Event Planning Platform MyPunchbowl Acquires I'm In For Local Vendor Listings

Evite competitor and event planning platform MyPunchbowl is acquiring I’m In, a site for
group travel and local trip ideas. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

MyPunchbowl allows users to create beautiful online invitations and track RSVPs. The platform also provides tools that let you find supplies, organize an after party and even set a date, via an algorithm that recommends the best date for your party. The site also allows you to set up gift registries, save-the-dates, message boards, integrate Google Maps’ to display the location, and share comments, photos, and videos. Basically, MyPunchbowl helps you plan and organize an event from start to finish.

Using I’m In’s technology, MyPunchbowl will launch a comprehensive local vendor portal for the
party planning market. The new local vendor portal includes over one million
vendors that are suitable for parties and events. So now you can search for vendors under a variety of categories, including artists, attire, bakeries, balloons, bands, caterers, DJs, entertainers, event planners, florists, photographers, venues and more. The site will feature listings from all 50 states in the U.S.

The local vendor portal features an enhanced search capability for party venues and locations, which will be broken down into categories that a suitable by the type if event (i.e. kids, baby shower, wedding). After a venue is selected, hosts can populate the location and address directly onto their online invitation. MyPunchbowl will monetize the new offering by offering featured listings for venues, with featured locations receiving priority placement on the venue finder.

Launched in 2007, MyPunchbowl has quickly tuned into a all-in-one party planning site in a matter of two years. The site recently added birthday reminders, ecards and even caters to the wedding planning industry. Local vendors are a logical step for an event planning site, and I’m sure that many other sites in this space will integrate listings and reviews in some form. Competitors include Socializr, Pingg, Someecards, Cocodot, and MySpace, Facebook and Evite.