Many event organizers have switched to virtual event formats in the past months. Their big challenge is to transform the advantages of a physical event into a digital one, without losing user experience or brand values. This is why we want to present our 10 favourite tools for virtual and hybrid events that help you reach this goal and also increase the engagement of your participants.
Tool 1 for Virtual Events: Slido
Slido is a Q&A and polling tool that allows your participants to actively participate in your event, ask questions and vote on whatever you wish them to vote on. At large events, it is ideal for involving your audience, but it is also a great tool for breaking the ice, getting to know each other, working together as a team and brainstorming together at events such as professional conferences or (company or association) meetings. They win extra points for their genious promotion video as well.
Why we love Slido:
Slido offers a simple and clear moderator interface for full control of the event.
Tool 2 for Virtual Events: Click it
With Click it, your participants can upload a photo of themselves during the event. All the photos combined form a large mosaic in which everyone is literally part of the whole image, even if they are all in different places. Afterwards, the resulting picture can be sent to all participants as a souvenir.
Why we love Click.it:
Click.it offers participants a nice souvenir of the event and it is easy to integrate.
Tool 3 for Virtual Events: Wonder.me
Wonder.me is a virtual space and networking tool where all participants can come together, get into groups, and talk to each other in breakout rooms. Participants can move from group to group at any time to exchange with others. This makes it an ideal networking tool and also well suited for large events or conferences. Another plus: Wonder's functions are currently still offered free of charge.
Why we love Wonder:
It encourages trial and error with its innovative interface and it is currently still free of charge.
Tool 4 for Virtual Events: Zoom/Teams
Most people are probably familiar with Microsoft Teams and the video conferencing tool Zoom. This is why we want to add them here: they are popular, easy to use and still the most reliable market leaders. The tools support you in holding meetings, conferences, webinars or meetings online and when integrated in a Virtual Event Platform you have all the possibilities!
Teams - as the name states - also offers numerous functions for organizing whole teams. You can chat, make phone calls, hold larger meetings, and work on documents together. Teams also has its own calendar function.
Why we love Zoom/Teams:
These two tools are so common that by now most people can handle them and are therefore particularly accessible.
Tool 5 for Virtual Events: Big Blue Button
Big Blue Button is a German open source solution for video conferencing, comparable to Zoom, Teams, GotoMeeting etc., but without requiring a server installation. Instead, it can simply be integrated into the Event Reception of Sweap.
Why we love Big Blue Button:
It is hosted in Germany and therefore also the GDPR winner out of the conferencing tools in our list.
Tool 6 for Virtual Events: Fanomena
Fanomena (formerly eventbaxx) offers digital goodie bags. Far too often, physical goodie bags end up unused in the trash, which is why digital solutions are becoming increasingly relevant not only for purely virtual events, but also for hybrid and on-site events.
A digital goodie bag, which you can fill with discounts, voucher codes, offers etc. (if required together with your partners or sponsors), has huge advantages in terms of sustainability, but also time and costs, and can be easily designed, filled and evaluated.
Why we love Fanomena:
Fanomena motivates sponsors to invest through its simple and user-friendly interface.
Tool 8 for Virtual Events: Miro
Miro is a virtual whiteboard tool especially suited for meetings, workshops, collaborative brainstorming sessions, etc. All participants can edit the board, follow others' edits live, enter and add things, and thus interact directly with each other and the event content.
Why we love Miro:
In Miro, participants can be creative and have fun while engaging with other participants.
Tool 9 for virtual events: Votr
Votr is a voting tool for open and anonymous online voting. This makes it particularly suitable for virtual meetings or events where decisions are made and votes are taken jointly and are to be evaluated directly - naturally in compliance with data protection and the law.
Why we love Votr:
Voting on Votr is anonymous, which makes it good for associations.
Tool 10 for Virtual Events: TEDME
Another voting tool, albeit with slightly different features, is TEDME. TEDME helps you to collect Q&A questions or audience opinions or to interactively query the knowledge of your participants. This makes it well suited for webinars, among other things.
Why we love TEDME:
TEDME is particularly well suited for anonymous elections such as general meetings.
Conclusion
As our research shows, there are now numerous tools available to help you make your virtual event a complete success. All these tools, as well as all your favourite tools, can be integrated into Sweap's Virtual Event Platform and used for your event. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our sales team.
