I must say that it is hard to organize an event or a party using traditional tools such as e-mail and Evite. So it was nice to see a startup that offers a collaboration and  calendaring tool so you can make your friends or colleagues part of the organization process.

Grouptivity, is a web-based service out of San Mateo, California-based Appmail, that lets you  organize  events and meetings using your email. The public beta for the service was launched today.

For example, the image below  shows  how you can  send a common email to friends  to organize a trip to Hawaii. Grouptivity lets you import your Yahoo, MSN, and Google address books and becomes a common place to track responses. You are also sent an email everytime someone responds and have the option of getting email digests (like Yahoo Groups) in case you don't want to be bombarded with emails.

Participants don't necessarily have to sign up as members unless they want to become the main organizer. Grouptivity also provides standard templates for certain events. In the screen shot, certain formula questions already exist that help you organize a trip out of town.

Ankesh Kumar, CEO of Appmail, told me his product will target both consumers and businesses. He says Grouptivity is a mash-up of email, Yahoo Groups, and Evite. Problem is, he is not the only one thinking of this idea. I have come across at least one entrepreneur who is working on something similar. Another competitor is TimeBridge but that is solely for businesses.

There is certainly a need for a service like this but it seems to me that it will work better if embedded with email providers like Yahoo, Gmail, or AOL.