Right Technology Can Ensure Events Are More Engaging, Impactful & Diverse
During the pandemic, Zoom went from being a niche business software to one of the most famous online communications platforms with more than 300 million daily meeting participants in 2020. With the live industry coming back in full force, the virtual platform continues to maintain its relevance.
In an exclusive interview with Debjani Gupta, Country Marketing Leader, India, Zoom Video Communications, explains what makes Zoom an integral part of event marketing and the constant innovation they follow.
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How have virtual and hybrid events become vital to event marketing strategies?
Virtual events not only have become more common but are now a critical part of marketing tools to reach and engage more people. Virtual and hybrid events have become a vital part of marketing strategies in recent years, as event marketers embrace the simplicity, expanded reach, and cost-savings that virtual events provide. With opportunities to extend brand reach, decrease operating costs, and engage audiences with inclusive and sustainable experiences, there’s never been a better time to host a virtual event and elevate marketing effectiveness.
A study from Morning Consult found that 91% of event marketers believe hybrid events play an important role in future event planning with 89% of event marketers agreeing that hybrid events are important to organisations. The study, commissioned by Zoom, surveyed more than 150 event marketers and planners from various organisations to collect insight into the current and future state of hybrid events. As the survey reflects, hybrid events are here to stay and play a valuable role in marketing strategies. Event marketing professionals face unique challenges with hybrid events and aim to create engaging, meaningful experiences that connect both audiences. To truly achieve these results, marketers need to understand the limitations of older video conferencing solutions and adopt a modern platform that is purpose-built for robust virtual and hybrid experiences. Zoom solutions already take the complexity out of hosting high-quality, engaging virtual events and webinars, so marketers can focus on delivering a valuable attendee experience.
With several platforms offering virtual experiences, why should businesses choose Zoom?
From large internal announcements to intimate roundtables, Zoom helps you deliver engaging, interactive, and productive hybrid and virtual events to colleagues and customers. Whether an event requires technical support, in-event moderation, complex event coordination or the highest level of production — Zoom has the solution for you. With Zoom, event planners do not need to settle for one-size-fits-all. Instead, they can choose from three flexible event solutions designed to fit unique event needs. The Zoom Events portfolio plans, supports, and produces the best virtual, live, and hybrid events on Zoom and helps in meeting organisers’ varying needs, without sacrificing any desired features. It currently includes:
Zoom Sessions, our latest event management solution that delivers much-needed flexibility and expanded features for single-session events. Built to help marketers level-up their Zoom Webinars and Zoom Meetings, Zoom Sessions offers robust production, branding, and analytic tools that help you engage attendees, generate meaningful connections, drive better ROI, and elevate your brand.
Zoom Events, an all-in-one virtual event platform for hosting multi-day, multi-track virtual and hybrid events. Zoom Events builds on the functionality of Zoom Meetings and Webinars by adding a dedicated event hub for host collaboration, robust event registration and ticketing options, and attendee networking to all of event types supporting up to 50,000 attendees.
Zoom Webinars, ideal for large, one-to-many broadcasts featuring simple setup and join. It supports 500-100,000 participants.
In addition to creative and engaging event features, Zoom solutions are easy to use, intuitive, and reliable. Equipping our customers with one platform to connect their audiences is our top priority, so we have made it easy to help event organisers keep their Zoom Events secure and prevent unwanted attendees or disruptions. Built with security and trust in mind, last year, the Zoom platform was also recognized by Omdia Universe for dedication to innovation, security, and compliance. Zoom also offers Event Services to help plan, support, and produce high-end virtual or hybrid events.
What are the benefits offered by hybrid events for event marketers?
