Constellation ShortList™ Virtual Events: Conferences & Experiential Events

About This Constellation ShortList™

Virtual events have come into their own serving as a unique event type that is not simply a live broadcast of a live event, but is not an overgrown webinar with a breakout room here and there. Virtual conferences and experiental events are immersive live experiences that offer unique, digital-forward opportunities to collaborate, connect and create community. The key to this new virtual world is its capacity to connect and engage an large global audience without sacrificing experience. Virtual platforms must fully integrate into overarching visions and strategies for events still navigating a path to what modern event engagement will be.

Platforms and providers of virtual trade shows, conferences and events to offer the same dynamic, visually engaging, compelling interface with real-time connectivity, sharing and points of interaction to mimic live relationship-building experiences. Organizations are seeking connected and comprehensive conference platforms that are capable of delivering on both experiences and opportunities for monetization, while also delivering the foundation to manage the entire event process from ticketing and registration, sponsorships and paid content syndication.

Constellation looks for rapid innovation and improvements in this category due in large part to evolving work, travel and event opportunities as post-pandemic operations continue to take shape. GenerativeAI also poses a massive opportunity to quickly build, personalize and collaborate across content, experiences and languages turning virtual events into truly immersive and international experiences. Integrations across the larger experience stack has become a necessity as teams expect fast and flexible connections to everything from customer relationship management (CRM), customer data platform (CDP) and even customer service and contact center solutioins.

Threshold Criteria

Constellation considers the following criteria for these solutions:

• Capacity to seamlessly host large scale, multispeaker, multimedia events 
• Support for many formats and modalities from video and audio to v irtual reality 
• Multiple room style and formats for keynotes, breakout sessions, roundtables and one-on-one meetings 
• Robust streaming for both live and on-demand across multiple simultaneous streams 
• Registration with flexible form fields for lead capture 
• Easy-to-customize agenda and interfaces from virtual lobbies to rooms, booths and stalls 
• Commerce and monetization of ticketing, sponsored content and engagement zones and interactive trade show booth formats 
• Customized branding and console configuration 
• Quick, stable, reliable connectivity with toll-free, international calling and access 
• Multihost, scalable speaker and producer interface 
• Pre- and post-event communications, alerts, calendar invitations and reminders 
• Multibrowser responsive user experience, installed app for Mac and Windows, native mobile apps 
• Live audience engagement tools, polls, voting, chat, screen markup, comments, Q&A 
• Attendee profiles, avatars, preference center, attendee directory and interest matching 
• Self-service experience building for attendees including schedule and community engagement 
• Interface that’s easy to use, update and customize for sponsor “booth” experience 
• Integration into key systems, social, marketing automation, CRM, CDP and outbound communications platforms 
• Session recording and streaming playback 
• Security, role-based access and authorization, customer viewer controls 
• Analytics and robust reporting, viewers (live vs. on-demand), attention, downloads 
• Support, training and community for users 
• Accessibility features