Zoom’s OnZoom helps hosts monetize virtual events (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: In 2019, 400 volunteers gathered to serve 1,000 adaptive athletes. When I first started Life Rolls On, I had no idea what the outreach was really going to be. Tomorrow is never guaranteed, so really be thankful for what you have, be grateful. And I really look forward to these days. That one day to surf, that one day to skate. People get a full sense of their independence and freedom. It's a beautiful feeling.

[00:00:34] Speaker 2: Alright guys, welcome to MetCon. We are in person and we are taking it on Zoom with our knees. So guys, welcome to our class today. We're going to do a total weight body MetCon today. All you need is yourself, a smile, and maybe a water bottle and a towel.

[00:00:57] Speaker 3: A beautiful El Presidente.

[00:01:13] Speaker 4: These amazing hosts you just saw are all using OnZoom, our new events marketplace. This is a new events marketplace that empowers you and your business to reach more people than ever before. This new events marketplace supports and applauds and salutes the creativity, perseverance, and innovation that we just saw, enabling so many people to adapt their in-person events and businesses to virtual or hybrid experiences. I'm Alex Werdlow, the lead product manager for OnZoom, and I am so honored to show you what my team has been working on. We have been inspired by all the amazing ways the world adapted to a shutdown of in-person events. When business owners, entrepreneurs, and organizations of all sizes had to find some way, any way, to stay the course during COVID-19 and continue providing services to their customers, many turned to Zoom. We are humbled. We realize we have to help. So we are rallying behind these businesses and helping them pivot and expand their services online. We want our customers to be successful, not just in a meeting context. We want to help businesses transition to having online events that drive revenue and reach new and larger audiences. Museums, zoos, fitness studios, artists, creators of all kinds, and even bigger brands are all being challenged. Many creatively resorted to daisy-chaining a Frankenstein set of tools to monetize their events online. This is a gargantuan task for most business owners who are not experts in producing online events or connecting them to online point-of-sale systems. We believe you don't have to be a production or e-commerce expert to run a successful online event. You don't have to learn the ins and outs of digital payments. You don't need a big budget to do any of this. You concentrate on your business and let us handle the rest. We built this offering around Zoom's core principles. We are committed to providing a solution that serves our customers regardless of size so that all businesses can go virtual and scale services that were previously somewhat limited to a physical location. We saw just a few of the hosts waiting for you on Zoom in that awesome sizzle reel. Physical gyms like Core57, with the assistance of OnZoom and Zoom hardware partner Neat, can not just survive but thrive again, reaching new audiences outside their geolocation through the OnZoom event directory, managing access for existing members with private tickets while also growing their memberships, all while providing a simple, free-to-move-around hosting experience using the Neat bar for Zoom rooms. Brands like WW, formerly Weight Watchers, are using OnZoom to deliver their brand promise of inspiring healthy habits for life by creating a bespoke content like WWFH to help Zoom users develop and maintain healthy habits while working from home. I'm personally really looking forward to one of WW's workshops on Zoom this coming weekend. The content creator we saw at the keynote yesterday, Beautiful Destinations, is also leveraging OnZoom as a channel to deliver stories from around the world to an audience still mostly stuck at home. At a time when travel is on pause, this is immensely valuable. OnZoom allows users to virtually travel to a destination, bringing the audience along with the creator, and still connect and learn from one another. Benefits Platform Twig is using OnZoom to host monthly health and wellness education programs to share insights on why wellness matters in the workplace, how to create your own habits of wellness, and other really great events. These folks are by no means an exhaustive list. So many have found a new home on Zoom for their content, their audience, and their business. We've made it easy for hosts to collect payments from ticket sales. OnZoom seamlessly integrates with PayPal for both hosts and attendee transactions. During beta, OnZoom will not have any additional Zoom fee for ticket purchases. Payouts to hosts are made after an event occurs, minus any PayPal transaction fees. Ticket pricing and distribution is flexible to accommodate a variety of cases. Hosts can sell tickets for both single and series events. To boost attendance, hosts can set up tiered pricing structures for their tickets by giving away free or discounted tickets to early birds and dynamically increasing the ticket price as the event approaches. For example, wellness host Paragon Body provides virtual fitness and wellness classes to employees of large companies. Using OnZoom, they can provide class registrations to their existing customers' employees using private ticket types to users who all share the same corporate domain. Paragon Body can test different kinds of events and ticket types to learn quickly what works best for their business model. Single event for $25 or series event with drop-in tickets. Using the Host Dashboard, Paragon Body can keep their finger on the pulse and adjust events that are selling out, adding capacity or duplicating those successful events to optimize future ticket sales. The Host Dashboard gives an easy way to understand metrics for hosts to evaluate all events in aggregate, as well as diving into the individual performance of a specific event. Hosts can also get anonymous feedback after the event to continue to improve the experience for their customers and highlight their stellar host rating when the event knocks the socks off all of their attendees. Integrated fundraising also gives hosts the opportunity to raise funds either for their own registered non-profits or help drive donations for non-profits to raise funds either for their own registered non-profits or help drive donations for non-profits they believe in. Donation Partner Pledge Link powers on-route Zoom fundraising and helps both hosts and attendees have an easy way to give back before, during, and after an event. 100% of donations made through on-Zoom go to the non-profits with Zoom covering any transaction fees. And this is just the beginning. In the next few months, we will add support for immersive wallpapers and scenes, allow hosting of on-Zoom events from Zoom for Home devices, and support events up to 50,000 attendees. And that's just scratching the surface. In 2021, on-Zoom will expand to support global access for all Zoom users. Now that we have learned a little bit about this new events marketplace, let's chat with some of the hosts who are live on Zoom today. Here is our wonderful panel with whom we are going to talk about the different opportunities they see opening up with on-Zoom. Jesse is known for being one of the top 100 junior surfers in the world, having a paralyzing accident and coming back strong, creating a big life for himself and countless others living with paralysis. Jesse is a two-time adaptive surfing world champion and the founder and executive director of the Life Rolls On Foundation, which takes people with various disabilities surfing and skateboarding. Brad has worked for Parks over 20 years and has always sought new ways to tell stories of California's diverse natural and cultural history. Brad is one of the founding employees responsible for California State Parks Ports, parks online resources for teachers and students distance learning program that has served over 670,000 K-12 students with real-time video programs since its inception. Mitch Gelman is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who has led innovation and catalyzed growth in news, education, entertainment and digital technology across public and private sector organizations. He is currently the president and CEO of WCNY, a member supported public television and radio organization. Tom Spaven serves as the lead on the iconic Bombay Gin brand in North America. He is excited about leveraging on Zoom to empower Bacardi's community of bartenders to show their mixology skills and help grow their brand amongst consumers through the on Zoom directory. Guys, so excited to have you here today. It's just such an honor to talk with you. Let's start with how this year has been for your business and your audience. Jesse.

