H&E North speaks to Stas Zaslavsky, CEO of Israeli platform developer Vii-Events, to discuss how virtual and live elements can co-exist in a progressive format that puts clients first.
Founded in January 2020, Vii-Events is an all-in-one virtual events solution that uses a 3D hyper-realistic graphical engine to imitate the in-person event experience. In its first year, it helped create more than 100 virtual events with over 200,000 attendees globally and has risen to become one of the world’s leading platforms. It has since secured an official business development partnership with Stuart Mitchell of Manchester-based industry connector Catch the MICE to bring its multi award-winning platform to the UK market.
Hi Stas, we have seen how virtual event technology has moved on quickly since the pandemic, how does your platform stand out?
Over the past 18 months virtual events have developed at pace. As such, we aimed to be different from other platforms, offering bespoke 3D virtual web-based venues that resembled in-person events, and yet, can be as extraordinary and as outlandish as your imagination allows. With virtual events you are not confined by a physical-world location – we have even held events on the moon! We learn from event to event, improving our platform to suit the needs of this rapidly changing industry. Although the events platform is software based, we maintain our focus that events are always about the customer experience.
The industry is looking forward to the return of live events, can virtual platforms maintain value going forward?
Pre-pandemic, good event designers created anticipation among their attendees by meticulously planning their events. Each event has a unique design and story that was created to spark the attendee’s imagination. During lockdown, thousands of events used Zoom, the storytelling aspect became lost and events quickly began to look the same, leading to widespread Zoom fatigue.
We believe that it is vitally important to create a unique story to immerse attendees in a reality they have never seen before, creating a memorable experience that connects the event and the brand story behind it. This is no easy matter for any event professional; however, we work with them providing not only a stimulating visual environment, but also additional tools to assist, such as enhanced gamification to support the event design and create a unique and engaging experience. It is worth noting that good production and great content also helps.
We accept that there is nothing that can truly replace the in-person events experience. But we strongly believe that virtual experiences allow us to stay more connected, build lasting relationships and join more events in a cost-effective and sustainable way. With the uncertainty of virus-variants, vaccine rollouts and international travel changing on a daily basis, virtual events if conducted well, allow everyone to stay updated and engaged with their industry
What about lead gen, how can virtual platforms compare to live?
Virtual events strongly focus on precise analytical data that allows live lead generation during the event and indeed post-event. During the event you have real time personalised analytics on all activities within the platform, this allows a proactive event-organiser to make decisions that can materially affect their objectives and equally the customer satisfaction of sponsors. You can know exactly, for example, who downloaded the PDF file with your product or which attendees were interested in a sponsor’s keynote. Strategic use of polls during an event can also support this, providing vital information for follow-up business development. This is obviously harder to gauge when it comes to in-person events.
Additionally, our networking platform allows exhibitors and sponsors to form connections with attending guests, allowing them to host on-platform video meetings and chats or schedule follow up meetings post event to follow up live leads. Our customers report an increased lead-generation rate to 200 to 250%, compared to the physical event that they had before COVID-19.
Our business model encourages clients to use the product all year long, forming a vibrant community around the event itself, thus allowing the customers to create leads continuously: 50% of the leads during the event and 50% throughout the year by conducting business meetings, webinars, product launches, and more, all on the platform.
You are working here in the UK with Stuart Mitchell of Catch the MICE – how will event organisers benefit from this strategic partnership?
When we first met Stuart earlier this year, we knew immediately that we wanted to work with him. Stuart knows the UK events market well and having represented and operated in hotels and venues for over three decades, it made absolute sense to partner with him; he has a wealth of contacts and experience that provided huge synergy to Vii-Event’s virtual event offering. Stuart not only shares our passion for service delivery, but he also shares our work ethic; he explained how he planned to partner with a small number of non-competing virtual event platforms and help assist event organisers move into the virtual events.
With Catch the MICE as our strategic partner in the UK, we plan to work together to help more event organisers understand how a virtual-events offering can work alongside, and not compete with, their in-person events. From our perspective, it is vitally important to have a strong ambassador on the ground in the UK, especially someone like Stuart who understands the nuances of the market and who we trust will support those event organisers who may be new to the virtual events market.
Catch the MICE is an industry connector and plans to expand its support for event organisers, providing additional services and advice that support the delivery of virtual events. This includes connecting event planners with suppliers who offer creative as well as production services to enhance virtual and hybrid events.
Do you believe the pandemic is solely responsible for bringing virtual to the fore, or was the transition merely accelerated?
The sudden demand for virtual, along with significant resources and huge competition, encouraged the whole industry to make a huge innovative jump in a relatively short period, significantly benefitting the end customer. While the virtual industry was present pre- pandemic and expected to grow significantly, there is no doubt that without COVID-19, it would have just taken more time and resources to reach where we are now.
As we see the return to in-person events, it is going to be up to the virtual event technology companies, along with the experienced event planners, to pave the way for an even better attendee experience. It is essential that platforms provide more cost-effective solutions and added value that event organisers can capitalise on to sustain the further growth of the industry.
To learn more about Vii-Events, email
stuart@catchthemice.com or call 07771 946 614
