For the event industry, especially career events, 2020 has not been a kind year. Instead of a catastrophic regression, however, the industry has found a new way to thrive. Through the help of virtual event platforms!
Do you know that out of 935 business events professionals, 84% want to learn or develop “designing digital event experiences” to prepare for the post-covid recovery period? This number, from the Professional Convention Management Association Convene’s (PCMA Convene) recent survey, paints a positive picture for the future of virtual event platforms.
To support the adaption for the events industry, Rakuna would like to introduce four solutions for a better virtual event hosting experience!
The Current and Predicted State of the Events Industry
In another survey conducted by PCMA Convene in April 2020, out of 1776 individuals with 69% identified as business event professionals, 18% completely moved face-to-face events to a virtual platform. While 52% transfer a portion of the event. In the same survey, approximately 300 out of 490 responders say they are taking steps in adopting virtual meeting and digital technologies.
According to vFairs, It is uncertain how long the period of social distancing and border closure will last. Even with a vaccine, many uncontrollable factors are standing in the recovery effort. Likely, virtual event platforms will still be in the picture throughout 2021 and beyond.
Leora Halpern Lanz (2020), marketing faculty of Boston University’s School of Hospitality Administration shares a similar view, stating that a form of hybrid between virtual and physical meeting will become the standard for the far future after the Covid19 Pandemic.
It is easy to tell that virtual events will remain an integral part of the events industry.
If you want to know more about virtual events, specifically virtual career fairs, you can refer to this article.
vFairs
The first solution we want to introduce to you is vFairs. Founded in 2016 in Coppell, Texas, vFairs’ virtual event solution has an astonishing track record of pleasing international clients. Some of vFair’s happy customers are Nestle, Unilever, AT&T, and many more.
With a team of approx 200 employees in Canada, the US, UK, Australia, Singapore, Pakistan, and Dubai, vFairs can provide customer support around the clock. The team has scaled insanely fast since the beginning of Covid-19, but the demand for their solution remains high.
Key Features
Source: Capterra
With a full suite of features to rival competitors, vFairs takes it above and beyond by giving focus on a very realistic and customizable 3D visual look. VFairs offers a visual-rich experience. Some of the highlights are interactive booths with customizable contents, both live and pre-recorded videos, and interactable buttons. VFairs excels in the number of templates, color pallets, and themes. You are the artist, and vFairs will be your canvas.
Putting mimicry to the next level, not only vFairs can simulate an in-person expo experience with virtual lobbies, halls, and exhibitor booths done with your input. If you so wish, vFairs can also recreate your office space for attendees to experience working for your business.
VFairs provides project managers to help you with running your virtual career fair. Having trouble understanding the mountain of data vFairs collects for you through smart analytic? Project Managers are here to help!
Collecting resume on the spot is very simple with vFairs, the solution can compile any chosen resumes into a database. Whether it is from the event’s job board or submitted right to you at the booth, you have a long list of organized resumes to choose from.
VFairs can also host large-scale, highly-interactive webinars. The cherry on top is that these webinars will be hosted by a third-party. In the unlikely event that something goes wrong with your event, your webinars remain unaffected.
VFairs will provide you with a Virtual briefcase. Managing all the virtual pamphlets, PDF files, and so on can be a pain. VFairs manage files and attachments through a virtual, in-app storage space to save all your virtual fair-related files. No more endless searching in the drives. Your files are not there this time!
Landing page support is available. Imagine if you have a breath-taking visual design idea for your landing page that can boost engagement and attention to 11, but you can’t create it. VFairs can help you design an attractive landing page that follows your instruction to a tee!
Source: Capterra
Pros
- VFairs has a transparent website. If you are wondering what your event would look like using vFairs, their website has a multitude of in-app, high-quality screenshots.
- VFairs can provide a detailed, vibrant visual look for your event. The solution is a well-balanced combination between top-of-the-line, feature-rich technology, and users’ comfort.
- Professional interaction with customers, using their extensive Customer support team, vFairs ensures your questions will be met with satisfactory answers and in the shortest time.
- VFairs also comes with an intuitive mobile app. No matter what platform or brand you are using, as long as your hardware meets the requirement, vFairs can display its virtual events as beautiful and responsive as on PC.
To continue with the “feature-rich” tradition, vFairs mobile comes with a communication suite, complete with real-time audio, video, and text chat in a group or private.
