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“Technology happens because it is possible,” said J. Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the Manhattan Project, “father of the atomic bomb," and 50% of Barbenheimer fame. |
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Not so many moons ago, when we started creating a database of tools for meeting and event makers, we could scarcely keep up with all the new platform announcements. Fast forward to August’s full moon and we can’t keep up again. Only now it’s in the reverse. Instead
of companies waxing, they are waning.
Many of the event platforms that we list in our database turned into unicorns overnight during the pandemic. Now they’re searching for their post-pandemic identities. There are fire sales, consolidations, and some new opportunities to remake pandemic-age event platforms. An article in the Financial Times from April 2022 noted that its “explore” tab, which helps you to discover virtual conferences that you might want to attend, listed fewer than 500 events. This is down from more than 15,000 in November 2020. Virtual video meetings will remain a standard part of our business
repertoire, but there will be fewer virtual events, such as trade shows. One-third the number of virtual events could easily translate into one-third the number of virtual events companies. |
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Founded in 2019, Run The World came out of the gate with great fanfare and over $15 million in investment. It was backed heavily by the swanky A16Z, aka Andreessen Horowitz. Its customer base
included Forbes, Meta, Amazon, United Nations Development Programme and Harvard University, and it claims to have hosted over 50,000 virtual events.
All that, and it was just acquired by EventMobi.
EventMobi is a mature platform with roots in the live events business. It began as a mobile app and grew to include everything from event registrations and lead capture to a full suite of tools with a
focus on live events. It just gobbled up Run The World for an undisclosed sum, and then shut it down.
EventMobi’s CEO Bob Vaez said, “We’re doubling down on our ability to deliver diverse event formats, expand our reach, and solidify our position as industry leaders.” An FAQ explaining the transition is on the site and there’s a 50% discount to Run the World
customers who stick with EventMobi. |
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On August 2nd EventMobi, an industry-leading event management software provider, announced its acquisition of Run The World. Image credit: Run the World |
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One Ringy Dingy: Ring Central Acquires Hopin |
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With an estimated net worth reported at $3.68 billion, RingCentral is, at its core, a video conferencing platform. Its biggest competitor might be Zoom. During the pandemic Zoom doubled down on
producing cool-looking virtual events; Ring Central did not. Looking at it through that lens it makes perfect sense that RingCentral announced it would acquire select assets from Hopin.
At its pandemic apex, Hopin was valued (or possibly over-valued) at $7.75 billion. It raised $450 million in funding and its founder, Johnny Boufarhat, became a larger-than-life figurehead for the virtual events platform. Buying Hopin’s virtual events platform will allow RingCentral to compete with Zoom, MS Teams and WebEx. Prior to its acquisition Hopin owned StreamYard and Streamable, two tools for video streaming, but these tools were not purchased by RingCental. This allows Hopin a second-life outside of the events business, competing with Vimeo and Adobe on video delivery.
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Cvent Connect, the event platform for user conferences, has been deemed a success. Cvent is the long story of a 30-year-old events company that went public in 2013 only to head back to
being privately owned by Blackstone in 2023. Cvent had 2,000 people registered to attend its annual user conference. At the last minute more than 3,500 showed up, leaving its own event planners scurrying but happy.
At the conference, it announced Cvent Events+, a video hub storing past videos and promoting future events. The conference also shone a spotlight on how sexy corporate events have become. As the planners are hurt by the tumult of who’s buying whom, Cvent could be perceived as a safe harbor in the current industry storm. |
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Understanding that event logistics providers are going to need to supply a new generation of event goers with the experiences they crave, Freeman, a world-leading events company, widened its portfolio by acquiring Sparks, an experiential events marketing firm. Now when companies ask what kind of exhibit they should build, Sparks will be on hand with the answer.
What does all of this mean for the events industry?
- Virtual events are here to stay but they’ll be right-sized. We expect there to be about one third the number of virtual events as there were at the peak of the pandemic. (Still plenty to write about.)
- A new generation of tech platforms is being born. They’ll be more sophisticated and rely on AI to smooth over some of those pandemic rough spots.
- The economy is still fragile. Travel budgets are not back to where they were before the pandemic and may never recover completely, especially with climate change and geopolitics at play. If you attended ten events a year before the pandemic, you may be going to just three now.
- Virtual events are going to get more expensive to produce well. The companies that are surviving are the companies that were profitable. The bar is raised for sizzle openings and high broadcast quality.
- It’s sort of like the metaverse. We don’t use that word anymore. Platforms like Hubilo, Stova (an amalgam of what were three individual companies), Bizzabo, and others are shifting gears to offer blended events services.
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We Like to Watch (Ourselves)
Jugo, a relatively new virtual platform, notes that 30.6% of people stare at themselves during video calls, rather than look at their cameras. Yes, they look askance, which makes audience engagement much less effective. Jugo is using AI to try to overcome the eye contact issue by relying on NVIDIA's Maxine, a suite of broadcast tools to manage video calls subtleties like Auto-Framing, language translation, noise cancellation, and eye gaze correction (which we find can look a little creepy). |
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NVIDIA's Maxine uses AI to help users appear to be making eye contact on a video call. Image credit: NVIDIA |
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Powerpoint and AI: Match or No Match?
We tried out SlideSpeak. In theory, it helps you understand a Powerpoint deck in more depth. We found it could give a nice summary of 3 main points, but adds no extra information such as how to contact a speaker mentioned in a presentation or find the source of a figure.
HourOne generates social media posts or blogs using synthetic humans, but it can also add narration to your Powerpoint. Check out more of our AIs for Communicators on our site.
(And you can add your product using our Get Listed button.) |
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The YouTube Effect
The YouTube Effect, originally released in 2022 at the Tribeca Film Festival,
is a documentary film that dissects the cultural effects of this platform that is now worth billions. Beginning on August 8th you can watch it on your favorite streaming platforms such as iTunes, Amazon Prime Video, Google, and Vudu, but not YouTube. |
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Social Media’s Summer in the City
Michael Jackson’s Thriller crowds may hold the record for the largest
flash mob, but Kai Cenat can now claim to have mobilized the most damaging flash mob. The famous Twitch and YouTube streamer caused a riot in Union Square, New York City, when he used his
platforms to offer giveaways of free PlayStation 5 consoles. Thousands of people showed up, violence broke out, and Cenat was charged with inciting a riot. Cenat’s most popular videos include streams of him playing NBA 2K with rapper 21 Savage, reacting to viral TikTok clips, and eating marijuana edibles for the first time. Cenat has 3.6 million YouTube followers and 6.5 million followers on Twitch. |
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PlayStation 5 giveaway turns into a riot in Union Square.
Image credit: Youtuber Smoothie 215 |
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Zoom Goes to Harvard
Say what you will about Zoom’s next act, but the first act was pretty extraordinary. There is now a Harvard Business Publishing (paid access) case study on how Zoom kept us going through the pandemic, delivering
happiness as its chief message. |
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