Smit.Events Introduction: A Flexible Way for Transfering Events To Online

Hello, my name is Yan. Let me present you our new startup for online event organisation http://smit.events/

Self-isolation will end but public activities will not come back soon to our lives. Our team has developed a solution for convenient event transfer to online while keeping main specialties of offline: networking, partner' integrations, gamification, afterparty and even catering.

Pandemic has cut-off a lot of businesses including event industry. All activities are either cancelled or transferred to online. Broadcasting of huge events is a common thing. Yet there was no proper technical resolution which could make it feel like offline. We would like to fix that.

Product’s utility:

• Maintains events up to 10k visitors and up to 8 appearances’ streams at the same time;
• The only engineering proposal providing gamification and interactive mechanics;
• Broad analytics of actions and engagement. After event you can have a look at who, when and why left it. Which speaker was a success and which was not and why. Also, you can see general numbers for networking, partners’ shift-overs and other essential information;
• Full brand customization – decor, icons, fonts, graphics, products’ integration and even integration with WEB-AR;
• Maintenance of partners’ integrations in online roll-up. In separated event’s rooms you can put games, tests, consultations, mini presentations and chats with partners for selling;
• Opportunity to add online catering in partnership with delivery services;
• Different interface for networking with convenient tags’ guidance. Users can switch on and off a networking option in settings;
• Rooms for afterparty with audio and video conversation;

The main module is lobby. After registration and payment user get individual link which provides only one single connection. Right after profile adjustment interface opens which has a schedule.  When user clicks on active performance he goes directly to the scene. There he/she finds general chat, chat with providers, feed with poll or important information and also integrated gamification.

Scene can be on full-screen or it can be switched to parallel stream if there is one. Each of the scene’s elements can be replaced or adjusted for certain demands. In chats and below scene there is a place for commercial.

What is missed in online events

While developing we tried to consider every advantage of offline. Why do people buy tickets and come to events? If you cut-off the first obvious reason - content – the second would be networking. That is why we provide broad module in which people can talk to each other, strike up an acquaintance, look for investors or agree on having fun at afterparty

When participant comes for the first time we ask if the person wants to participate in networking. Each one choses in their profile one of the tags so that he is displayed in certain tab. Going to networking module users can sort by tags, chat and see short info from profile. So all the communication is happening inside of the event.

Third favorite part is afterparty. For this we also created a module where VIP (closed) and open rooms can be. For a while afterparties are going to be held with integrations of third-party services but all of them will work on event’s website.

Gamification and advertising

Few words about two main specifics of product. With pic above you have noticed that each module is provided with blocks for commercial — marked green. It is no secret that big events needs a lot of partners. Everything changes online. There is no rental to pay but you can not use roll-ups that easily. Thus, besides blocks integrations there is individual partners’ module. Look at it:

You can put in there presentations, videos, discount vouchers and chat where customers can ask their questions directly. Number of commercial integrations depends on clients’ request. It can be even excluded. You can also make a deal with our other clients for integrations exchange, it is pretty flexible.

As for gamification we use our 3-year experience in interactive marketing. We will offer ideas suited for certain events and brands. We can offer quiz, built-in interactive tools in broadcast as like shown on pic above. It's live with comments from audience which may affect what will happen next.
There is also a possibility of providing AR effects through Instagram and Facebook. Activities will help the event to improve involving and get rid of boredom which could happen if person would just stare at the monitor for several hours in a row, you know.

About founders and future

SMIT.Evens born from SMIT.Studio — an interactive marketing studio. We are working in Moscow with 15 people in the company. Within 3 years we made over 500 project for many known russian brands.

All our resources were put into work when we found out what is going to be with pandemic. Now we put finishing touches on our product and we are getting ready for few client’s events. Obviously the first try with huge load will show us bugs. Somewhere something will go out of order and we are ready for that. The sooner it happens the sooner we can fix all the processes. Additionally at the same time we will be testing different interactivities inside varying from simple reactions like in Instagram to complex multilevel Easter eggs on each user’s step within product.

We will be very glad on your feedback and questions.

Thanks for reading!