[00:10:35] Speaker 1: Hey, what's going on? Yeah, it's been a tough year. All of our events are usually at the beach or a skate park or we have fundraisers. So, yeah, it's been really difficult. We're just trying to stay connected with our community around the country and platforms like this is definitely the way to go.

[00:10:55] Speaker 4: Thank you. Your constituents are so lucky to have you and your organization supporting them. Brad, what about you? How has California Parks and the PORTS program been dealing with the distance learning and the transition of your audience from a classroom to their individual homes?

[00:11:11] Speaker 5: Yeah, well, when things shut down mid-March here in California, we pivoted on a dime thanks to Zoom and all the services that they provide. We were able to take our in-class programs and turn them into in-home programs for up to 1,000 families per hour. So we were providing continuity of learning for K-12 students from the get-go in mid-March. In parks in general, Zoom and live streaming events have really been able to open parks back up to people even though they can't come. And we're seeing that in the phased approach to opening with museums still being closed in some parts of the state. These are great ways to provide access to California State Parks.

[00:11:58] Speaker 4: I love it. And I caught a couple of those sessions and, wow, bottom of Lake Tahoe. It's both amazing and my favorite so far.

[00:12:06] Speaker 5: Awesome, thanks.

[00:12:08] Speaker 4: Mitch, what about you? You and WCNY have always been powerhouses of content. Tell us about the trend you are seeing as a content creator between online and downstream content.

[00:12:19] Speaker 6: Well, Zoom has been our best friend during the pandemic. The real breakthrough moment for us was a partnership with Zoom to create the Better Late Than Never Prom. We created a prom featuring TikTok superstars who came to students across the country. Seniors who couldn't have their proms in person were able to gather on Zoom to celebrate their prom with some of their biggest heroes. And it was an incredible evening of music, dance, crowning kings and queens, and celebrating the end of a unique school year. And that couldn't have been possible without Zoom. More recently, we've created, instead of in-person events, we have created events such as the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment. It was supposed to be held in our region at Seneca Falls, New York, where Susan B. Anthony and her colleagues were able to start the suffrage movement. We couldn't do that in person this year, so we had a Zoom-based digital event bringing some of the ancestors, great-great-grandchildren of the leaders of those movements. We had them on Zoom. We had a video that we created, and a conversation, and an interview, and a Q&A with hundreds of listeners. And what we were able to do with that is take the digital-on-Zoom production and edit it and produce it for downstream distribution on PBS television. So Zoom was the primary platform for distribution, and then we adapted it for downstream distribution on TV. Zoom has been our best friend during the pandemic.

[00:14:05] Speaker 4: I love that. I love that Zoom is now the platform on which such innovative content is born. That's just fantastic. Tom, Bacardi is also known for its fantastic content and products. You and your team are working to support bartenders hit hard by the pandemic. Tell us more about your work and what you hope to accomplish with Bacardi-sponsored events on Zoom.

