Shindig Launches Virtual Lobby Functionality, Enabling ‘Work the Room’ Networking for Virtual and Hybrid Events

Addressing the clamouring need for better virtual and hybrid event networking, Shindig introduces a patented virtual lobby functionality; a virtual experience where event attendees can mingle, network and conduct private business on the platform.

• For virtual events it allows a meeting place where all those attending individual sessions, panels, tracks or exhibit booths in a Shindig-enabled event, to navigate to a single shared experience and meet up, just as they might if the event were in person. One of the key additional differentiators of this feature is that all the private conversations can go on while the participants are also able to peruse and interact with the conference program directory, discussing with friends and colleagues what session, panel, track, or booth they might attend together next while jointly exploring the full conference guide.
• For hybrid events the function adds two critical new elements. First, it provides a venue for in-person guests to engage with online participants freely on their mobile phones, critically uniting both audiences together for purposes of private conversation. Second, it helps event hosts avoid “dead air” in their livestreams and provides opportunities for the online audience to engage during breaks required between the in-person sessions, which otherwise would cause the online audience to be lost and otherwise leave the event.

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In the 2021 Event Tech Innovation Report, the EventsMB publication cited ‘the biggest challenge for planners in virtual events is how to keep attendees engaged’.

In response to this need, Steve Gottlieb, CEO & Founder of Shindig, Inc. said, “while many platforms claim that one-on-one appointments, speed dating or text interactions are the same as networking, those just don’t compare to real life behavior people want. Working the room, running into an old friend, being casually introduced to a mutual contact, or opportunistically pulling someone aside who has a free moment, are the types of in-person networking encounters that Shindig now recreates online.  With Shindig’s Virtual Lobby we have brought all the spontaneity and serendipity of in-person networking to the virtual experience”.

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Virtual events also promise to play a significant role in hybrid events, as they can allow in-person attendees to take advantage of the opportunity to engage with the potentially larger audience attending online, and vice versa.

Shindig’s Virtual Lobby is completely unique in allowing free-form interactions just like those at any in-person event. Every participant in the Virtual Lobby can see who is talking to whom and who is free for conversation. Conversations can merge and individuals can easily move from conversation to conversation to work the room. And just like an in-person event lobby, the Shindig lobby is perfect for sponsor messaging, video displays, dynamic CTA’s and other activities that can be facilitated in a conference reception space.

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