Cons
There are a lot of requests by users to include more detailed instructions on how to set up a virtual event using vFairs’ feature-rich solution. VFairs’ massive collection of features has become a double-edged knife with people struggling to make the most out of the solution. However, that is why vFairs provide Project managers for each event to ensure the set-up is meeting the client’s expectations.
VFairs in the past has encountered challenges in running large to massive events. However, it did not stop the team from giving their best to support.
Pricing
Not disclosed publicly. You can contact Rakuna, vFairs’ official reseller partner.
Rating
Total G2 rating: 4.7 out of 5
G2 Users rating out of 10:
- Ease of use: 9.1
- Quality of support: 9.4
- Ease of setup: 8.3
Being the official reseller of vFair’s virtual event solution, we at Rakuna are very impressed with the versatility of the solution. If you want to book a demo or learn more about other features, you can contact vFairs directly or visit us at Rakuna!
Hopin
Founded in 2019 in London, the UK, by Johnny Boufarhat, Hopin originally was a simple one-on-one networking tool. Like Hubilo, this UK-based solution experienced a rapid evolution into a video conference solution in response to the Covid 19 Pandemic.
The current version can host an event as small as 10 people or a conference as big as 50,000 individuals! The business has provided service for 32416 organizations. Some of the big names are Adobe, Dell, and The Wall Street Journal.
Hopin announced in November this year that they have raised $125 million in a round of funding. This amount lifted the value of Hopin from $350 million to $2 billion in just under 2 years since Hopin’s founding!
Key features
Source: Hopin’s website
Hopin features customizable event interiors such as UI color or uploads your unique icons, unique graphics to match your brand.
It takes little to no time to deploy an event with Hopin! In just 3 steps, you can have your event up and running. The most time-consuming prep step is likely creating the schedule, depending on the duration and size.
You can assign tags to each booth for better sorting. Visitors can use tags to navigate your event, going to booths that might interest you.
Think of Hopin like a Swiss Army knife, have a look at their selection of robust sub-features:
- Reception: welcome your participants, introduce your sponsors, and provide directions to explore your events.
- Front stage/Backstage: The front lets you broadcast content to your participants using live feeds. Backstage allows a private video chat so a group of speakers can rehearse together before going to the front.
- Sessions: an area where attendees can group around a “virtual roundtable” to discuss and collaborate.
- Networking: Meet and connect to people just like a physical event. Hopin has a “connection discovery tool” to pair up people in a one-on-one live video based on determined preferences. Customize your setting to meet amazing people, from matching your type of ticket (Job seekers, speakers, and many more) to those you have specified. With an intuitive user interface somewhat similar to Hangout, both users can have control over talk time or chosen partners.
- Expo: create a virtual expo booth that can contain anything from pre-recorded videos, links, branded content, live videos, and staff, etc. Similar to Vfairs, one can customize relating-features such as name, custom preview, size, booth priority/location, headline.
- Registration: create a landing page to sell tickets or monitor sign-ups through analytic data collected by Hopin.
- Advance Analytics: Hopin collects event data to help you boost your strategy.
- Team suite: an admin area that allows a team to plan, manage, and execute your event.
Pros
- Simple and modern design. Hopin’s features can mimic the in-person experience of an event attendee in a physical event.
- The solution is like a Swiss Army knife. It boasts a collection of useful features in a small package.
- Have a very detailed resource library offered on the web of every feature. Hopin’s online library includes detailed instructions on how to get the most out of this versatile solution.
- Hopin has a massive but stable bandwidth: this solution once hosted a 26-hour long event for the UN. At the end of the UN Global Compact, the event had a total of 15,538 unique attendees. For virtual events, being able to support a large number of events with a large number of participants concurrently requires massive bandwidth. Hopin certainly has met that requirement in this UN event.
Cons
- Can be expensive depending on your event, in the starter plan, Hopin will take 7% of the commission fee.
- Easy to use…..but not easy to learn. Without the support of the online resource library, first-timers will likely have a hard time figuring things out.
- No phone support yet, only chat support. On event day, there won’t be a designated employee on standby to support.
Pricing
The starter plan is $99/month with the option to upgrade to a Business or Enterprise plan. You will have all the core features in this plan. However, do note that the plan comes with a commission rate of 7% of your ticket sale and is limited to only 1 admin.
