But not all platforms are built with networking in mind. Most platforms are built to handle specific aspects of a virtual event more efficiently – like event registrations, analytics, or audio-visual experience, etc. But there are also those that not only offer all of those, but also foster real-time connections between virtual audiences, offer robust opportunities for networking, and perfectly replicate the in-person networking experience.
This guide will delve into the top virtual event platforms that offer a diverse set of networking features and tools to maximize networking opportunities among community members in a virtual event environment.
1) Airmeet
Airmeet is a virtual and hybrid event management platform designed to create highly interactive, engaging experiences for virtual audiences. It allows businesses to host small to large-scale conferences, town halls, webinars, workshops, L&D events, sales kickoffs, and community meetups with thousands of attendees, effortlessly.
Airmeet is trusted by over 4000+ organizations, including top brands like Capgemini, Unilever, Ford, Groww, Cognizant, and more. Airmeet is a first-choice platform for some of the world’s leading organizations thanks to its ease of use, rich & diverse set of features, and ability to replicate an in-person event experience in a virtual setting.
Apart from that, Airmeet offers several features to effectively plan, manage, host, and execute your virtual community and networking events.
HD Live Video Streaming Capabilities
Airmeet supports High Definition video (720p) and (1080p) quality for live virtual events, enabling you, the speaker, and your audience to see each other clearly during a live event.
Branding & Customization
With this feature, you can brand your event by adding your event logo, color theme, and an opening banner on the reception page for attendees to see. You can upload a background image and add a welcome video to create a grand entry experience for your attendees.
Interactive Virtual Stage
With a virtual stage, your host can interact with the audience. Speakers can share their screen and present their presentation, demonstrate slides, play videos, and even invite attendees onto the stage to speak or ask questions in real time.
Backstage Area
Airmeet’s backstage is a private space where speakers, hosts, and co-hosts can interact with each other before going live on the stage. Speakers can rehearse their speech and feel more at ease knowing they have a private space to prepare and communicate with event organizers.
Interactive Tools
Airmeet offers audience engagement tools such as live chat, real-time polls, and Q&A to make your virtual session highly interactive and increase the involvement of your audience in the event.
Data Privacy & Security
Airmeet prioritizes data privacy and security and is committed to protecting the data that is shared while using the platform, such as attendee details, transaction details, account data, and more.
Gamification
In order to gamify your online community event and make the experience memorable for your community members, Airmeet offers gamification features such as a leaderboard, points, badges and challenges.
Robust Analytics & Reporting
Airmeet provides a strong analytics and reporting dashboard to measure the success of your virtual event. You can track a variety of metrics such as the number of event attendees, their engagement level, participation in networking, top sessions, participants’ turnout, and more.
24/7 Customer Assistance
Airmeet offers a 24/7 support lounge, email support, chat support, and technical support at [email protected] for resolving any troubleshooting during an event.
Features that Airmeet offers for community networking
Social lounge
Social lounge is a virtual space where your community members can move around and sit at any virtual table, and interact & engage with other community members at the table, whether it is a virtual conference, company town hall, or community meetup.
As a host, you can decide the seating capacity of each table to a maximum of 8 (free plan) or 15 / 30 / 125 participants (depending on respective paid plans). Your speakers can also join any virtual table at the social lounge to engage with the audience.
Speed Networking
Speed networking allows event participants to virtually meet one-on-one with fellow attendees for a limited time duration. This feature plays a crucial role in allowing attendees to network, exchange contact information, and build a meaningful network at the event.
Breakout Room
Breakout rooms allow event organizers to divide community members into smaller groups, to encourage networking, develop group chats, and keep the session exciting.
Event organizers, hosts, co-hosts, and speakers can also join any room at any time. This feature will make your community events more interactive and engaging, allowing you to add up to 30 participants per breakout room.
Fluid Space
Fluid space allows you to create multiple rooms so your community members can engage in stimulating and lively conversations. Each room can have 60 participants (depending on the plan).
Attendees can join any room, move around, and join any conversation they are interested in. With this feature, your community members can have informal get-togethers, after-parties, and more.
AI Matchmaking
This feature helps discover the most relevant attendees to connect with during an event. AI-matchmaking assesses participant profiles, such as interests, job role, skills, and behavior, and recommends to each attendee the best people to connect with, so the networking sessions are meaningful and memorable.
Rich Attendee Profile
This feature allows event participants to add a short bio, interests, a picture, and social links to their profiles. Attendees can click on any attendee’s image during the social lounge to view their profile and send a direct message to connect, allowing them to interact and network with people who share similar backgrounds or goals.
Scheduled Meeting
This feature allows event participants to book one-on-one and group discussions with fellow participants. You can invite up to 15 people to a meeting at a particular event.
