Earlier this year, Zoom announced its intention to offer a more robust virtual event solution and officially launched Zoom Events in July. Overall, the product seemed rather lackluster compared to other, more established virtual event platforms, but Zoom is quickly working to catch up.
The video conferencing company announced several updates to its offerings during its Zoomtopia event, which wrapped up on Tuesday. One of the most notable new features is Zoom Events Conference, which will be available on Zoom Events this fall. The Conference event type will allow hosts to more easily organize multi-track and multi-day events and will include elements such as an event lobby, chat, networking, and recordings.
These new features still aren’t revolutionary when compared to the options offered by existing virtual event tech providers, but they bring Zoom more in line with basic virtual event solutions and provide an appealing option, particularly for organizations already using Zoom for internal communications.
Zoom also announced a new Zoom Whiteboard feature, which will allow users to collaborate on projects remotely and interact with the whiteboard “similar to an in-person experience,” as well as enhanced security upgrades and the addition of automated, real-time translation capabilities. Next year, Zoom will debuting an integration with the recently-launched Facebook Horizon Workrooms to enable users to access Zoom Whiteboards and Zoom Meetings within Workrooms’ virtual space.
“In the last decade, we have been honored to become the ‘go-to’ video communications platform, but there has never been a more dynamic period in the company’s history than these last 18 months,” said Eric S. Yuan, Zoom Founder and CEO, in a statement.
He continued: “With the ability to visually brainstorm on a virtual whiteboard and collaborate with colleagues similar to an in-person experience, or the endless opportunities of live transcription and translation services powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) – previously considered ‘futuristic’ technologies are on the verge of becoming a reality and could reshape the way we work.”