After enhancing its platform in June to accommodate virtual and hybrid events, meetings technology solution Bizly has augmented its templates—which it now calls "playbooks"—in order to automate what the company has identified as the five key elements needed to create a group experience, founder and CEO Ron Shah told BTN.
Those elements include content, the guest list, communications, resources like apps and vendors, and measurement, he explained. "What we've learned in doing Bizly the last four years is that you have to get those five things right," Shah said. "We kept the template concept and added on top virtual meetings, content, a full suite of communications, [along with] virtual integrations and a growing marketplace of partners and vendors."
Shah gave an example of a user clicking on a playbook for diversity training. The playbook would load the diversity training content for the user, which could include videos and attachments as well as the flow of the meeting. It would load guest-list creation tools and offer communications tools that might include a prebuilt invitation, a pre-meeting read and a post-meeting follow-up. It also would give the user the apps needed for that content, including Zoom or a whiteboarding tool, and then would provide measurement options, such as surveys or other engagement tools.
Bizly also plans to add a marketplace for virtual apps and vendors, so users can select those elements for playbooks they are using or creating and "make each experience come alive," Shah said. "When in-person [events] come back, you can use that same system for venues and office space."
Shah found that companies are suffering from virtual-meeting fragmentation—say, one has decided to use Microsoft Teams, but then finds out employees have purchased hundreds of Zoom licenses. Employees also may have difficulty determining which apps are approved or recommended for virtual-meeting use.
"We've added this capability that for each playbook, you can select the right apps and the right vendors," Shah said. "We have a way in Bizly now to hook those in so it's a more comprehensive experience."
The new app and vendor marketplace currently is in private beta and is scheduled for launch by the end of this year, Shah said, adding that the offering will be built out gradually.
Bizly also is developing a library of expert content, such as a playbook around Ted Talks, the Google Design Sprint, or one inspired by popular author and professor Brené Brown—Bizly offers a vulnerability team meeting with a short video from Brown—as well as holiday-themed content. "We have a whole set of experiences that are expert-driven you can tap into," Shah said.
New Product Tiers
In addition, Bizly will begin to offer a "freemium" version of its product early next year. "It is for individual users and small teams that don't have preferred venues and that don't have a need to push programming across the company," Shah said, adding that it will not have the enterprise functionality, and if those customers want their own branding or to create company playbooks, venue sourcing or vendor management, they will have to subscribe for those features. "It is designed for people who only care about content, so you'll be able to build your own content playbook and look at our third-party expert ones."
The freemium product is in test mode with customers. Additional users can request access to it, but there currently is a waitlist, he said.
Bizly also plans a mid-tier product, which will allow for company playbooks and analytics, but will not include venue booking or sourcing. It is on track for availability early next year, and it "gives a bit more robust capabilities and offers a little more enterprise management," Shah explained. The traditional full enterprise solution will remain available.
He added that human resources executives have cited to him the need to tackle virtual meeting fatigue and create better engagement, measure that engagement and help employees get a better sense of wellness.
"I think it's up to travel managers to get up on that wagon and figure that out and get a line into that," he said. "If they are just waiting for travel to come back and meetings to come back, to be brutally honest, I don't think it will be the same role they are expecting it to be at the end of this journey."
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