Zoom: Bull in the china shop or elephant in the room of virtual events?

Every Friday morning, I publish my take on the week's event news in my newsletter, The Lookout. The newsletter also includes a number of top stories and developments from the event industry. To give you a taste of what to expect, I've shared a part of today's newsletter here. Consider subscribing for free here!

July 23, 2021

In May, Zoom quietly announced their own All-in-one Event platform was coming. At the time of the announcement, at the cusp of summer, many event professionals were not thinking of online events. Instead, we were looking excitedly to moving towards the return of physical events, the easing of restrictions, and hopefully the lessening of the pandemic. The announcement didn’t make quite the splash that it might have, as it was accompanied by a sea of other eventtech news, from new acquisitions by Hopin, to big raises by players such as Hubilo, Bizzabo and others. Zoom’s tease was more of a whisper. 

But the announcement this week that Zoom’s All-in-one platform was here-- and already available for those with enterprise plans -- has hit altogether quite differently.

There is no ignoring it, as the launch accompanied news of Zoom’s recent $15 billion acquisition of cloud center Five9, and leaked talks between Zoom and Cvent. 

This week, Zoom also announced a new apps feature, bringing over 50 top apps into your Zoom calls and webinars. It’s a smart feature, and something we’ve continually advocated for our events-- to keep your attendees in one place.

We’ve all seen the VC money rolling into event technology and video conferencing solutions over the past year. We knew the competition in this space was on, but this week, it seems like the dial has been turned to 11. 

What does this mean for event organizers? For us, watching these new announcements is not a spectator sport. The great movement and innovation in this space have resulted in massive changes in the capability for the events we produce. Things are only going to get better for online event participants and attendees. And organizers get more choice than ever before.

While the competition between the platforms continues, I can’t wait to see where it goes.

Get the full story on each of this week's new Zoom announcements from these articles below:

Financial Times

• Zoom buys cloud call centre company Five9 for almost $15bn: Zoom is betting billions when it comes to the continuation of working from home with it’s new acquisition of Five9, a cloud contact center. The purchase will help enhance offerings for enterprise clients and is Zoom’s biggest acquisition deal to date.

Bloomberg

• Zoom Is in Talks to Invest in Cvent Blank-Check Deal: Fresh off the launch of Zoom Events, information has leaked that Zoom is in discussions to bring event management software Cvent public. While details are limited at this time, Zoom’s investment could value Cvent at more than $5b.

ZDNet

• Zoom announces general availability of Zoom Apps and its new virtual events platform: As of this week, Zoom’s all in one online events platform Zoom Events has been made available to the wider public. The platform allows users to build an event hub, share events and customize ticketing and registration. There will be a public directory and are integrated with a user’s existing Zoom meetings or Video Webinar license.

CNET

• Zoom: Use apps like Asana and Dropbox and schedule virtual events now: Zoom Apps brings apps into your Zoom call with just one click -- including popular favorites such as Asana, Dropbox Spaces and SurveyMonkey. The company plans to add more apps to its App ecosystem. Important to note-- Zoom Apps is different from Zoom’s marketplace (1,500 available integrations). Zoom Apps brings apps into Zoom-- whereas the marketplace brings Zoom into other apps. 

Looking for more? Check out past issues of the Lookout on the PIRATEx blog here!