ON24

The ability customize the view of your individual webcasts or webinars / event sessions was great.

We used on24 webcast elite for our first ever virtual conference in Sept 2020. At the time of signing our agreement, I was sold on access to a dedicated client success rep and the ability to purchase dedicated support for a nominal fee the day of our event.

At the start of our agreement I was introduced to our success rep and met with her one time. We discussed how our event would be hosted and the requirements for tech integrations in order for the data to pull into our Marketing Automation tool. After our initial call, I never heard back from our account rep. This should have been my first red flag.

My very hands on team went through reviewing all the online training for building and launching a live webcast. The widget to build your webcast is not intuitive at all, you will be pushed to watch training videos in order to figure out even minor setup questions. The UX is outdated and clunky and there are a ton of weird limitations. For example, you must duplicate your slide at the start of your session and click through them both in order for the recording to start (even though you pushed the start live button already). For our event we were running each session as its own webcast in order to customize what was on the screen. If you have an all day event and need to run multiple sessions throughout the day, this is the only way to ensure you can customize what the viewer sees matches up properly to your speaker and records all registrants and viewers specific for that presentation. This however also requires that people registered for your broader event have to also individually register for each webcast on its own as well. We had so many issues with people registering using their company emails as well, and the only response was to have them sign up with a personal email (makes no sense).

A few weeks prior to our event, I reached out to our account rep to try and schedule a call to discuss the support I would like to have for our event. I went through a number of hoops and finally got ahold of our sales person only to find out we no longer had an account manager, they had dropped the ball and the person had been let go and no one had been reassigned to us. Then I was introduced to another sales manager who essentially came in and told me that because we had our sessions setup across two days as individual webcasts (30 min each x 15 webcasts). I would have to pay for buckets of 2-4 hours of support time for each webcast min (even though they were only 30 min) and that the time could not be used between webcasts. So 2-4 hours x 15 webcasts.... It was going to cost me thousands and thousands of dollars to have the support available that was originally discussed at the sign of my contract. To satisfy my frustration the only message conveyed to me was that "companies like IBM use them everyday with no problem and we don't need to worry about support, if they can trust them so should we."

The first day of my event rolled around, and the night before I put a contingency in place that in the event we had a webcast error would push everyone over to Zoom. Well thankfully. Half way through the day the entire ON24 platform went completely down. The only response I could get from their team was that they were working on it and they sent me a link to follow to see when it went back up (hopefully that was just as good for IBM).

Our entire experience with this company from support to technology was awful. It seems they are starting to adjust and build their support team differently, but too late for us unfortunately. There are a number of other really amazing platforms out there, that are more user friendly and have a team and support cycle in place for their customers. I suggest you look elsewhere when considering a tool.

Use a different tool.

We were running our first event virtual conference.

I think the audience view/user experience is great. I like how the audience has the ability to customize their view. I also like how there are a plethora of options/things to add when setting up an event, such as Facebook, Instagram, and other relative resources.

I think the back-end and set-up process is a bit wonky, confusing, and complicated. It can definitely be more user-friendly. In addition, it takes too long for powerpoints and videos to upload/process.

I would definitely recommend it, however, it does also depend on the intended use.

I am able to schedule webinars and have realized that is has a lot more capabilities for audience members than other platforms I have used (such as webex and Zoom).

ON24 is exceptionally simple to make an expert glancing webcast in a short measure of time. The entirety of the apparatuses that are incorporated with the ON24 item makes it simple to leap directly in and make a lovely webcast. It is also simple to orchestrate and arrange your introduction in Elite Studio when utilizing different PowerPoint Decks and recordings. Another extraordinary element while facilitating webcasts is that there is no live participant sound. They can just tune in and interface through the Q&A gadget. This eliminates the interruptions and breaks from individuals not putting themselves on quiet during the introduction. The account supervisors are great with following up on our tickets and giving calls to illuminate and instruct clients about the most ideal approaches to utilize ON24.

the best practices where moderators need a wired web association, clear treats, restart the PC and have no different applications. Client care is poor, not for the absence of CSM's difficulty, but rather in light of the fact that there is no finish from the item group, and CSM's regularly don't approach the most recent data, leaving them set up for disappointment. Rare specialized troubles with firewalls and extraordinary crowd setups are at some point hard to defeat during a live online class that bothers clients. there is no telephone line so all inquiries must be submitted through the Q&A tab and there is no verbal correspondence.

By and large, It is an extraordinary involvement in ON24. It's simple and easy to use the framework. The detailing is extremely hearty and serves to truly assess participation and what showcasing activities function admirably and which ones don't. The framework is dependable and has encountered not many specialized glitches.

Beside a flexible interface with many presentation possibilities, the integration with SFDC is very useful. If desired, On24 allows sending the activity data and positive answers to a survey question "Would you like to speak with an expert?" directly to sales for follow up and also automatically filter out those attendees who indicated that they did not want to "speak with an expert."

Dealing with office hardware. On24 works best with an ethernet connection, external microphone, etc. (particularly if there is a desire to use video and office wifi is not perfect in the best room). It is still possible to use the platform without any additional hardware elements, but the opportunities are very enticing. However, carrying a bag with an ethernet hub, cables, external microphone and making sure that Mac adapters work with speakers' computers is not my favorite part. My recommendation is to add technical complexity slowly and involve office help desk.

Spend time on understanding of integration possibilities with your CRM and integrate fully. Increase technical complexity slowly; a video webinar might be very attractive, but it takes some initial office setup (beyond On24 platform) and practice.

We are running webinars on On24, which allow us not only generate "influenced" pipeline, but also easily generate "hand raisers" and send this information to sales together with a robust view of prospects activity to prioritize response.

The graphics that make it appear like the in-person conference might.

The linking can sometimes be confusing to navigate. And you can be timed out fairly easily.

Holding and attending conference and presentations during the time of social distancing.