June 2009
Stream57, a leading provider of fully customizable webcasting and streaming media communications, has partnered Virtual Edge, a premiere virtual event community site and forum, following a collaborative sponsorship delivering the hugely successful Virtual Edge Summit 2009 to a live online audience.
With the positive response generated by the two-day hybrid physical and virtual event, the new collaboration will serve to help educate, inform and expose potential users of streaming media and webcast events to new strategies, methods and technology in the rapidly evolving industry.
The first-of-its-kind Virtual Edge Summit, which took place in late May in Santa Clara, brought together all major players and providers in the virtual presentations field. From 3D simulation software companies to virtual trade show vendors, the Virtual Edge Summit provided a novel open forum for discussion and demonstration of current and future technologies.
Complemented by Stream57's Flash-based StreamLine webcasting platform, attendance for live presentations was more than doubled with an online audience, where viewers chatted and asked questions via an interactive module accompanying the video and presentation content.
"The biggest benefit to adding virtual attendance options is the attendance boost they deliver," said Michael Doyle, Executive Director of VirtualEdge.org, producers of the Summit.
"In a recent study we conducted, 74% of event producers said they are concerned about future attendance levels, and 67% had already been experiencing a drop in attendance. Virtual options like the live streaming we did with Stream57 can fix that. If you produce a live event and you don't have a virtual element you need to start planning that aspect of your event now, before you lose that audience."
With positive reviews of the webcasting attendee experience from the Summit's online audience, Stream57 has offered the use of its technology to help Virtual Edge continue to educate and inform its members and those interested in learning more about planning and producing virtual events and virtual meetings. Stream57 will deliver a series of live webcasts hosted by Virtual Edge focusing on innovation, technology and strategy in the world of streaming media and virtual events.
"We are true believers in the field of streaming media and virtual events, and believe wholeheartedly that Michael and Virtual Edge will be leaders in determining how far this industry can reach in the next few years," Stream57 President Ben Chodor said.
"Live streaming video is here to stay–if any company wasn't streaming in 2008, they sure are in 2009–and we are going to do everything we can to help build this community of streaming media resources to be best suited to handle the possibilities that are heading this way."
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