Student-run site helps event planners

Saturday night usually sees a large Mod crowd. There are people running about, girls in short skirts, laughter, and general revelry.

But not everyone's having the time of their lives. The angry glare of a senior moderating the door of a somewhat happening Mod is also seen. The gears are grinding in his head. "Who do I let into this party? How can I decide who should stay and who should go?" he thinks.

Chloe's Party could have solved all of his problems. Chloesparty.com lets people register their events online, listing everything from the basic who, what, when, and where information to contact specifics.

On top of that, a portion of the small hosting fee the site charges goes to charity.

Co-founder Kunal Johar said that currently the Children's Cancer Fund is the main benefactor of the site. He admits, however, that he and fellow founder Melissa Buia intend to switch most funding to the Pan-American Society of Nuerovirology (PASNV), who specializes in nuerovirology.

Though PASNV will eventually be the primary recipient, Johar and Buia are constantly looking for charities that have a measurable way to tell their impact. Right now, they feel strongly about DonorsChoose.org, a "charitable facilitator" that raises awareness about education reform.

The idea for Chloe's Party came from necessity. While trying to plan a New Year's Eve party in New York City last year, Johar and Buia found a need to create a Web site where they could simply and effectively sell tickets.

After writing most of the programming for the party, they realized the potential to develop the site into a full-blown company.

Johar admits that neither he nor Buia are selfless in this project. It doesn't take up more than 20 percent of their time, but the potential is enormous.

Yet, they'd still have to sell over $300 million worth of tickets to become millionaires, which seems unlikely at this point, but if the name spreads quickly, anything is possible.

Both founders were George Washington University students at the time of the site's inception and recognized the need for clubs and Greek life to sell tickets to their events in order to keep things from getting out of hand, or to spread the word. They noticed that there is no well-known site established that effectively helps people sell tickets online.

Sites like Fandango and Ticketmaster already let you buy tickets to major events, but aside from Chloe's Party, most smaller events end up having to create their own sites or post links on preexisting sites.

Chloe's Party changes all that.

The site has already experienced a small boom since its launch four months ago. Groups such as the South Asian Young Professionals Society and Mix-N-MingleNYC started to use the system. But the site is not only intended for professional groups.

The ease of the site makes it completely conducive to college students, and for a wide range of parties.

Signing up is free, and to list your event there's only about a page of information to fill out, and in five easy steps you can create an event, set up tickets, and send out invitations to as many people as you want.

At the end of the process the host is given an event code, so if there's someone you forgot to invite, or something you need to change, it can be fixed. There is a $1.11 fee on a $15 ticket, mainly for site maintenance as well as charity donations. They plan to make their first payout to charities on June 1.

But who exactly is this Chloe? Well, she is a real person. She actually writes the blog for the Web site - though Johar and Buia oversee her writing to make sure she accurately describes exactly what the charities involved do.

The mystery behind the site's namesake isn't as much of a mystery as it is a metaphor. She's a sorority girl from GW, involved in her rush council, and simply helps spread the word about parties and social events.

It's nice to have a voice behind the site, but in the end, Chloe's Party serves two purposes: to raise money for charity and make party planning quick and easy.