SMARTDRAW IN EVENT PLANNING:

Special Events Coordinator Plans for Success with SmartDraw

Kristi Bronson works as special events coordinator at the Herrett Center for Arts & Science at the College of Southern Idaho. The facility houses several galleries related to anthropology and archeology, a planetarium, observatory, reference library, as well as a 2,900-square-foot community center for public and private events. Kristi is responsible for booking and scheduling all non-school related events.

Kristi was looking for an easy software tool that would help her create floor plans and facility layouts for special events. She also needed something affordable, due to budget constraints in her department. Kristi found SmartDraw on the Internet, and liked what she saw.

"SmartDraw's free trial had me sold in the first few hours," said Kristi. "And, it was an easy sell to my director because it was so affordable."

Although she had no graphic design experience, Kristi quickly learned that SmartDraw automates the process of creating floor plans and facility layouts for special events. Unlike other programs that provide users with a blank screen and expect them to draw, with SmartDraw, users select from a template that is specifically designed to create the type of illustration they need. For example, SmartDraw contains dozens of SmartTemplates for specifically for facility plans, room layouts, and seating arrangements.

"There is no comparison between SmartDraw and other programs," said Kristi.

So far, Kristi has used SmartDraw to create numerous floor plans, including those for weddings, special speaking arrangements, and more. SmartDraw's automated drawing process is saving her lots of time.

"Once I created my initial room layouts, I streamlined my diagramming processes to under 15 minutes per event, unless it requires something particularly unusual," explained Kristi. "I simply pull up a previous layout that is close to what I need, tweak it a little, and save the new layout under a different name."

SmartDraw allows users to select an appropriate template, and then enter in the relevant information. The software does the rest: building the graphic automatically using built-in rules and professional design themes to guarantee polished, presentation-quality results in just a few minutes. In addition, SmartDraw also features one-click export to popular document types such as PDF and PowerPoint^®, making it easy to share SmartDraw creations with others in presentations.

"Clients are always impressed with how professional the end results look," said Kristi. "Wedding parties are particularly happy to sit down and have me put their ideas into a format that looks nice, and is easily changed when needed."

Kristi claims that SmartDraw has become an indispensable tool to her job.

"I recommend SmartDraw all of the time," said Kristi. "SmartDraw delivers ease of use and professional-looking results for a fraction of the cost of other programs."