HOT LIST | JUNE 2023What's hot in Platforms
Event Platforms
Event tech platforms are in transition. There have been mergers and acquisitions, partnerships with live event systems, and sadly, a few that could not survive a post-pandemic market. Virtual events, however, have become an important part of the meeting and event repertoire.
If you’re looking for a shortcut to platform selection, here’s a place to start. The VEG Hot List, which we review regularly contains a safe list of you-can’t-go-wrong platforms. That includes everything from features to customer support. his is based on an unscientific amalgam of personal experience, published reviews, and feedback from end users like you. Be sure to check back frequently as we’re constantly refreshing your options.
Thinking BIG? You might want to think about BuzzCast. It is designed to scale, handling multi-day, multi-track events for hundreds of thousands of attendees, while providing excellent security and reliability. And it has features that encourage participant engagement including individual and group networking opportunities.
Cvent is like those comfy slippers you’ll never stop wearing. The interface is a bit dated, but the features are rock-solid and time-tested.
If you’re looking for a modern, quasi-metaverse look that draws people in with luscious settings this is a good choice. Engagez can handle every flavor of event, and its backend makes it easy to organize. Its strongest features are its customized look and feel.
Scaling for large events is not a problem for Meetyoo; the platform can handle up to 50,000 live participants. It makes it easy to create virtual booths for trade shows, and the platform has robust analytics and gamification features.
Notified
From a company that also offers a wide range of enterprise-level services, the Notified virtual events platform offers all the features required for large-scale conferences and exhibitions. Among its clients is the Red Hat Summit that drew 82,000 registrations and more than 56,000 attendees.
Designed initially as a way for creators to design interactive galleries in a metaverse, the platform can be used for other events. Personalized avatars can move about freely and interact using audio and video. There is even a free option for events of up to 50 people. Spatial recently partnered with Ready Player Me to accept customized avatars that can also be used in more than 2,000 other metaverse platforms.
vFairs specializes in delivering online job fairs, trade shows and conferences. Users can provide fully branded experiences with custom event landing pages, registration forms, virtual booth templates, webinars, live webinars, digital content management, networking tools Q&As and polls. The company recently added integration with HubSpot for CRM and Cvent for registration support.
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.
Zoom has taken advantage of the big boost it received as a result of the pandemic and continues to grow its services. Among the recent changes, it has added Zoom Whiteboard, which supports both synchronous and asynchronous collaboration to allow teams to work together on ideas and projects wherever they are. In another change, Zoom has the free accounts so that both group and 1:1 meetings are limited to 40 minutes.