries.

When programming groups of shorts, you program the Film package as a whole, while the individual films that forms a part of the package obviously have their own files.

Publishing film data in catalogue and websites

After the films are confirmed, you can begin to prepare the festival catalogue and other publications (screening brochure, industry guide, etc.) This means moving the data into a special section within Eventival where the data destined for publication will be proofred, translated into all your languages, and then locked. At every stage, you can keep track the progress of the work. Once this is all done, you create the desired publication layouts, and the data is ready to be used - by the person in charge of creating your physical publications, your webmaster who will put it on your website, or third parties providing your ticketing solutions, mobile apps, VOD platforms, etc.

Selling accreditations and passes

Handle participant, guest, press, volunteer and staff accreditation easily. Run online registration and accreditation on Eventival Visitor Page that lets the participants register, request accreditation and pay via Paypal or various other payment systems (see their list here). Create different accreditation types or packages and let Eventival handle the sending of automatic confirmations and invoices.

Inviting people to your event

Create customisable invitation templates and send personalised mass invitations to your guests, film delegations, journalists, sponsors and other guests using merge fields, with personalised attachments (with individual itineraries, invoices or confirmations), and let them reply online (either with or without the need to log in) and fill in details about their festival stay.

Organising your guests' travel and transfers

Enter and save guests' international travel details. It can be used both for when you are arranging the guest's travel and also for guests who are arranging their travel themselves to mark their travel details. Create local transfers schedules. System will automatically suggest transfer suggestions based on guest’s arrival and events in their itinerary. Assign drivers and companions and export transfer schedules for each guest, driver or an overall schedule into Excel or PDF.

Inviting people to special events

Manage events, venues and capacities, link stakeholders and suppliers, create open or invitation-only events happening during your festival or year-round. Create guest lists, send personalised invitations using our mass mail tool and let the guests RSVP online with or without the need to log in. Send out reminders and confirmations, and export guest lists.

Reserving accommodation

Keep track of your capacity of hotels and rooms, reserve rooms for filmmakers, guests and companies, manage accommodation expenses and generate online and offline rooming lists and hotel vouchers.

Creating guest schedules

Eventival generates a personalised schedule for each participant based on their event invitations, screenings, meetings, travel & transfers, hotel check-in and check-out. Send the schedule by email to each guest or let them see and download it online in their Visitor Page.

Printing accreditation badges

Design badge layouts and print badges with participants’ pictures, names, dates, access levels and other details. Keep track of the badges each step of the way by monitoring whether they are assigned, paid, printed or issued. Add barcodes or QR codes to badges and scan them to monitor screening/event attendance and export overall attendance statistics.

Sending newsletters, press releases and other mass mails

Send unlimited press releases, newsletters and invitations using Eventival’s own mass mailing tool or integrated mass mail platforms (Mailchimp, SendGrid, Mailjet, MadMimi). Create flexible mailing lists and archive sent emails. Design professional-looking emails easily using the Topol email template builder & editor, personalise emails using merge fields and send emails with personalised attachments such as personal itineraries, invoices, confirmations.

Creating customised online forms

Create any number of customisable online forms with desired fields and in required languages with or without the need to log in to Visitor Page – call for volunteers, surveys or registration forms. Collect feedback through a survey from your festival participants to further improve the festival preparation. Let the system send automatic confirmation emails with overview of filled in information.

Recruiting and managing volunteers

Recruit volunteers and let them fill in a customisable registration form online. Keep all present and past personal data in one database for easy tracking. Use the in-built mass mailing tool to easily inform the selected and not selected volunteers and for all other mass communication. Handle staff accreditation, accommodation, travel, communication and schedules.

Team communication via Notepad

Notepad is a tool to communitate with your team directly in Eventival. Instead of using increasing number of communication platforms and channels, Notepad enables you to add notes directly to the item in your databse, comment on them, and tag your colleagues who will be automatically notified about it via email. It can be used as a message board for adding all sorts of notes and comments that could be relevant to you and other staff members, keeping them easily searchable and accessible to you and your team.

Assigning and managing tasks

It’s all about teamwork! Plan and manage work, assign tasks and roles to team members and keep track of check lists and deadlines. Set reminders for yourself or colleagues and receive a report of updates. Keep sensitive information protected by making projects visible only to selected team members. Create templates for standard tasks and projects and clone them easily if needed.

Organising voting and award ceremonies

Organise online voting and collect data through customisable voting forms, review the results and export them to paper publications and website.

Creating new database fields

Create additional custom database fields, drop-down menus, text boxes and checkboxes to make your Eventival fit like a glove.

Membership

Keep all present and past member data in one database for easy tracking. Online member registration. Flexible payment options, conditions and levels.

Donor and Sponsor Relations

Keep present and past donor and partner data in one place for easy tracking. Track development in business relationships in Project management.

Schedule

Create a master schedule of film screenings, Q&As, press conferences, masterclasses, workshops, parties and other social and industry events. Let Eventival help you with possible double bookings. Use different colors for different venues and film sections. Enlarge the schedule and project it on the wall to see the big picture. Export the schedule in any desired way: Excel or other formats? Overall schedule of all events or just the daily schedule? All days, all venues or just selected ones? One day per one sheet or everything in one sheet? Venues vertically and time slots horizontally or vice versa? The options are endless.

Press Relations

Keep present and past media representative data in one place for easy tracking. Send press releases by mass mail. Handle requests for press accreditation, manage accommodation and travel. Collect and manage interview requests and organize itineraries.

Who Is Here

Display the list of participants and their profiles in an online interface that allows the users to search, filter, add to favourites and directly contact each other. Let your guests schedule meetings even before they arrive at the event.

Publications

Prepare your publication entries in one central database and export to other online or printed platforms such as website, mobile app, ticketing system and catalogues and brochures. Export the schedule, event descriptions, profiles and biographies of participants or speakers into multiple formats.

Multiple Languages

Eventival Back Office is in English. Eventival Visitor Page - the interface facing everyone else who needs to communication with your organisation - is currently available in over 15 languages including Arabic and Korean, and can be translated into any language.

Synchronization With Website, Mobile App And Ticketing

Publish your festival schedule and film information on your website, mobile app, ticketing system or online content platform (video library or VOD platfrom) easily without the time-consuming hassle of having to upload texts, images and files to your website. Connect your website to Eventival so that it is always up to date even when you make changes to the festival program.

  Push film and screening information to your Cinando Video Library.

Online Payments

Accept payments using a number of integrated payment gateways (merchant services provided by e-commerce application service providers that authorize credit card or direct payments processing for e-businesses, online retailers, bricks and clicks, or traditional brick and mortar businesses). The following payment gateways can be used to process payments in Eventival: Borgun, Buskaroo, CartaSi, Dibs, ePay Kerala, Ingenico, PayPal, PayStack, PagOnline, Payline, Payment Express, Proxypay, Nordea, Redsys, Sampo Bank, SEB, Stripe, Swedbank and The Pay.