Reinventing Virtual Events

CHAPTER 15Tech Stack for Modern Virtual Events

Humans have become the tools of their tools.

—Henry David Thoreau

We didn't want this to become a “tech stacks for events” book, but after all, Justin wrote Tech‐Powered Sales, and we get many requests for this info. We were able to build out our whole series on WordPress WP Engine with a Pro Zoom account, but we had professional developers build out all the rest for us to custom specs. Lucky us!

Consider all the players listed below and check out G2 and Capterra for additional solutions. These are just the broad strokes to get you started. We always quote Jill Rowley's cautionary tale for tool junkies, “A fool with a tool is still a fool.” There is no bigger, better mousetrap.

You can put your event lobby in the metaverse with Topia, have multiple bobble‐head avatars from the wildlife kingdom, stream videos, and even feature interactive games on the screen. If the content is terrible, it's just like satellite TV. Ten thousand channels, nothing on, and you're back on Apple TV+ paying for great content. It's not your tools—“look, a squirrel!” Prevent yourself from falling victim to “shiny object syndrome” even if you leverage a fantastic event platform like Hopin. Build out a process, program, and hybridized theme; then align tech around it to pull it off based on the limitations.

Considerations:

• Number of panelists? Many ...