Virtual Chat and Event Networking

If you are considering doing a virtual meeting, particularly for the first time, Performedia did a tremendous job for us. Made it fit exactly what we needed. They can customize it, and I liked the fact they customized for us, particularly with the trivia competition, which was highly popular.

This was the first time we've had to do a virtual meeting, and we asked you guys to educate us as we put it together, and you did a nice job of that. The other thing that happened was that during the course of the actual meeting, even when there were technical issues or changes that had to be made, you responded immediately and took care of them. The result was a very good user experience for our membership, and we've gotten very good compliments from them about that, and they've asked us to look at some of the online elements, and incorporating them into future meetings.

Our attendees and our staff are hardwired to produce in-person events at the same venue. We have been doing it for 40 years. When we had to plan our first-ever entirely virtual event, there was a lot of anxiety about what that could look like. And what that might be like after the event, because we are also very hardwired to get both positive and negative feedback from attendees. We were incredibly surprised that after our very first-ever entirely virtual convention, that every bit of feedback we have received has been positive. We had positive feedback about, of course, the speakers themselves, but about the ease of using the platform, about engagement with other attendees. Of course it's just like in person, people walk off to the bar and have a drink together, they go have lunch in the restaurant. You don't know that networking's happening, but we had one of our CEOs respond and tell us that they were so happy they could see who was attending, and that they could intentionally connect with individuals. And they did that. And so we were very pleasantly surprised with the appearance of our virtual convention, the logistics of the convention, and also the networking that folks were able to do as a result of it.

In my 20 plus years of working as an event planner, I have found that there are certain vendors that are your go to tried and true partners, there are others who are just there to add you to their client list, and I deeply value a partner that is cheerfully helpful all the time that's that's one of my go to phrases is cheerfully helpful and. I have always found working with Peter, working with Matt - the entire team - everyone has always been over and above willing to help, willing to adapt and be flexible, as my needs keep changing and the demands on me for my other staff keep changing. No matter what I throw them in terms of curveballs, they are always there and willing and eager to help, so I've always really appreciated that, and you can see that that's their company culture and they're just cheerfully helpful, and a great partner.

We also have had more sponsors buying bulk sponsorships, so, you know, whereas before they would look at one event say, "Oh i'd like to buy this one spot at a summit," they all of a sudden were buying six or seven spots throughout the entire calendar year, just knowing that the experience with the Performedia team and the player that we've been using has been so seamless and easy, and has really resonated with our audience.