Shindig earns Frost & Sullivan’s 2022 Global New Product Innovation Award in the virtual events market

Frost & Sullivan: 2022 New product innovation

Best Practices Criteria for World-Class Performance

Frost & Sullivan applies a rigorous analytical process to evaluate multiple nominees for each award
category before determining the final award recipient. The process involves a detailed evaluation of best
practices criteria across two dimensions for each nominated company. Shindig excels in many of the
criteria in the virtual events space.

Match to Needs

Virtual events and hybrid events are highly complex to organize and execute. As a result, many virtual
event platforms are rigid and support largely formulaic events. Innumerable surveys on the web report
customer dissatisfaction with current choices in virtual event platforms. Sponsors and attendees want
true, quality networking, but many platforms are rife with functionalities that come up short.
Some platforms show all event registrants as attendees, with networking opportunities that
require participants to seek individual permission to connect to the other person as part of a
multistep process However, these platforms list anyone who has RSVP’d as a participant even
though they may not have actually joined the event. This wastes participants’ time in trying to
connect to others and gives them “false negatives” in which they believe the connection
request was rejected when it was never actually received. Even when successful, the result is that
such follow-on meetings are anything but the instantaneous spur-of-the-moment interactions that
might occur in person. More problematic still, these listings of people to potentially connect with also
are easily “scrapable”. This exposes one of the event hosts’ most valuable assets to being cut, pasted,
and inserted into any number of automated systems to yield a complete list of names, titles, and emails
to be sold to marketers. Certain other platforms also position participant avatars who must search
virtual worlds to find one another as engaging and compelling, but event participants often find such
interfaces distracting, and unproductive.
Breakout sessions, be they under the rubric of tables or “breakout rooms”, while great for general group
discussion are not themselves conducive to productive business conversation which by its nature
requires privacy amongst the parties of interest without overhearing by strangers to the conversation.
Breakouts inhibit real, substantive conduct of business by forcing such potential business discussions to
occur in front of others limits them from being anything but general and high-level. The opportunity to
speak candidly with just the right one or two people without being overheard by others; to pull
someone aside, as it were, to speak candidly with some assurance that the conversation is not for
general public consumption is a key feature missing from even some of the most widely used platforms.
“Speed dating” as a networking tactic is often equally problematic as it randomly or loosely matches
participants by general interest or topics, rather than on more essential criteria, potentially creating
unnecessary, awkward, and time-wasting conversations. Many who wish to network do not necessarily
wish to be locked into conversations of set duration with no graceful way to excuse oneself from the
conversation or to hang around through unproductive conversations in the hope that another pairing
might be more productive.
Unlike other virtual event platform providers, the New York-based Shindig remains steadfastly focused
on what matters most to both event audience and organizer: the ability to conduct ad-hoc, flexible
discussions that users can create themselves only with whom they want. The Shindig Video Chat, which
now supports up to 12 participants per chat session, enables participants to launch natural
conversations with those they want to network with and seamlessly add others to these conversations.
Networking Prompt automating pairs audience members into two-person private chats. Other features
that differentiate Shindig’s engagement and interaction functionality include Virtual Backstage and
Open Podium. Virtual Backstage allows admins to prepare speakers, checking their audio and video
before bringing them to the stage, thereby averting all on stage “can you hear me???” moments. It also
allows hosts to vet prospective audience contributors before bringing them up to the stage as well. A
new Picture in Picture feature enables presenters to remain visible while sharing their screen. The
exclusive Open Podium feature enables hosts to open the floor like a town hall and accept questions or
contributions from any audience participant of up to several thousand on a first-come-first-serve basis.
Frost & Sullivan praises Shindig for empowering real networking with its platform that enables people to
navigate conversations, scan the room, find people of interest easily, and seize the moment to make a
connection through messaging, video chat, and more.

Reliability

Shindig’s executive leadership takes pride in the company’s roster of clients and guests and continues to
serve as the platform organizations trust for high-value, high-stakes events. The company recently
enabled the first lady of the United States to address a hybrid conference and facilitated all ensuing
discussions among virtual participants. In summer 2021, Shindig enabled world-renowned pop star
Rihanna to invite 4,000 fans to a SavageX Pride Celebration with performances by multiple disc jockeys
(DJ) and other special guests.
Shindig supports creative event hosts to push the envelope of virtual experiences. From multi-day,
multi-session virtual conferences to one-off galas or marketing activations; from better client success trainings to all-hands meetings; and from remote office worker meeting places to virtual town halls, the
Shindig platform addresses a wide variety of use cases and formats. The platform’s ability to innovate
and execute events reliably attracts event hosts from government, enterprise, education,
entertainment, and non-profit sectors to stake their brands on the capabilities of the Shindig platform.
Shindig’s customers include SalesForce, Informa, Accenture, NOAA, the French Embassy to the United
States, SAP Pennsylvania State Education Association, Tracfone, Amazon, The Conference Board, Yale,
Netflix, Hearst, Booz Allen Hamilton and many others. With its ease of use, flexibility, customization, and
rich interaction capabilities, the Shindig platform represents the quintessential solution for organizations
to connect and build relationships with and for their core audiences.

