Virtual meetings vs. virtual events: here’s what’s different and how to get both right
By Kim Niederman, CEO of GlobalMeet
As a change agent and growth accelerator, Kim has shaped product and go-to-market strategies, building world-class companies as CEO, President, or a Senior Executive at big names like 8×8 (NASDAQ: EGHT), Lifesize, Polycom (NASDAQ: POLY), Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO), and FORE Systems (NASDAQ: FORE).
Today, as video technology becomes increasingly pervasive within enterprises, virtual meetings, and events are more than ever the norm rather than the exception. While many people use the terms virtual meeting and virtual event interchangeably, there is a distinct difference between them and the technology required to support them properly.
Meeting or Event: The Virtual Divide
Virtual meetings are typically more narrowly focused and connect smaller teams for things like collaborative discussions, brainstorming sessions, quick catch-ups, and client calls. Online meeting platforms such as Cisco Webex, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom offer passive viewing or basic audience engagement functionality and are often used for everyday meetings.
Virtual events often involve inviting large-scale audiences, social media sharing, speaker and sponsor profiles, secure access controls, delivering multi-session agendas, chat, surveys, and Q&A engagement, transcription and translation, and a broader range of documents, graphics, and video content delivery formats. Creating an experience is a major focus of these large-scale events which include new product launches, investor conferences, and virtual trade shows. A range of innovative, enterprise-grade virtual event platforms specifically designed to support these large-scale, complex events are available and necessary to ensure effective event delivery. LIVE training, practice sessions, and fully managed event production are essential.
Meeting Tech vs. Event Tech: A Feature Face-Off
While virtual meeting technologies offer more limited features and tools such as video and chat, virtual event platforms are designed with a comprehensive suite of features needed to deliver dynamic and immersive experiences for much larger audiences. Here’s a rundown of some of the key features that differentiate virtual event technology from meeting technology:
Scalability
Unlike tools for virtual meetings which can usually accommodate up to 1,000 participants, virtual and hybrid event platforms are designed to properly handle the bandwidth for events with more than 100,000 virtual attendees, even on short notice. One event with GlobalMeet for example, had an expected attendance of 500 people before Elon Musk shared the meeting link to his Twitter account at the time just 15 minutes before the event was supposed to start. The result was 25,000 additional attendees and luckily with a truly scalable event platform like GlobalMeet, the event went on without a hitch. Quality event software is architected with high-performing, reliable infrastructure that expands the reach of enterprise events to global audiences, seamlessly broadcasting high-quality video and offering engaging event experiences for participants.
Event management
Event management features also set digital event platforms apart from meeting technology. Virtual event platforms and their team of managed experts allow meeting organizers to easily create a fully branded conference registration page and live event that showcases a client’s look and feel in its best light. With managed experiences, a client unlocks collaboration with a team of seasoned experts who meticulously craft every aspect of an event journey—from enhancing brand aesthetics to rigorous presenter rehearsals, ensuring clients and their VIP speakers are primed and ready.
Video technology
Most meeting technologies are essentially video conferencing tools. Virtual event platforms offer much more than that. Webinar platforms not only feature advanced video streaming technology but also give event organizers the ability to record and store content to provide attendees with on-demand and simulated live content access after the event.
The most advanced virtual event platforms capture analytics and metrics of event session performance, viewer engagement, and both survey responses and Q&A answers down to an individual level to help event organizers optimize marketing communication strategies for future events. CRM integrations with HubSpot, Marketo, and Pardot ensure all the event and attendee statistics are integrated with campaign and contact data.
Customization
Meeting technologies do not offer the wide range of customization options found within virtual event platforms. Event technology platforms allow organizers to tailor the event experience with their own company branding. Using this technology, enterprises can fully customize the brand event experience, visually incorporating brand identity on registration pages, session displays, surveys, confirmations, reminder emails, event landing pages, and more. These platforms make it easy to provide cohesive virtual event experiences that build stronger connections with participants and prospects while reinforcing brand recognition and messaging.
Engagement and interactivity
While most meeting technology is limited to basic video, chat, and whiteboard functions, virtual event platforms are designed with robust features that allow event participants to dynamically interact and engage with sessions. Polling, Q&A features, and networking breakout rooms are just some of the tools that foster attendee interaction and engagement beyond typical meeting platforms. Social media integrations also boost engagement, allowing event organizers to seamlessly promote events and share live updates.
Some platforms also offer gamification elements including challenges, quizzes, and leaderboards that incentivize participation with rewards. Another interactivity and engagement feature found in virtual event platforms is AI-enabled matchmaker technology designed to help attendees find and connect with other attendees who share similar interests and/or professional backgrounds included in their attendee profile. Mobile access on smartphones and tablets in addition to laptops and desktops is always required. Managed Event producers can optimize the speaker views and content views for mobile devices.
Security and Compliance
Enterprise event management software is designed to protect data security and privacy. The same can’t be said of many meeting technologies that were initially designed for consumer use. Enterprise-grade security features in virtual event platforms include encryption technologies, multi-factor authentication, and access controls that ensure the security and privacy of event participants as well as compliance with data privacy regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). For further security and brand protection within event sessions, some event platforms even offer managed greenroom features that allow event hosts to vet guest speakers or audience members before being admitted to the main stage.
Analytics
Digital event platforms offer advanced data capture and analytics tools not found in meeting technologies. Virtual event platforms with integrated analytical data and reporting tools track engagement metrics such as how long participants spent in each session, what questions were asked, what videos were viewed by individual participants, what content was clicked on, and what sessions had the most engagement. Organizers can use these features to analyze audience preferences, behaviors, and engagement patterns. Data like this provides a snapshot of the entire event lifecycle, revealing what worked well, what can be improved, and what should be repeated, allowing event organizers to optimize future events to drive better interest and engagement.
Integrations
Seamless integration with existing CRM, marketing, and automation platforms is another feature that differentiates digital event platforms from meeting technology. These integrations make it easy to plan and deliver a cohesive event experience and streamline workflows.
Wrapping up
The adage, “the right tool for the right job” applies to the technology used for meetings and virtual events. Where meeting technology serves the purpose of smaller, more focused conversations, dedicated online event platforms are the needed tools for delivering successful and engaging large-scale virtual and hybrid events for enterprises.
Any thoughts, opinions, or news? Please share them with me at vince@meetingsevents.com.
Photo by Unsplash+ In collaboration with Getty Images
