Unlock the Power of Webex for Your Next Live Online Event

We all know live, online webinars and events are great ways to engage with your dispersed audiences. But, until recently, the ability to connect deeply with your audience was fairly limited. They used to experience a low definition talking head video, some slides, and maybe a survey – I wouldn’t exactly call that engaging. In today’s digital age, your audience expects more from your events. Whether you are presenting to a large group of potential customers, sharing a demo with your sales teams, or teaching an online course to students across the globe, you want your event experiences to be impactful, engaging, and seamless.

Our engineering teams at Cisco Webex have been hard at work improving events experiences for you, and we’ve come a long way. Did you know that many of the video-centric improvements recently delivered in Cisco Webex Meetings are available in Cisco Webex Events? From the time you schedule your event, to the time you present, and after you follow-up with attendees, we’ve made Webex Events more powerful for you.

Easier for Everyone to Join

Remember when attending an online webinar meant joining thirty minutes early to work out the issues? Simply finding your event registration information, not to mention dialing in to the session, took dedicated time. You don’t have to do that anymore. Now, when you attend an online event, you can quickly join from anywhere – in the car, from the airport, or from your office. And if I’m presenting or hosting, attendees can join my event easily, from any device and any location – and have a quality, consistent experience no matter what.

Webex Events lets you, your attendees, and panelists join events from virtually anywhere in the world. Panelists can be designated as presenters to share content and engage, even from their Android, iPhone, and iPad devices. Everyone can join by simply clicking the familiar “Join” button from their emails or their Webex desktop or mobile app. And, of course, it works on any platform including Windows, Mac, Linux, and ChromeOS. With the Webex Web App, attendees can even join directly from the browser— there’s no software to download. As the host, you can focus on delivering content rather than technical issues. Everything is delivered reliably over the Cisco Webex Cloud, so it’s faster and clearer than any other solution on the market.

Video-first User Experience

We’re living in a “video-first” world, and if you are not getting the best visual experience, you are missing out on a great connection with your audience. We know video has high impact in events and is a key component for audience engagement. Video has become the de-facto way to meet. Your audience wants to connect with you and seeing the faces of your presenters and panelists can help keep them engaged. While Webex Events once only allowed you to use webcams, we have now extended video support to all video devices and endpoints. You can leverage your video room systems to deliver a high definition, high quality, video-first experience. In addition, your panelists can also join from their video devices, which is great if you have multiple folks distributed in different locations. If you are interested in learning more about this feature, just contact your Cisco Sales Manager.

Bring in More Participants, Panelists, and Speakers

Webex Events meetings are built to scale. Whether you are hosting a webinar for 100 people, or need to engage 3000 for a company meeting, you can bring in more videos of panelists and speakers than ever before. With the latest version of Webex Events, your audience can see all your panelists at the same time, and have the choice of their preferred layout, which could be Active Speaker only, Active Speaker with thumbnails, or the “Brady Bunch” view. In addition, you can choose to lock in on the video of a specific panelist of your choice.

Interact With Your Attendees

In the latest version, we’ve made it easier to manage and interact with your audience. The centralized control bar brings all the essential meeting tools like muting, sharing, and recording together in one easy-to-find place, so everything you need is at your fingertips. It automatically hides when you don’t need it, so you can focus on the content you are delivering. Panelists can share a PowerPoint, an application, white boards, and annotate shared content in real time.

Attendees also get access to tools that make the event more interactive for them. Integrated testing and polling, a Q&A panel, and live chat keep your audience participation active. Attendees can ask questions in a dedicated panel, without distracting from the meeting. Panelists can answer inline, or even assign to a specific panelist to answer. Pairing this with high-quality video and audio keeps attendees tuned in, and you choose and enable the tools that help your audience engage. After the event, recordings can be stored in MP4 format, now viewable across desktop and mobile devices, and tools like automated post-event surveys and automated emails help you track you event objectives and measure audience satisfaction.

These are just some of the ways we’ve upped the power of Webex Events. Check out Collaboration Help to find out more about these and many more new features you can unlock in the new Webex Events.