With scheduled meetings, your community members can send private meeting requests to other members and host private roundtables or 1-on-1 meetings during an event.
User-generated Tables & Expandable Tables
User-generated tables allow your community members to create their own tables around a topic they are interested in. Other members will join the table and discuss topics of shared interests, which will spark spontaneous conversations among them.
On the other hand, expandable tables allow your host to create private roundtables or create discussion tables that can support up to 50 people. These tables offer a scalable option, ideal for large community networking events.
2) Whova
Whova is an event management software that helps you create engaging and organized virtual, in-person, and hybrid events. It enables you to manage pre-event tasks like registration, webpage creation, event marketing, and more.
Whova is trusted by top brands like US Bank, Deloitte, Accenture, Adidas, American Express, and more. Whova has powered over 50,000 in-person and virtual/hybrid conferences to date, including association events, education events, government events, corporate events, trade shows, expos, and community gatherings.
Features that Whova offers for community networking
Smart Matchmaking
With this, event attendees can instantly find the most relevant attendees at the event to network with. This feature uses attendee profiles and instantly provides personalized match suggestions, based on shared interests. Attendees may start conversations quickly thanks to built-in introductions, which simplify reaching out to prospective contacts.
Speed Networking Tables
Through speed networking, attendees can interact and connect with several attendees in a short amount of time. By the end of a speed networking session, your event attendees will have built several new connections.
Community Board
Whova’s Community Board encourages organic networking around shared interests and event topics. It increases event participation and attendee-to-attendee conversations with customizable discussion groups. Plus, it helps spark conversations organically with integrated icebreakers and trivia games.
1-on-1 Meeting Scheduling
This feature offers attendees a dedicated space to network and helps them make meaningful connections with the right people. Attendees can see each other’s availability, book a time slot, send a meeting request, and connect.
3) vFairs
vFairs is an all-in-one event management platform that supports in-person, hybrid & virtual events of all sizes. It helps organizations in managing and hosting a variety of events, such as conferences, trade shows, hiring fairs, student seminars, internal company events, and more.
In addition, vFairs offers features such as event website & registration, event app & lead capture, badge printing & check-in app, speaker & abstract management, and exhibitor & sponsor portal to make your event management process seamless, professional, and efficient.
vFairs is trusted by companies like Nestle, T-Mobile, Unilever, Microsoft, Toyota, PFG, and more.
Features that vFairs offers for community networking
Schedule Meeting
With the meeting scheduler, attendees can book an appointment with other attendees or send a request to connect. Attendees can move their avatars through a virtual space and strike up conversations with others in their area.
Attendee Matchmaking
With this feature, attendees can get matched based on their preferences by answering specific questions, network within a time limit, answer introductory questions, share contact information, and discover a new collaborator when the time is up.
Roundtables
It allows setting up roundtables where attendees can share ideas about any topic in a small group setting, discuss important topics, and solve problems together via video chat.
Profile Search
This feature allows attendees to use the search filter to look for people who match their interests, or a group of attendees with similar professions.
One-on-one Video Calls
This feature allows multiple attendees to interact and engage with their colleagues or peers. They can have a 1:1 discussion over text, audio, and video chat.
4) Remo
Remo is an all-in-one online event solution that enables you to host highly interactive events. The platform is known for creating an engaging environment where attendees can connect, interact, and move as if it’s a real-life event.
The platform is trusted by over 1000 organizations worldwide, including Sony, Google, AWS, IBM, and more. It supports every type of virtual event, from virtual conference, webinar, and virtual networking to virtual career fair, virtual trade show, and virtual exhibition.
Features that Remo offers for community networking
Virtual Tables
With Remo’s virtual tables, your audience can start meaningful conversations with colleagues or new members of the community. Communities can create discussion tables of all sizes, from 1-1 to groups of 50 people, and meaningfully connect in topic-based tables.
Shuffle Guests
Remo’s shuffle feature helps break the ice and bring an element of surprise to encourage attendees to make new and serendipitous connections. Your members can randomly select attendees with just one click and start fresh conversations with ease.
Live Chat
This feature is designed to allow attendees to have deeper conversations in a virtual event. Your participants can connect and engage with others privately (1-on-1 messaging) or in groups and have an event-wide conversation.
Customizable Avatars and Profiles
This feature allows attendees to fill in their personal details, such as name, hobby, job title, company details, and more. This information will be displayed on the map, making it easy for attendees to identify their perfect connection.
5) RingCentral Events (Formerly Hopin)
RingCentral Events is an event platform that enables you to host and run personalized AI-powered events that reflect your brand, build community, and create a lasting impression with your audience from start to end.
It supports every event format, such as virtual, on-site events, hybrid, and webinars. RingCentral Events is trusted by small and large businesses such as HP, Hubspot, AWS, NBC Universal, NYU, and more.