Quality

Virtual events should be much more than the replication and transfer of physical events to online
sessions. Shindig continues to expand its platform’s functionality with unique and patented capabilities
that enhance the quality of event experiences. As demand to improve access to multi-session and hybrid
events increases, platforms must deliver efficient and inclusive events.
For example, Shindig introduced a customizable Virtual Lobby in summer 2021 to address multi-session
and hybrid events requirements. Specifically, the feature offers a venue between sessions that allow
audience participants to gather and network while simultaneously browsing an interactive program
guide to determine which session to attend next. It also enables hybrid event organizers to avoid losing
their online audiences to “dead air” in the live streams between in-person presentations and allows inperson audiences on their mobile phones to network with the virtual attendees on their home or office
computers.
Shindig is not attempting to replicate yesterday’s in-person or virtual events. Instead, the company aims
to improve and push the boundaries of both events as the world embraces the next normal.

Positioning

Shindig empowers event organizers to prioritize the event’s quality and audience engagement. Shindig
offers an end-to-end feature set of paywall (if desired), guest list, and a wealth of customization options
across RSVPs, consents, reminders, backgrounds, metadata fields, and splash pages in which
asynchronous materials reside. This breadth of capabilities is inconsistently supported across competing
alternatives.
The Shindig platform is lightweight and easily integrates with other components in an organization’s
event technology stack, allowing customers to effortlessly leverage a broader ecosystem of assets to
enrich their event content and data capture. The platform is compatible with components such as
registration application programming interfaces (API); single sign-on (SSO) services; Zapier for data
integration from customer relationship management (CRM), marketing, email, and other platforms;
web-based real-time messaging protocol (RTMP) feeds to incorporate high-performance streaming
audio, video, and data; and any application with an inline frame (IFrame) to bring in HyperText Markup
Language (HTML) documents from websites to easily enrich the virtual event experience. Additional
features to enrich the value of captured data include new Custom Conset Checkboxes that allow for specific permissions for remarketing and other audience opt-ins, and Zapier integration for data
migration to easily make event and attendee data accessible and usable within sales and marketing
workflows.

Design

Shindig designed its platform to deliver virtual event capabilities that people desire: highly engaging
experiences for participants and more business value for event organizers.
The platform facilitates hosts in creating memorable experiences for their brands, products, and services
with customizable backgrounds. Dynamic calls to action (CTA) on the platform encourage audience
participation and input while enabling hosts to learn more about their audience to improve the
experience continually. Shindig offers Dynamic Custom CTA for content downloads, purchases, surveys,
sponsor sign-ups, and more, with which participants can interact without disrupting their viewing or
listening experience.
The platform’s custom splash pages host all event information and maximize the event’s promotability
with one web link for audience RSVP and attendance. Users enjoy intuitive, friction-free access to events
instead of searching for the event link or password in different places.
Shindig enhances audience engagement by making the platform’s functionalities available on mobile
devices. Participants can join the event from wherever they choose to and interact with and consume
content in formats and layouts that work best for them with the platform’s multiple presentation views
with drag-and-drop controls. Frost & Sullivan commends Shindig for creating a flexible and robust
platform.

Conclusion

Shindig transforms the virtual events space by creating memorable online experiences based on its
sophisticated, long-term deep understanding of what customers want from in-person events. As virtual
experiences continue to replace physical events, competition in the market is intensifying. However,
many platforms are not flexible and present formulaic, rigid events. By focusing on making each event
uniquely engaging, Shindig stands out from the competition.
With its strong overall performance, Shindig earns Frost & Sullivan’s 2022 Global New Product
Innovation Award in the virtual events market.

What You Need to Know about the New Product Innovation

Recognition
Frost & Sullivan’s New Product Innovation Award recognizes the company that offers a new product or
the solution that uniquely addresses key customer challenges.

Best Practices Award Analysis

For the New Product Innovation Award, Frost & Sullivan analysts independently evaluated the criteria
listed below.

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