Opinion April 2021
The secret to choosing the right virtual event platform
Gavin Newman , CEO of virtual event veteran iVent , urges a people-first approach to choosing virtual event technology
It ’ s 11 years exactly since I was asked if my event company did virtual events .
“ Never heard of them ,” I responded .
After an hour of research , the rest of the week was a blur as I set about incorporating iVent , popped £ 50 in a bank account and launched a one page website .
Fast-forward to 2021 and iVent will deliver close to 2,000 virtual events this year .
Back in 2000 , there was ourselves and one other company in the UK that delivered virtual events . Globally , you could count all vendors , with fully-loaded platforms , on less than two hands . As we head into 2021 , it seems that almost every week we see a new player come into the space . I like competition , it keeps us sharp and innovating as well as raising awareness of the sector .
What I ’ ve learned in the last 12 months , with the huge uplift in enquiries , is that there is still a considerable amount of education required for those seeking a platform in terms of how to go about choosing one .
Prospects looking for a virtual event vendor are met with a vast array of proposals and I know for sure they aren ’ t always comparing apples with apples when making their choice .
There should be a basic checklist where all boxes are ticked before a RFP is even issued in my opinion . Last year , us veterans of the virtual events space watched the sector taking a bit of a bashing due to the amount of badly delivered events .
Herein lies the reason for my article . Everyone seems to focus on features and price when making this most crucial of decisions . I understand that budgets are important and are a major factor for many evaluations on vendor choice . However , the most important consideration when choosing which virtual event company to work with is ignored and that is the people behind the platform .
Having personally heard umpteen stories from organisations , who had made their platform choice based on features and then went on to have a dreadful experience , it dawned on me that they were missing the most fundamental tick box of all .
Most good platforms do the same things and I would say that feature overlap is probably 80-85 % between us all . But technology like this is only as good as the humans who are managing it .
Developing a virtual event solution is vastly different in many ways to an
“ IT ISN ’ T ABOUT THE TECHNOLOGY , IT ’ S ABOUT THE PEOPLE .”
in-person event and offering good advice on how to deliver a successful digital event is formulated from years of experience - it cannot be learned overnight .
There are so many great people out there with fabulous platforms with years of experience in how to get them right .
Most of them have discovered this the hard way with technology fails and learning on the job , but it is those experts you need to be seeking out as it is just as important what not to do as to what you should do .
I ’ ve heard some toe-curling stories over my 11 years in the industry of things that went wrong - one long gag reel by all accounts .
Having said that , I ’ ve also seen the most outstanding innovation by companies who have submitted entries into the Digital Event Awards , which did not use a virtual event platform , instead choosing to join numerous bits of separate kit together themselves . However , they all tapped into an expert resource - proving it isn ’ t about the technology , it ’ s about the people .
My advice is when you do your research check out the team first and then the platform , it will pay dividends I can assure you .