The News: Zoom announced the addition of Zoom Sessions to its Zoom Events portfolio a couple of weeks ago. Designed to serve marketers managing virtual meetings and webinars, Zoom Sessions will provide more options when hosting single-session events. Read more from Zoom here.
Zoom Announces the Addition of Zoom Sessions for Event Management
Analyst Take: The addition of Zoom Sessions, the new event management solution from Zoom, that adds flexibility and expanded features for single-session events is a smart move, and one that I suspect marketers working to manage hybrid and virtual events will be happy about. Zoom Sessions has upleveled capabilities here, affording marketers the ability to enhance events in myriad ways, gather analytics to track the success of their events, build/enhance brand presence with production and branding tools and, bonus – the ability to grow their pipelines and generate new leads with marketing automation tools and integrations built in.
Zoom Sessions Features
Features included in Zoom Sessions include some impressive capabilities, including —
Production tools for enhanced production capabilities:
- Backstage
- Simulive
- Practice session
- Resources
Audience engagement capabilities:
- Zoom Sessions features live polling and results
- Q&A
- Session surveys
- Chat
Team collaboration features:
- The Zoom Sessions platform allows up to five hosts and three co-editors
- Users can share hosting duties from one license
Event branding:
- Zoom Sessions allows for customizable registration page and emails
- Matching virtual backgrounds, backsplash, and name tags
Analytics:
- The platform provides detailed dashboards for tracking and measurement
Admin workflows:
- Users can access the Zoom Events portal to organize and manage single-session events
- Zoom Sessions features event hubs to organize events and past event recordings
- Event planners can utilize paid ticketing options, setting up with PayPal or Stripe
Set-up:
- Zoom Sessions features customizable registration capabilities
- Event managers can use the platform to quickly and easily send pre-and-post event email reminders
Zoom Sessions is the latest addition to the Zoom Events portfolio, which includes Zoom Webinars and Zoom Events. These capabilities are attractive across the board, and a clear move on Zoom’s part to continue to advance the company’s strategy of being perceived (and utilized) as something infinitely more advanced than an easy-to-use videoconferencing solution. Whether it’s multiple day events/conferences, one-to-many broadcasts, or single session demand gen events, I see this as a solid enhancement to Zoom’s overall solution offerings. The challenge, as always, is in getting customers to see the value and getting buy in on usage. I’ll look forward to hearing more from the team at Zoom to see what kind of adoption they have on this new Zoom Sessions offering in a few months’ time.
Disclosure: Futurum Research is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.
Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of Futurum Research as a whole.
Other insights from Futurum Research:
Zoom Revenue Up 5% to $1.10B in Q3 as Enterprise Sales Grow
Zoom’s Recently Announced Zoom One Shows the Power of Whiteboard
Launch of Zoom Mesh Reveals Some Basic Truths in the Enterprise Streaming Market
Image Credit: Zoom
Author Information
Shelly Kramer is a Principal Analyst and Founding Partner at Futurum Research. A serial entrepreneur with a technology centric focus, she has worked alongside some of the world’s largest brands to embrace disruption and spur innovation, understand and address the realities of the connected customer, and help navigate the process of digital transformation. She brings 20 years' experience as a brand strategist to her work at Futurum, and has deep experience helping global companies with marketing challenges, GTM strategies, messaging development, and driving strategy and digital transformation for B2B brands across multiple verticals. Shelly's coverage areas include Collaboration/CX/SaaS, platforms, ESG, and Cybersecurity, as well as topics and trends related to the Future of Work, the transformation of the workplace and how people and technology are driving that transformation. A transplanted New Yorker, she has learned to love life in the Midwest, and has firsthand experience that some of the most innovative minds and most successful companies in the world also happen to live in “flyover country.”
