Alright, buckle up, this week’s update is going to be a big one!
One of the things our team has been pouring a lot of effort into is a new platform for allowing flexible video communications throughout the entire PheedLoop virtual event experience. Our one-on-one video networking systems have been super popular, and so have our various ways in which sessions can be streamed via your favorite streaming and meeting platforms.
Over the last few weeks, we’ve re-built our video meeting platform, PheedLoop Meet, to be a much more customizable and capable system that has now allowed us to build one of the features we’ve been excited about for quite some time - streaming and meeting in real-time from exhibitor booths! And we have many more use-cases for PheedLoop Meet coming up.
While the virtual conference component is largely familiar with live streams, polls, chat, etc., virtual trade shows are still evolving. We see new ideas and features come about as event planners and technologists like ourselves continue to ratchet up the innovation.
How do live video booths work?
- When attendees visit a virtual booth, they click the “Join Live” button (if enabled, see below)
- They instantly join a live video meeting with up to 25 fellow attendees and exhibit staff members
- Exhibit staff members can share their screens and run full presentations or demos in real-time as they would on-site
- Attendees can ask questions and chat with exhibit staff over video, audio, and text
- Attendees can branch out into private video meetings with exhibit staff
- Attendees visit a virtual booth as they normally would, and can explore resources like files, videos, staff, links, graphics, etc.
- Exhibitors can also combine this with their lead retrieval functions to gather visitor contact information
For strategic exhibitors and sponsors who are looking to really spice things up in the video streams, they can even route feeds from OBS and other video casting tools directly through their computer’s webcam interface into their video booth. Hybrid events may even choose to broadcast live from their booths!
Note that PheedLoop Meet, which powers all our video engagement features, is built in a way which requires no additional plugins or downloads. We have completely stripped out our previous use of the Jitsi back-end and are running a new self-managed WebRTC system.
How much do live video booths cost?
Despite the added cost on our end to add significantly more meeting servers, we’ve decided not to charge anything extra for this feature. Instead, we’ve included this in the price of the lead retrieval service for exhibitors which most already possess, and we’ve found from beta tests that the live video features have significantly boosted the value exhibitors and sponsors derive from the add-on. Any exhibitors and sponsors which already have the lead retrieval feature activated will instantly see this feature on their virtual booth page!
As has always been the case, exhibitors may purchase the add-on from their portals directly, or you as the event planner can purchase credits and resell them at any rate you like. Huge value add to include in your exhibitor/sponsor prospectuses as well.
What’s next?
While this is the first version of live video booths, it’s definitely not the last. We’re already working on several upgrades which will be rolled out in the background over the coming days.
We’re also working on several new features with our new video meeting system outside the exhibit hall (networking, streaming, and more), so stay tuned to our newsletter and blog to ensure you don’t miss anything in the coming weeks (especially August).
Finally, we’ll likely be announcing later this week a new training system for your exhibitors and attendees to learn more about how to best use the tools your virtual event offers.
