In-person events became a no-go situation after the Covid-19 pandemic hit the events industry last year. Likewise, people were confused, businesses suffered huge losses and industries from all sectors had to shut down — some briefly and some for an uncertain period of time.
In such a scenario, the events industry had to discover new ways to cope up with this crisis.
And now, we all know that the events industry was led by the virtual — yes, the crisis gave rise to top virtual event platforms that resorted to conducting Virtual Events online in a short period of time without compromising on the experience factor. Although it brought in huge losses for a brief period, it duly recovered with the intervention of Virtual Events technology. Organizers were finally made to believe that there could be a return from here onwards.
You might be familiar that Virtual Events require great technicality and creativity skills and to cater to this, many Virtual Event platforms came forward, took up the challenge and helped event organizers take the leap from traditional in-person events to this very fresh and new format of events i.e., virtual.
Today, the events industry is flooded with all types of meeting platforms and applications. But, there are a few, who we’d name who played superheroes for the events industry in 2020, be it in executing conferences, all-size exhibitions, education fair, Business-to-business meetings, Buyer-Seller meet or a career fair. Basically, the Virtual Event platforms considered and helped event organizers execute their first online events seamlessly.
Here, we are naming a few TOP five Virtual Event Platform brands that helped Event Organizers conduct successful event throughout the pandemic -
- Cvent: Cvent is a virtual events company that provides easy-to-use, technology that is integrated to make solutions for a maximized impact on events. It offers cloud-based solutions for all kinds of interactions. During the pandemic, Cvent solutions enabled event organizers around the world to manage millions of meetings and events. When the losses hit the industry, they were among the top virtual event platforms that jumped into the scene, developed immersive events technology and helped event organizers make successful, audience-centric events.
2. Eventbrite: Eventbrite is a virtual events platform that creates professional, seamless experiences for attendees. And amid this pandemic, Eventbrite went on to create seamless online experiences. It designed COVID-19-specific resources, help centre articles, and best practices to guide event organizers every step of the way. Throughout the pandemic, they have been an organization that acknowledged the increased need for flexibility in times of uncertainty and were available to take events online.
3. ibentos: ibentos is a Hybrid Event platform that has extensive experience in working closely with Event Organisers during the Covid-19 pandemic. Known in the Event Industry for delivering enriching experiences, spectacular results, and ROI-driven solutions, they executed Virtual Buyer-Seller Meet during the pandemic. It helped innumerable sellers from varied industries network with domestic and international buyers, establish new connections, sell their products during the pandemic without travelling, sustain themselves and their employees. Secondly, when schools and institutions were shut down during the pandemic, ibentos launched the Virtual Education Fair platform to bring together parents, students and school representatives on ONE platform. It helped them sort the admission process by connecting them to their choice of schools and education through voice calls, Whatsapp and even phone calls.
As a result of this endeavour, event organizers as well the attendees were able to organize the event and sort out admission respectively.
4. Hubilo: The Virtual events platform, Hubilo dealt in LIVE experiences in order to fill the required gap in the market during the Covid-19 pandemic. It became a prominent Virtual Event platform due to its swift action during the early days of the pandemic. It did not make any layoffs during this period and this helped them make the major transition from the original traditional platform to the new virtual platform. This gave them the opportunity to redefine the marketing landscape for their main stakeholders. When the event industry came to a standstill from COVID-19 and physical events started getting cancelled, Hubilo promptly shifted to the virtual event space. They built their products from scratch, conducted thorough market research and built a virtual event platform to adapt to the virtual event needs of event organizers.
5. Swapcard: Swapcard is another virtual event platform that defined Virtual events during the Covid-19 crisis. They began functioning at the start of the Covid-19 crisis and had several top organizers of the world trust them with their events. They became an industry topper after they built an entirely new platform that catered to the virtual format only. In the time between, June 2020 — December 2020, the Swapcard organisation held thousands of interactions and events. They are another well-known player in the events industry creating an AI-powered Virtual events platform.
With features like networking, matchmaking and engagement options, Swapcard has made all kinds of interactions possible among the event organizers.
With the Virtual Event platforms on the helm, event organizers surely got a chance to expand their reach to newer places and regions with better ROI. And none of this would have been taking place if event organizers had not transitioned to the Virtual mode.
Now, the question arises if Virtual events can be taken long term? What after the Covid-19 scenario?
If you explore further, you’d be amazed to see the heights virtual event platforms have achieved today. It doesn’t end in just design and interactions, but platforms have turned into a wholesome package deal that has offerings for both attendees and organizers — basically, all stakeholders involved during an event.
As event organizers, you need to know that now after exercising the benefits of virtual and hybrid events, going back to the sole traditional in-person experience might not be fruitful. However, we recommend you to be tough decision-makers and decide what is good and bad for your business and customers at this time.
You’ve got all the resources in the market, and all that is required for you to do now is monitor the situation, learn and approach the right partner platform for your event business or organization.
For more information: https://ibentos.com/
