Forbes leveraged Zoom’s features to create seamless experiences during its virtual events for both its audiences and speakers, hosting 66 virtual events with over 50,000 attendees from 188 countries in 2020 alone.
“We are pleasantly surprised by how virtual has allowed us to scale these experiences. For example, last year for our Women’s Summit, we had over 20,000 attendees register and over 12,000 check-ins, so being able to scale that conversation virtually allowed us to bring more people into the conversation and create a more inclusive community surrounding the summit was great,” Bonanno said. “Zoom’s [webinar] green room feature and Breakout Room functionality has also been very useful for our back-of-house production teams. For our virtual summits, we often have multiple speakers that all go on at different times, and it’s been helpful for our production teams to be able to create that seamless experience before pushing speakers to the virtual stage.”
The teams at Forbes also use Zoom to engage with attendees at their events, creating forums for dynamic conversations, fellowship, and connection.
“We’ve used Zoom Webinars to create structured discussions where we’ll have our speakers present, then promote certain attendees to panelists and host a curated roundtable with 20 to 30 people,” Bonanno said. “The various tools within the Zoom platform have allowed us to structure unique programming formats based on the goals of the event.”
Zoom also empowers Forbes to coordinate its efforts in tandem with its clients, creating an atmosphere where close collaboration is seamless.
“Zoom has also allowed us to feel more connected with our clients,” Bonanno said. “We often have a large team across various Forbes departments working together on a program and our clients also have large teams working on that same program. With Zoom, it has allowed us to humanize that experience, see everyone face-to-face, and ultimately drive more meaningful partnerships.”
So, what does the future of Forbes events look like going forward?
“As our business and lives continue to shift as we re-enter the post-pandemic world, we are committed to continuously evolving and improving our events strategy to create the most compelling experiences,” Bonanno said. “We are planning for hybrid events, and we know virtual is here to stay. It has allowed us to create new connections and engagement with the communities that matter most to us. Forbes will continue to use Zoom as a strategic tool for events and collaboration both internally and externally.”
To see highlights of Forbes virtual events, click here and for information on upcoming events, visit https://www.forbes.com/connect/events/.