Hybrid events existed long before the seismic shift to remote life. More than just an alternative to in-person events, hybrid experiences are sustainable, inclusive events that reduce travel expenses and appeal to broader, more diverse audiences. These benefits, combined with advanced data and analytics, make it easy to see why they are an integral part of any modern event marketing strategy. The Morning Consult study cited 54% of those surveyed support that networking is one of the greatest benefits of in-person events, but it’s still possible with virtual and hybrid experiences, and 61% of respondents believe the interaction between virtual and in-person attendees is the greatest benefit of hybrid events (higher than any other benefit).
One of the biggest benefits of a virtual or hybrid experience is access to the data and analytics marketers may otherwise miss in person. For example, the Zoom Events dashboard enables hosts to generate reports and enjoy enhanced sorting functionality to view, export, and download valuable metrics. Event marketers no longer have to guess ROI and attendee engagement owing to transparent analytics surrounding registrations, booth sponsors, live-stream views and duration, content downloads, tickets sold, event sponsors, and more. Hybrid events are changing the way we do business, and the companies that embrace this new event strategy will be better positioned to lead their markets and gain market share.
What are some of the enhanced production, engagement, and collaboration features of Zoom Events?
Zoom Events are designed to be engaging and interactive experiences with an abundance of features that make virtual events memorable. It elevates event production with a robust feature set, session branding, and hybrid-specific tools that enable new opportunities for sponsorship and collaboration. With features such as flexible scheduling options, breakout rooms, comprehensive reporting, interactive chat capabilities, live event support, and more, event organisers can create engaging events designed to immerse their audience in the content. Zoom Events offers high-end production and branding capabilities with features like Session Branding, which let users customise name tags, backgrounds, wallpaper, and registration hubs with company logos and brand assets.
Zoom Events also gives attendees the ability to network with each other, engage event sponsors, exchange contact info, and chat and initiate meetings with other attendees via the interactive event lobby feature. Zoom Events Expo Floor lets attendees interact with sponsors, engage in live conversations, and explore topics-based conversations in a deeper way in Expo Booths.
Zoom Events Backstage provides a backstage or “green room” that runs before, during, and after a session, where panellists can enter before the webinar and view and hear the live session, allowing them to prepare, consult, follow the presentation and know when it's their cue to join. Data is also essential for today's marketing and events teams and at the conclusion of an event, the Zoom Events analytics dashboard is a valuable tool for hosts to review data and see how many connections and one-on-one chats were initiated. Further, this provides additional opportunities to identify any areas for improving networking at future events.
A lot of people say that virtual events lack impact, your view?
Whether you’re looking to build connections or announce the latest company news, choosing the right technology is crucial to deliver a valuable virtual event experience. We want to encourage event organisers and planners to think about technology and how it can enrich the event experience. While there is a desire to go back to full in-person events in the industry, we believe the right technology can ensure events are more engaging, impactful, diverse and equitable and provide us with the ability to expand our audience and reach more people with our message.
Online events don’t have to be static. Today’s virtual experiences can be high-energy, engaging, and impactful, no matter the size. Zoom Events’ built-in tools promote networking and enable real-time feedback, so attendees can enjoy the same benefits of in-person events while at home. By using a variety of custom branding features, event professionals can extend their brand’s reach beyond the walls of a conference centre to maximise the ROI of the online experience.
What is next for Zoom Events?
Delivering happiness isn’t just a Zoom tagline or how we define our culture. It’s about listening to our customers, understanding their needs, and developing new opportunities to fulfil those needs. Whether you are a seasoned events pro or need a guide to hosting hybrid events, we will continue to keep our customers at the centre. The events industry will continue to evolve, and Zoom is dedicated to making virtual events as engaging, inclusive, and memorable as possible.
With Zoom Events, organisations can foster a tighter sense of community between attendees and hosts, enabling them to connect, learn from one another, and expand their professional networks. Over the next several months, we’ll continue to add even more features and tools to help attendees be a part of meaningful, engaging and productive interactions within their industry. We aim to ensure that we’re delivering an experience that enables a new kind of productivity – one that brings all the best tools and applications for modern, engaging collaboration into one destination.
