LinkedIn Launches Video Meetings and 4 Other Event Tech Stories to Read
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In this month’s round-up of top event tech stories, we take a look at LinkedIn’s new video meeting tool along with some cool features that help organisers drive more casual conversations around their events. We also look at some important updates from Zoom and Microsoft Teams, including new virtual breakout sessions and automated meeting recaps. For those struggling to decide which virtual event platform to use, we have a handy guide outlining the key things you need to look for to make the most out of your investment. And finally, for a bit of fun, we take a look at how Snapchat is changing the world of AR.
Have a look at the top tech stories you don’t want to miss:
Forbes: Major Changes to LinkedIn You Need to Know
If there’s one constant at LinkedIn, it’s change. And some of the new changes we’re seeing this month are pretty relevant for event professionals today. In addition to a simpler look and feel, the social media giant has followed its competitors and launched ‘stories’ as an attempt to provide users a more ‘humanised’ voice for engaging and sharing photos, videos and messages. Stories are deleted 24 hours after you post them – making them less intimidating than LinkedIn articles, for example – and more authentic in terms of expressing yourself and building your brand.
The other big one for event organisers is the launch of video meetings. With the new feature, you can switch conversations from text messaging to video at a click of a button. You’ll be able to use Microsoft Teams, Verizon BlueJeans and Zoom directly from your messages. Read more.
On-Demand Webinar: 10 Ways to Boost Engagement Around Virtual Events
TechCrunch: Zoom Launches Its Own Events Platform
Zoom is bringing apps and paid-for events to its video meetings service, in an effort to consolidate its grip on the huge new audience that flocked to its platform during the pandemic. For organisers, the new features include the tools needed to create, market, host and charge for events, and a marketplace where consumers can sort through classes, concerts and other events, or find fundraisers to support.
Zoom also unveiled a plan to turn itself into a platform for other apps — which it has dubbed “Zapps”. The applications would bring extra features to video meetings to make them more useful, it said — for instance, making it easier for groups of workers to organise and share ideas in advance of a meeting and co-ordinate any follow-up. Read more.
EventTech Talk: How to Choose a Virtual Event Tech Platform
Running good virtual events requires a more extensive skills set from event planners – from filming and broadcasting to writing scripts, moderating and so on. It also means dealing with technology in a new way too – especially when it comes to virtual event platforms. Yet these platforms can come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and what might seem like a good solution for one event may not work for another. So how do you choose the right one?
Based on discussions with organisers pivoting to virtual events, this article looks at some of the key things all virtual event platforms need to do to help them make the most of their technology investments – from key features like audience engagement tools to targeted sponsor adverts, smart matchmaking and video calls. Read more.
Engadget: Microsoft Teams Will Add Breakout Rooms and Automated Meeting Recaps
Microsoft recently announced a host of new updates for Microsoft Teams meetings, including more Together Mode scenes, custom layouts, breakout rooms and automated recaps. The maximum number of people who can attend a meeting is also expanding to 1,000 participants later this year, while Microsoft will bump up the view-only capacity to 20,000.
From this month, Microsoft will support breakout rooms, which will allow participants to split off into smaller groups. Presenters will be able to make announcements to all of those rooms, jump between them or close them and pull all participants back into the main meeting room. The company is also making things a little easier with automated recaps. Those will include a recording of the meeting, a transcript, chat and shared files. Read more.
BizBash: How This Event Tech Helps Guests Feel Safe About Gathering Again
As event venues and meeting spaces begin to slowly reopen by implementing prevention and safety measures, Pike Productions has launched ‘Temperate Check’ – a new hands-free temperature checking solution designed as a first line of prevention to make guests feel safe gathering. Temperature Check’s four products—which come in the form of floor stands, desktop stands, or wall mounts—utilize infrared technology to scan and measure the temperature of a person’s skin within two seconds. This includes the TC-Prevent, a face scanner with mask recognition technology, and TC-WristTemp, which scans the skin temperature of your wrist.
Event organizers and business owners can purchase one of Temperature Check’s products (from $1,295) directly from the website, as Pike designed the technology for “any business that relies on a person walking through the door.” Product rentals, however, are available exclusively for event professionals. Read more.
Related: 7 ways events will change in a post-Covid 19 world
Wired: Snapchat Launches AR Local Lenses
Snapchat is finally showing us their next-generation AR tools with the launch of its first persistent, shareable AR experience on London’s Carnaby Street. The new feature– called Local Lenses – promises to transform whole neighbourhoods into digital canvases. Using the camera on the SnapChat app, the City Painter Local Lens allows people to spray great fountains of colour above Carnaby’s shops, decorating the bricks with predesigned graffiti murals. Anyone on the street can see others spraying their paints, and users can battle to cover the shops in their colours. A very interesting development to watch as you can imagine how it can be applied to boost engagement around events in the future. Read more.
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