Using Google Sites to Manage Meetings & Events

Let me give you an example. Many of you probably already know about Google Apps, which provide a full suite of collaboration tools such as email, calendar and online document sharing. But did you know that using Google Apps you can create a project management website for your meetings, conferences and events? It is called Google Sites, and here is a brief overview.

Back in 2006, Google acquired JotSpot, a company that provided a web-based collaboration technology known as a Wiki. Google renamed it Google Sites, and since then has added a host of new features that enable people to put together a shared website. One great application of this is to manage complex projects. Here are the page types, and how they can be used to manage major events.

Web Page
The web page type is like a normal document. In addition to normal text, you can insert a variety of other objects, such as photos, spreadsheets, maps etc. One use for this type of page is to move meeting documents online, such as the event specification. Then any authorized individual on the project team can update the information as necessary.

Announcements
The announcement page type is like a mini-blog. It can be used to post updated information over the course of the project, where it is listed by date on an announcement page. One of the more powerful capabilities of Google Sites is that team members can sign up to receive updates through their email whenever there has been a change on a particular page. This means that the system will automatically send out emails when an new announcement is posted to the site, so you don’t have to.

File Cabinet
The file cabinet page type is used to store a repository of files for use by the project team. Additionally, other pages on the project site can have files attached to them as well. Think of the file cabinet as a repository of resources for the event staff.

Lists
The list page type allows you to build pages with lists of items, such as a to-do list for the project. You can specify the names and types of the columns in the list. This is a great way to review progress on the project.

Start Page
The start page type is a page that can be configured with many Google Gadgets. Gadgets are used to include information from other websites in a dashboard format.

Unfortunately I have only been able to scratch the surface on how to use Google Sites for meetings and events in this post. I look forward to digging deeper into this topic in future posts.