Rating
Total G2 rating: 4.7 out of 5
G2 Users rating out of 10:
- Ease of use: 8.7
- Quality of support: 8.5
- Ease of setup: 8.7
Hubilo
Source: Hubilo’s website
Founded in early 2020, San Francisco, originally, Hubilo was intended as an event management software. With the influence of the Covid 19 Pandemic, Hubilo also provides solutions for hosting virtual events. Until now, Hubilo has hosted over 2500 events in more than 100 countries. Some of their happy clients are The UN, AIESEC, and Roche.
Key Features
Compared to Hopin, Hubilo also has a suite of features capable of supporting a virtual career fair. Some of their main features include webinars, private booths for online interviews, public booths for employers, event corridors, and lounges for group meet-ups.
You can make use of an Integrated survey and poll system so attendees can immediately provide feedback. One can also gamify their virtual event. Add fun with custom contests, quizzes, leaderboard, or point system for more engagement. Similar to Vfairs, Hubilo also comes with project managers to help you plan your virtual event.
Compare to Hopin, Hubilo has a more-complete mobile app for both organizers and attendees:
- Notification: give you fast and short updates of your events.
- Live Q&A session for live interactions with participants.
- Polling: set up a poll or survey right on the event feed with the tool that fits nicely in your palm.
- Direct chat: provide a way for attendees to privately and personally reach out to you.
- Exchange virtual business cards for an elevated networking experience.
Pros
- Good customer service: not only do you have a Success Manager to help with running Hubilo but, you will also have very active 24/7 customer support on your side.
- Easy to use: Compared to Hopin, reviews on G2 shows Hubilo as a much easier to navigate solution.
- Highly integrable: have a preferred video streaming platform? A custom chatbot or support bot you would like to include in your event? Hubilo can add it in for you.
Cons
- Ticket pricing is available in major currencies, so if you are planning to use a local one, it might not be available.
- Lacks customization options such as color pallets, Can use more types of theme and color pallets in future updates.
- Less customization compares to Hopin
Pricing
Hubilo does not disclose its pricing plan; however, it is advertised as having flexible pricing based on chosen features.
Rating
Total G2 rating: 4.7 out of 5
G2 Users rating out of 10:
- Ease of use: 9.5
- Quality of support: 9.4
- Ease of setup: 8.7
Brazen
Source: Brazen’s website
Established in 2007 and headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, USA, Brazen specializes in providing solutions to connect recruiters with candidates. With regular updates to their solution, Brazen has been a leading chat-based recruiting software since 2013.
With a team of approximately 50 employees, Brazen has provided service for Houston Methodist Hospital, CVS Health, Lincoln Financial Group, and many more!
Key Features
Similar to the three previous solutions, Brazen packs an advanced interview suite! Along with live video chats, you can use text only or voice only to interview candidates however you like.
Pre-screen function: “SmartQueue” technology can help you keep track of your top talents. Registration forms are also customizable and allow you to add “elimination questions” to sort out those unsuitable from entering your event.
With the split-screen chat function, employers can interact with up to 4 attendees at a time while attendees can simultaneously interact with the employer and visit another booth.
Along with a live event board, Brazen also includes a dedicated job board for candidates to browse and explore job offers on the fly without the need to search individual booths. Speaking of event booths, like Hopin, each exhibitor booth can have tags added to it for an enhanced navigation experience!
Brazen possesses a high level of customization and DIY elements. Brazen can give you the tool and the instruction on how to use it, but you will decide how you would like your event to look.
Pros
- Brazen is also a “simple to use, simple to teach” platform.
- A very streamlined process, Brazen has years of experience to improve their product.
- Provide AI support for quick screening and chatbot.
Cons
- For now, there is no way of knowing how many are waiting in the lobby to be interviewed.
- The time limit on the chat function can be strict, expect conversations to be cut abruptly.
Pricing
Not disclosed, you can contact Brazen’s customer service team for a detailed pricing plan.
Rating
Total G2 rating: 4.6 out of 5
G2 Users rating out of 10:
- Ease of use: 9.3
- Quality of support: 9.4
- Ease of setup: 9.8
To Conclude…
Sooner or later, The Covid19 Pandemic will be a thing of the past. However, we believe that virtual events, whether they are sale expos or career fairs, are here to stay. This is why event solution providers continue to enhance their solutions to peak perfection. We are talking about the evolution in the events industry after all.
This blog post originally appears on Rakuna’s blog.