VIRTUAL EVENTS GROUP
Hot List
Hot tamales, hot peppers, and yes, hot virtual news all cooked up right here.
Event Platforms
This platform does it all, and has done it for just about everybody. They proved that they can play in the major leagues by hosting the virtual SXSW 2021, including extensive matchmaking services.
Brella
A clean interface backed by intelligent networking matching and strong analytics, along with plenty of attendee-driven features
HopIn
Relative newcomer (founded in 2019) recently closed a $400m financing round for a $5.7B valuation. The company has been on a buying spree, purchasing Streamyard, Streamable, and Jamm.
Strong trade show features along with a solid conference foundation and good networking options
This full-featured platform has hosted events serving nearly a half million participants so far. Its Digital Transformation World Series was recently recognized as the “Best Digital Conference” at the inaugural Digital Events Awards in March 2021.
ON24
Built on a solid analytics foundation, this 20-year-old webinar/conference platform launched its IPO in February with an immediate 45% jump in stock price.
Emphasis on 3D VR graphics and attendee interaction with video, voice, and text.
Rapidly-growing service based on hyper-realistic virtual world platform providing versatile solutions
Virbela
Not just for conferences and trade shows, the virtual worlds can be used for education and training, as well as always-on office spaces where remote workers can interact and collaborate.
The bedrock of the experience is quality video — both live and recorded — on which you can add features from custom branding to a fun multi-person photo booth..
Webinar Platforms
BigMarker
Native integration with other automation tools, and can also stream webinars to Facebook and YouTube Live (Also has conference and trade show options)
BlueJeans Events
BlueJeans is owned by Verizon, and is known as a video meeting platform. Like Zoom, however, it also has its own webinar service suitable for training and other uses.
ClickMeeting
Full-featured webinar system from start to finish, including on-demand recorded sessions.
Live and on-demand browser-based webinars available with monthly and annual pricing plans, and email marketing integrations
Flat-rate subscription or per-attendee pricing for full-featured system that includes live and on-demand webinars.
LiveStorm
Designed to be simple to use, but integrates with many supporting services and is available in two dozen languages.
WebEx is a well-known video meeting platform, but Cisco also has a system for webinars and training that includes tools to manage large audiences and multiple speakers.
Has already hosted more than a half million live webinars; comes with soup-to-nuts support from paid registrations and email drips to detailed analytics (The companion service EverWebinar is for pre-recorded webinars.).
WebinarNinja
Lower cost than many competitors, but still offers many features including on-demand recorded webinars.
Perhaps the most successful video meeting software, it has an option for webinars as well with plenty of features and integrations with other services.
Hot VEG Tools
Scribe
Turns your video conferences into notes and makes them searchable.
Twine
Facilitates individual meetings inside of any video conferencing platform to provide the feeling of meeting new people at conferences
Zapier
Automates your workflow by integrating your productivity apps (no coding required). Integrate your Zoom meeting attendee list with your MailChimp or Eventbrite.
News Stories
SURREAL Events launches its events platform in a 3D virtual environment. It’s pretty glitzy.
Bloomberg tests tiered ticketing for virtual events. The end of the democratic virtual world looms near. Welcome exclusivity.
Is Virtual the Future of Concerts? LA businesses ponder the future of rock n’ roll.
Looped, a platform for fans and their followers raises 7.7 million. Billie Ellish, Shawn Mendes, BTS, Kevin Durant, Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Usher, Sam Smith, Charlie Puth, Khalid, Dua Lipa, Luke Bryan, Bad Bunny, Maluma, Diplo and others can sell tickets, merch, and more.
Hopin raises a mind-blowing A £288 million funding round. The company is valued at around £4 billion and is now, one year, after launch, the fastest growing startup in Europe. It served 85,000 organizations and has gone from 23 employees to 400 in less than a year.
Ask Alfred
Q. How do I livestream a Zoom meeting to Facebook?
A. You can do this a few different ways, but I’m going to cover the most straightforward approach that does not require any programming or copying and pasting keys or anything complicated. The most important points are that you must set up your Zoom account to permit live streaming. And this only works for paid Zoom accounts. MORE
A. Having made my living for years as a professional writer, I learned to pay close attention to my editors because they almost always made my work look better. One piece of wisdom from one of my favorite editors was about how long an article should be: “Write it as long as it needs to be, but no longer.”MORE
Q. How much does a virtual event cost?
A. That’s a lot like asking “How much does a car cost?” Are you getting a BMW or a Kia? A two-seater city car or a minivan? And like buying a car, how do you intend to use it? On our VEG site, we have categorized platforms based on the types of events that they support. Is your event a video meeting, webinar, networking event, conference, or trade show? MORE