Virtual Events Up 1000% Since COVID-19, With 52,000 On Just One Platform

Virtual events are up 1,000% since Coronavirus, says a virtual events platform. This particular platform has seen more than 52,000 events and subevents since COVID-19.

“Over the last few months we have seen our business of virtual events grow by 1000%. We have been working overtime and hiring non-stop to keep up with the demand,” Ruben Castano, CEO of 6Connex, said in a statement. “Interest from colleges, sports teams and requests from international businesses is something we didn’t anticipate growing so rapidly, but we are thrilled to assist as the event world reconvenes online.”

Competing platforms include Adobe Connect, Accelevents, and On24, but many solutions began life as a webinar platform and have only recently added features for full-on conferences.

But hosting a conference online is not as simple as broadcasting main-stage speaking events on YouTube, or making them available via Zoom.

Instead, you need technology for small groups, communication, serendipitous meetings that are somewhat analogous to what you might experience at in-person conferences, and more: virtual lobbies, exhibitor “halls,” networking spaces.

I usually speak at one to two conferences monthly, but it will be no shock to most that virtually all physical in-person events have been canceled as we’re all working from home. I’ve recently recorded episodes for Web Summit’s Collision Conference which will be broadcast in June, and will be MC’ing part of Mobile Growth Summit next week.

How they’ll make those conferences interactive remains to be seen.

The challenge with a virtual conference is that you don’t have a captive audience. Everything from regular work — and family life, now that you’re working at home — is still happening. Emails still ding. Phone calls still happen. Slack still fills up with messages.

And, perhaps most important, a virtual conference is now competing with the very best of entertainment and content on YouTube or TikTok or Facebook, not to mention the all-star celebrity that a competing event managed to snag.

Clearly, however, hundreds of organizations are trying it, and not just regular real-world conference organizations. Sports teams, businesses, and colleges are also looking at the platforms, Castano says.

With virtual the only game in town everyone, apparently, is trying it.

“6Connex can easily replicate any high profile, large scale event making the whole experience virtual through our secure, cloud-based platform,” Castano added. “Next month alone, 6Connex will run 80+ events and some of these will host thousands attendees each.”