Zoom has significantly enhanced its event tools since the beginning of the pandemic — although it was very late to the game — and continues to position itself as a competitor to more robust event tools rather than just a webinar solution.
Over the past year, Zoom has added features like live language interpretation and interactive reactions to its standard webinar product to address the increased demand for accessible and engaging virtual experiences. It also officially entered the events market with its launch of Zoom Events in July, which offers features such as registration, ticketing, and an event hub.
Zoom Events has since been updated to include Zoom Events Conference, which enables organizers to host multi-day and multi-track events with attendee networking and chat. Zoom’s involvement in the events industry also included an investment in Cvent as part of the latter’s new public offering.
Zoom’s latest business update includes the acquisition of certain assets from event tech startup Liminal, which has been developing production tools for use with Zoom, including ZoomISO and ZoomOSC. Through this acquisition, Zoom is aiming to provide event organizers with the enhanced production capabilities that have become more widely available on event platforms over the past few months.
“By adding these capabilities and more to our events management and production offerings, we believe we will continue to be the leading comprehensive, one-stop, hybrid events management platform in the market,” said Zoom Chief Marketing Officer Janine Pelosi in a blog post announcing the news. “We will cover the entire value chain from creative production, broadcasting, editing, and fully customizable live event experiences with robust pre-event planning, in-event management, and post-event analytics.”
As part of the deal, Andy Carluccio and Jonathan Kokotajlo, two of Liminal’s co-founders, will be joining the Zoom team. Pelosi also noted that Zoom is continuing to expand its offerings to “cater to a broader range of needs when planning, producing and managing events of all types, including virtual and hybrid events,” and that there are more exciting developments to come, which we will be keeping an eye out for in 2022.