Cloud Conventions launched Venue, a self-managed, budget-friendly year-round ‘Virtual Destination’ for small to medium-sized businesses (SMB) to host virtual and hybrid events, to create online communities, to engage customers or a remote workforce and to deliver training and education. Venue includes options and features that automate the onboarding and management of attendees, provide live and on-demand video sessions, host content, deliver custom emails and newsletters and tracks platform engagement.
“Venue was a perfect name, as it implies a ‘destination’ that delivers the audience to a virtual vs. physical environment,” said Carolyn Bradfield, CEO of Convey Services, the parent company of Cloud Conventions. “Venue is affordable, self-managed and serves a wide range of business applications to engage remote audiences. During the Pandemic, companies were narrowly focused on single multi-day virtual events or simple webinars. As businesses consider their ‘next normal’, the need for virtual environments and more importantly a virtual destination has expanded. Wider-reaching, more diverse business communities are energized through connections made online. Virtual events must promote attendee engagement since remote workforces and customers are increasingly interested in digital learning and collaboration.”
Every Venue platform is created from templates with features set up in advance and structured to direct end-users to brand and configure the technology. Venue can be organized in a variety of different ways and customized without software or any technical expertise. Venue combines live and on-demand video with event management, content hosting and participant engagement in an integrated self-serve platform.
“Venue offers the flexibility to connect existing licenses from Zoom or BlueJeans to provide automated session setup, easy access to the broadcast, and delivery of participant attendance in detailed reports,” Bradfield said. “Venue has built-in registration but offers users that prefer platforms like Cvent for in-person registration the ability to connect them to the platform to automate adding attendees that have signed up externally.”
Benefits of Venue include:
- Ease of Use – No programming skills or production expertise is required to brand and customize the platform.
- Templates – Venue offers templates with features pre-configured for multi-day hybrid events, online and continuing education (CE) programs, or year-round participant engagement.
- Content Hosting – Venue offers sophisticated content delivery to create online resource libraries to improve the ROI for sponsors and exhibitors by allowing them to showcase their capabilities and products.
- Live Video – Integrated with Zoom or BlueJeans by Verizon video for broadcast or interactive sessions with automated setup, simplified attendance, and participant interaction tracking.
- Registration and Onboarding – Use built-in registration, or connect to Cvent, Experient, MCI or RegFox to register attendees.
- Engagement Features – Discussion forums, searchable directories, chat messaging, smart meetings, and gamification keep participants engaged.
- Communication Tools – Automated message library delivers site and custom emails, newsletters, and reminders. Site-wide announcements keep participants informed and one-on-one or group messaging drives conversations.
- Advanced Analytics – Every action on the platform is tracked with detailed reporting.
- Unlimited Events – Monthly and annual plans allow subscribers to host as many events as needed inside the platform without paying per-event fees.
Venue can be purchased as a monthly or annual subscription. Professional services are available to support event strategy, customization or to moderate broadcast sessions. For information and pricing, visit https://cloudconventions.com. For a detailed demonstration of the Venue platform visit: https://venuedemo.com.
