EVENT INDUSTRY, EVENT PRODUCTION INSPIRATION, LIVE EVENTS, VIRTUAL EVENTS
So, here we are with some good news to close out 2020! There are not one but TWO vaccines primed for widespread distro in 2021 and after some light hijinks it looks like one old white dude will ultimately succeed the other old white dude as POTUS in January.
In less good news, COVID rages and Mississippi has yet to formally attempt to leave our great union. But you know what, we can t have everything (also, there s still time). Things are looking up my friends. We re closing out the year on a positive note.
This also means that we can now turn our attention to non-election things for the first time in two years. We d like to give you a brief run down of some of our favorite virtual conferences that we attended last month. We always recommend consuming as many of these as you can, so you can stay up to date with how the industry is executing these, gathering best practices, and compiling key learnings.
If you re bummed you missed out on these don t fret! The great thing about all of these virtual conferences is that all of their sessions are still available for free on demand. We highly recommend at least a casual browse of their offerings, if only to see what are the hot topics for another industry that is quickly adopting the fully remote approach to workforces as a permanent feature.
So without further ado let s see how the tech and digital design industry are showcasing new virtual events tools:
Miro s Distributed 2020
Do you know Miro? If you don t you should because it s soon to be integrated into Zoom. Miro is basically a collaborative browser-based whiteboard. Groups of any size can write text, make post-its, and embed videos or images in an infinitely-sized free whiteboard in real time. It s seriously great. I ve been using this virtual workspace since the summer and even ran a 30+ person workshop using the platform last month.
Miro s yearly free Distributed conference went off without a hitch for its 30,000 attendees over 3 days. In addition to the various keynote events, workshops, and seminars freely accessible to the public, Distributed attendees also frequently made use of a roulette feature that allowed any attendees to randomly filter into private 1-on-1 chats. It was basically, the most wholesome chat roulette experience I ve had in my entire life. No complaints!
You can check out all of Distributed on demand right here.
UserTesting s HiWorld 2020
UserTesting is a great place for designers and any kind of event organizers looking to get some solid research data on their intended audiences. Concerned about making your virtual events accessible or respectful to a wide range of audiences? Want to know you re speaking directly to the key demographics you re hoping to court? Definitely check out the types of services and custom research modules offered by UserTesting throughout the year.
UserTesting s push for innovative consumer research methods makes their annual HiWorld conference especially interesting. What s hot for mobile ethnography? How is consumer research and product engagement research being conducted virtually and what are the limitations of virtual research methods? All this and more could be found at Usertesting s 3-day HiWorld (Human Insight World) virtual conference back in October.
Want to follow up on some of those seminars to plan out consumer research for your next virtual event? Check out the entire conference on demand right here.
Adobe s Adobe Max
What makes Adobe s event max ? For me, it was hearing the phrase Adobe Creative Suite so frequently over the course of 4 days that it no longer sounded like words. You might even say I m maxed out.
Adobe Max was seriously a 24/7 extravangza over the course of 4 days. Conan (does he even use Photoshop?) and other high profile keynotes were there to drive up attendance. If you were tuning in from the United States, your daytime hours were filled with tons of workshops showcasing all of Adobe s products including the brand new augmented reality program called Aero. Your Adobe nights, by contrast, were filled with the same things but entirely for Japanese. We loved seeing the way Adobe made their virtual conference an international affair by changing the dominant language based on the time of day.
You can check out the Adobe Max on demand right here!