LeBros uses Zoho Backstage to bring digital interaction to events
- INDUSTRYEvent Management Agency
- TYPEConference
About LeBros
LeBros is an agency in Vietnam with a diverse portfolio of activities, like brand consulting, marketing, and public relations. They organize some of the biggest events in Vietnam, one of them being the "Vietnam Sales and Marketing" conference. For their 2017 edition they chose Zoho Backstage, in its pre-release state, to run the show.
Successful events are those that continue to engage attendees at every stage—before, during, and after. For LeBros, the biggest challenge was to sustain this engagement.
"We wanted constant interaction and discussion between attendees and organizers. During presentations, we wanted the audience to directly communicate with the speakers, asking the right questions at the right time."
Zoho Backstage can be best described as convenient, advanced, and smart. We saved a lot of time—and time is money. This investment is definitely worth it.Quốc Vinh, Group Chairman and CEO
That's when LeBros decided to create their own app, with help from a local team. Sadly, things didn't go as planned. "The aim was to run and manage the whole event, including communicating with the speakers and audience. However, that didn't work well for us. It didn't solve our problems and was quite complicated to use," Mr. Vinh added.
On top of this complexity, audiences also wanted to follow the presentation from the comfort of their phones, instead of struggling to view the projector screen.
"We wanted a way to share the presentation content with the audience, so they could follow along with the speaker, monitor it on their phones, and then pose questions. We wanted a way for the speakers to connect with the audience even after the session."
Mr. Vinh identified Zoho Backstage as the ideal partner to bring in this much-needed audience participation. With Backstage's discussion forums and announcements, Vinh and his team were able to engage with their attendees and keep them updated on the latest news. Backstage's custom-branded mobile app enabled audiences to connect virtually with the speakers in real time. They were now able to ask questions and see them answered right away.
In addition, Backstage also helped them create a tailor-made event website with built-in themes and tools. This website not only served as a marketing vehicle but also as an avenue to sell tickets. Speakers and sessions were highlighted to help draw a bigger audience.
"We used the website for all our marketing purposes and added information about our organization and speakers. All this was done very quickly."
Event organizers will attest to the fact that nothing is set in stone. Any tool that they use should be flexible enough to help them account for any change, as and when they occur.
"Our agenda was changing almost every day, and all we had to do was keep updating it on Backstage and it automatically reflected on the website."
Since Backstage was still pre-launch, the product team was always on hand to take care of any complications, and this elicited special praise from Mr. Vinh:
"We needed customized solutions to integrate with our external ticketing vendor and the team from Zoho worked with us to take our event live. It felt like a complete partnership."
With VSM Camp 2018 just over the horizon, Vinh knows Backstage will be integral in ensuring another successful event.