Introducing Hallway Chatter: User-Generated Content for Virtual and Hybrid Events

Virtual event audiences have become more discerning than ever, thanks to the rise of virtual event platforms that closely mimic face-to-face event experiences. Attendee engagement has always been important for event planners. In a virtual environment, it’s even more critical.

There’s no question that virtual conference fatigue (AKA, Zoom fatigue) is real. Without a “captive audience”, even the most experienced event planners are challenged with creating ways to keep attendees focused on their event’s content amid constant distractions.

One potential cause of virtual burnout that should be addressed is that virtual event content tends to involve a one-way dialogue between the presenters or panel to the audience. Currently, most events include networking opportunities but have minimal focus on audience-generated content.

That’s why Stova is prioritizing user generated content in the next era of events. Whether they are virtual, hybrid or in-person events, Stova is creating new, innovative ways to give your audience and influencers their moment on the stage.

Stova introduced Hallway Chatter, our new attendee content creation feature.

Hallway Chatter: User-generated content for virtual and hybrid events

Why Hallway Chatter?

Imagine yourself a live attendee at your favorite industry tradeshow or conference. You say hello to a colleague in the hall, who in turn, enthusiastically tells you about the nuggets they learned in a recent session they attended, or a speaker who wowed them.

Alternatively, you are walking down a hall and you run into an industry influencer videotaping herself giving her daily rundown of the show and highlighting the must-attend sessions for tomorrow. That’s a form of user-generated content.

Hallway Chatter was created to:

• Bring audience-generated content to the forefront of virtual events
• Combat virtual fatigue by empowering influencers and attendees to create video content like TED Talks using Stova Studio
• Keep event attendees engaged and focused with access to short-form content custom-curated for them
• Recreate in-person hallway conversations with information, announcements, sessions to watch, and more, within virtual environments

Hallway Chatter was designed to help organizations keep virtual attendees engaged with relevant, user-generated content. Hallway Chatter gives event organizers control over who they designate to create and share video content.

Expanding Hallway Chatter as a Tool for 365 Event Communities

Today, Stova is synonymous  with premier virtual and hybrid events and custom mobile event apps. Earlier this year, in Event MB’s The Future of the Event Industry Summit, our CEO Joe Schwinger emphasized the importance of overcoming virtual fatigue by giving attendees a voice. He hinted at leveraging user-generated content to solve the need for a 2-way dialogue between attendees and presenters.

We successfully launched Hallway Chatter at Databricks’ recent global Data + AI Conference where it was well-received by both influencers and attendees. Looking to the future, we predict it will be a key tool that enterprise organizations regularly leverage for 365 content communities.

“We envision having our clients give influencers access to Hallway Chatter to produce regular, ongoing content for their event communities with this tool,” says Schwinger. “Now that user-generated content has come to virtual events, the sky’s the limit to its potential for creating long-term audience engagement.”

Hallway Chatter is an important step in our ongoing efforts to help organizations to reach their full potential attendee engagement potential through elevated virtual content.

We’ll be announcing more user-generated content features soon so subscribe to MP Community and be first to know!