During the pandemic, many conferences went online. An acquaintance of mine from Smartcat organizes online events, and I wanted to ask her what tools are available for launching mass conferences today.
This article is about how to choose a platform for hosting your online events, what useful features different products have, what rating and what cost. Read our material, try these tools on to your tasks and choose the platform that is right for you.
Criterias of choice
With the onset of the pandemic, most of the events were paused, the rest were moved online. The conferencing market was covered with a wave of excitement: the organizers were looking for the best solutions. Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, YouTubeLive, Skype for Business, Webex, Zoom are just a small part of the whole variety of technologies that event managers tested. I was no longer worried about catering and the search for a site, but what opportunities there are for engaging the audience.
The conference fever did not pass by the Smartcat team either. In early April 2020, they were choosing the perfect platform for their first online event, LocFromHome . There was little time, but a lot of criteria. The tool had to:
maintain a 12-hour broadcast;
skip 4000 registrations;
accommodate up to 500 participants at a time;
offer monthly subscription options, as the conference only takes place a couple of times a year;
have good support;
collect analytics and statistics;
provide opportunities for audience engagement (polls, Q&A, chat, separate networking rooms, and so on).
After a short search, the selection was narrowed down to five platforms. More details about each of them are below.
ON24
The ON24 system is now one of the best reviewed products on G2.com for webinars and online events. They have almost 750 reviews with an average rating of 4.3 out of 5. Among the features that users of review sites like:
online registration of participants - it is convenient to know your viewers by sight;
reports on the activity of viewers - what and how they watch, and the like.
ON24 .
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LocFromHome , . $24 000 $41 000. , - - , , .
BigMarker Events
ON24. 157 review- Capterra, 4,8 5. , , , ON24 :
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– -. LocFromHome , . $13 000 , , .
Crowdcast
Smartcat Crowdcast , -. – , .
, BigMarker – -. LocFromHome 12 -, Crowdcast .
Hopin
LocFromHome 10 2021 Hopin . . , , «»:
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100 ;
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Hopin – . : . , .
. LocFromHome «» – Hopin. . Smartcat Zoom.
Zoom
LocFromHome Zoom. – - - (33 G2). , , , .
Zoom:
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whiteboarding – - .
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Zoom. , , . , .
Zoom , Smartcat LocFromHome. , , WN Expo:
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If you are looking to create your own online event, I advise you to try different approaches. There are plenty of opportunities now. See what tools and platforms are on the market, combine them with each other, try. Keep your finger on the pulse and keep abreast of all the innovations of the event industry - and everything will definitely work out.