Appmail took notice of event software week and sent some information about about their new web application, Grouptivity. Pamela Njissang sent me a quick explanation of the purpose of Grouptivity:

Grouptivity combines the best of email, online survey tools, calendaring software and more to give you better information with which to make decisions all from one web site without having to download new software. (You can think of this tool as the pre-cursor to an evite which looks at organizing people once the event specifics have been finalized.)

Here's some screenshots that show how the application works:

The first step is to choose a template for the type of event your group is planning.



Then, the site shows you a preview.



Then, you enter the questions you'd like to ask your group.



Once people start answering the questions, a report is automatically tabulated.
Follow up messages can be sent and data can be downloaded.




The organizer can also click on individual name and view just that person's responses.




I asked Pamela to compare Skobee to Grouptivity. Here's her response:

# Skobee looks like they are just focusing on the social aspects, where Grouptivity has taken a much broader approach -- encompassing charities, sports, associations, parent communication, etc. These groups in aggregate are probably more than a million... especially globally.
# Secondly, I think Grouptivity's ability to create questions and the breadth of questions is a really strong feature.
# Lastly, is the data management aspect (i.e. collecting thousands of responses or more). Grouptivity has screens to show that data in aggregate and individually. Also, this data can be exported in Excel. (One of my favorite features.)

Overall, Grouptivity seems like a very easy to use survey application designed for groups for coordinating events. There certainly isn't an application out there that I know of that fills this void. It certainly fills a need. Just today I filled out a survey using word from a group that I belong to. An online survey tool would have made it a lot easier for all involved. Whether a standalone app like this will find a large enough audience would be the question I'd pose. I guess we'll see.