Features that RingCentral Events offers for community networking
One-on-one Networking
With a one click, attendees can connect with colleagues or peers, engage in video chats, exchange contacts, and engage beyond the main session. Your community members do not need to schedule a meeting in advance; they can directly connect with other members and initiate the conversation.
Breakout Room
With this, you can split your community members into a smaller group for a more focused discussion on the event topic. Since there are fewer participants in the room, members can share ideas, collaborate, and build meaningful relationships.
6) Cvent
Cvent is an all-in-one solution for every event, whether it is in-person, virtual, or hybrid, supporting events of all types and sizes. Cvent assists organizations before, during, and after events.
Before the event, it supports event registration and marketing, venue sourcing, budgeting, speaker management; during the event, attendee check-in and badging, attendee engagement, trade show lead capture; and after the event, event and attendee insights, lead retrieval, and more.
Features that Cvent offers for community networking
Speed Networking with AI-powered Recommendation
With speed networking, participants can quickly connect with the most relevant people. AI-powered recommendations analyze attendee profiles, interests, and behavior, based on which, it suggests like-minded people to connect and network with.
Networking Rooms
This feature allows event participants to create a dedicated space where they can connect with peers for focused conversations. Participants can set up these rooms by topics and interests, allowing them to connect with other attendees who share common interests and have meaningful connections.
Rich Attendee Profile
With this, attendees can view each other’s profiles, company information, personalized headlines, location, social media, professional interests, and more to connect and network with other participants during an event.
7) Bizzabo
Bizzabo is a leading event management platform that empowers event organizers to create immersive experiences for their audiences. The platform allows you to plan, manage, and execute in-person, virtual, and hybrid events with ease.
It handles everything from event registration, website & agenda editor, email & marketing management, to audience engagement and attendee networking.
Features that Bizzabo offers for community networking
Scheduling Meetings
With this feature, your attendees can browse attendee profiles, easily find open time slots, and book 1-on-1 meetings with people they want to connect and interact with. It works across web and mobile, allowing participants to network across the globe.
AI-powered matchmaking
Bizzabo’s AI-powered engine takes into account each attendee’s interests, event activity, and preferences and recommends the most suitable people to connect with at an event.
Rather than scrolling aimlessly or relying on accidental meetings, your community members will receive tailored recommendations based on their goals.
Flexible, Customizable Meeting Option
This feature allows you to choose where and how meetings will take place, whether it is a dedicated networking zone or a virtual space. This flexibility helps you design networking experiences that feel intentional and valuable for your attendees and stakeholders.
8) BigMarker
BigMarker is a powerful platform for webinars, virtual, and in-person events. It integrates cutting-edge video technology with robust marketing and interactive capabilities to create and deliver fully branded event experiences.
BigMarker is renowned for delivering high-impact, immersive, and engaging events, earning the trust of thousands of businesses around the globe.
Features that BigMarker offers for community networking
AI-Powered Matchmaking
This feature analyzes all the attendee data, like interests, hobbies, and professional background, and based on that, the AI algorithm provides personalized networking recommendations to each attendee.
Video Speed Networking
This feature offers you an exclusive networking session, allowing your community members to connect with like-minded peers for brief conversations. These pairings are based on AI recommendations, so your attendees can make the most of the event.
Network Builder
This feature allows attendees to receive recommendations for additional contacts during the event, based on their profile information. Similar to LinkedIn, your community members can send a connection request to a potential member and, if accepted, they can schedule a chat or video call.
Final Thoughts
Various virtual event platforms offer a diverse set of networking features for your corporate community and networking events. Choose an event platform based on your community’s event goals as well as your community members’ networking needs.
Carefully explore each platform’s networking capabilities before choosing your ideal one.
Remember, the best virtual event platform offers a rich set of capabilities, especially robust networking features that not only allow attendees to connect but also build solid relationships that last long after the event ends, no matter where your community members live.
FAQ
Video conferencing platforms provide highly collaborative features to build genuine connections and networking among attendees. Features such as one-on-one networking, networking lounges, and speed networking replicate in-person event networking atmospheres in an online setting.
You should consider the following features in a virtual event platform:
- Networking Lounge – Attendees will have a dedicated place to strike up casual conversations with others
- One-on-one speed networking – Attendees can connect and network with multiple participants
- Breakout rooms/lounge – Participants will be split up into smaller groups so they may have a focused conversation on the event topic and engage in deeper dialogue
- Flued space – Attendees can freely move between tables, join the ones they desire, and engage in discussion
- Attendee profile creation – When networking, participants can see each other’s profiles and make connections
- AI-powered matchmaking – AI matchmaking will analyze participants’ behaviour, interests, and socializing goals, and recommend the best match
- Live video chat – Attendees can have a face-to-face interaction and one-on-one networking
