Activ8 is a new Twin Cities-based event/class registration service targeted to the small business’ that has a limited (or no) no web presence but those who offer services in the areas of dance, karate, gymnastics, or fitness studios are perfect potential users as are individual instructors in fitness, music, yoga, or tutoring.
One of the great things about the internet is how it’s so perfectly geared to make the inefficient more efficient. The creator of Activ8, Marc Kermish, is an athlete who saw a lot of inefficiencies in event management with athletics service providers (and many others) and has delivered a web application that can dramatically simplify the entire event management process.
Activ8 enables the posting of any sort of event, class, or gathering that requires a participant to purchase a ticket. The event organizer can post their event, class or gathering, collect participant information and payments via credit card, and then communicate with their participants throughout their event planning process. Activ8 does not charge the event organizer for the use of its service but instead, takes a small fee from every participant transaction.
After I was initially contacted about Activ8, and knowing that the event management space is fairly crowded, I poked around the site and app to look for potential competitive advantages Marc might have and was pleased to have two which leapt out at me. 
While others offer this too, one of the key benefits of the Activ8 service is a branded event page and web site address. What intrigued me, however, were two things that stood out as I got under the hood:
1) The simplicity and clean interface of the product as well as the ability to promote one’s event through the latest social media channels (e.g., Twitter) are a clear advantage
2) The ability for participants to register via email or Twitter means that it’s perfect for those of us on-the-go with our mobile devices especially.
It’s the second one that was most interesting since it leverages the capability of the real time Twitter network and allows people to tweet the URL to the event and enable registration (clicking the URL takes them to the Active8 event page). As we all become increasingly mobile, this will also be “table stakes” to offer internet-based applications.
The site and application are attractive and appropriately “Web 2.0-ish” in look and feel. The use of the words “easy. simple. inexpensive.” around the site in several places gives you an idea of the direction Marc is taking with Activ8.
This is important since one of the barriers to adoption of many web applications is that they try to do so much that it takes a long time to climb the learning curve with them. How many times have you used a web site or application and thought, “Oh great. I have to learn yet another NEW interface and application?” As we use more and more web applications in our daily lives, simplicity and ease of use will be increasingly desirable and, in my opinion, will be “table stakes” to be in the web applications game in any way.
Having used many competitive event management services in the past, I do expect total transparency with respect to any charges or fees. Most event management offerings have a pricing page or big graphic detailing their fees, but after a lot of poking around I could only find a “we charge a small transaction fee” in the FAQ’s on the Activ8 site. What is that fee? It’s imperative that an event organizer knows (and knows up front) what the costs are since competitors like Eventbrite charge 2.5% plus $.99 per transaction any pricing a program or event properly — without taking in to consideration fees the participant pays — might eat in to profits significantly for a small business event so this is something Activ8 needs to address immediately.
It will be interesting to see how this service takes off and I’ll keep an eye on it, but if you’re a small business or running events for your organization, give this a try now since it’s ready to go, you can tie it in to Twitter easily, and works.
If you’d like to see the Activ8 process in action, check out the video below and then head over to Activ8 to signup:
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGjJhv1mF18