[00:14:26] Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you for the opportunity to be part of the panel, first of all. I'll probably answer that in two parts. Firstly, to talk about the impact of the pandemic on the trade, on the bar and restaurant industry, and then I'll shift into probably what consumers are doing and behaving differently and what we can do. But one of the hardest things to see during this time is the impact of COVID-19 on the restaurant community and the bar community. So the first thing we've done as a family of brands at Bacardi is to pledge our support to them under the Raise Your Spirits program. It's a $4 million support package for the hospitality industry that have been affected so badly. The funds went to a number of programs, including donations to nonprofits like Another Round, Another Rally, the Restaurant Workers Community Foundation, and Tales of the Cocktail, who are a longtime partner. So that grassroots support is really trying to support the organizations that have supported us over such a long period of time. But then what's really interesting is the shift in consumer behavior. So this is obviously an opportunity for our business to pivot, but it's also an opportunity for the trade to get involved in new ways. So we are obviously seeing a shift from people enjoying cocktails out at bars and restaurants, which is what we all hope will come back soon, in full force and safely. But people are at home, people are at home enjoying cocktails, experimenting with cocktails, many for the first time, and they're enjoying it virtually. So this is a really new platform. We're really interested in that time between, you know, finishing your traditional workday and then into playtime. So, you know, this is typically what cocktail hour is, it's what happy hour is. And we've discovered that people still need this transition time. We're trying to help them find ways to explore and get creative with easy to prepare, you know, simple mixed drinks at home to transition. You know, we've often made it easy to find information about our cocktails, but what people are discovering is that you can buy spirits online. You can just go on sites like Drizzly that do door-to-door delivery in a couple of hours. And people didn't know this. A lot of people in the U.S. just didn't know that that could happen. So shifting behavior, easy to buy spirits. So what do we do with it? Well, we're really excited to talk about the on Zoom platform of happiest hour, which is a series of cocktail masterclasses hosted by really elite, like world-class bartenders, right? Many of whom are out of work. And what this is is an opportunity to give them a new revenue stream and find ways to support them while, you know, either their bars are still shut down or shutting down, or they're at a 50% capacity, right? Which we all know is not really promising for a lot of accounts. So essentially it's a new revenue stream to support the traders as we've been doing since the start of the pandemic.

[00:17:21] Speaker 4: I love that. I love this essence and community of giving back to your constituents, to your audience, to the world. I can't wait to honestly join the happiest hour. By the way, Zoom loves the use of happy. So good job on that. Guys, my team and I have had the privilege of introducing you to on Zoom over the last couple of weeks. What functionality are you most excited about Tom?

[00:17:55] Speaker 3: Let's actually unmute myself. Sorry about that. Yeah. You came straight back to me. Wow. There's a couple of things that are really exciting. I think obviously the immersive event functionality is key. It allows us to connect with new audiences and, you know, create educational, but also stress busting experiences to new people and celebrate moments that matter. One stat that we have from a recent holiday survey in the US is that, you know, 66% of respondents to that survey said that they will be celebrating with friends and family over video chats throughout the holidays. Right. We know people are not going to necessarily be moving around and traveling as much as they would have for Thanksgiving and, you know, the holidays. So I think that's obviously a key, a key part, but for us coming back to the support of the bar and restaurant industry, amazing little function, which is about donating and tipping directly, which is perfect. Right. So when we have these, the platform for our bartender partners to do showcase his or her skills, they'll be able to monetize it immediately. And that's something that is just really powerful and we're excited to make the most of.

[00:19:08] Speaker 1: Yeah.

[00:19:08] Speaker 4: We're pretty excited about that functionality. And, you know, even though we kicked off with donation integrated into the platform, tipping is definitely on our mind to help these independent small business owners or, you know, service experts. Mitch, what about you? What's been most exciting for you and your team with OnZoom?

[00:19:29] Speaker 6: One of the, one of the first virtual productions we, we presented was a capture of a, a play Amadeus that was produced here in Syracuse by Syracuse stage. It was a phenomenal performance, but they couldn't have anybody in the house. So they performed it. We captured it, did three camera shoot. And it was very, very complicated to get that distributed online for the ticket holders that had purchased theater tickets or the subscribers or members of the organization. And what Zoom has done is not only mastered the simplicity of a virtual engagement, but it is also matched or better the quality of video and distribution of any of the, any of the other platforms. And now with OnZoom that you can either purchase tickets to a one-time event or sign up for a series is going to be game changing in allowing us to distribute content via this incredible new OnZoom platform.

[00:20:34] Speaker 4: That's so great to hear. And we really hope it helps more people connect with your brand. I love your programming. My whole family loves your programming. Jesse, what about you? How's it looking?

[00:20:47] Speaker 1: Yeah. You know, Life Rolls On is all about creating a safe place in the water and, you know, Zoom's focus on safe spaces, you know, it's totally aligned with our goals and everything. And being able to celebrate and also grow our network is really huge on Zoom. And, you know, every, every year we have a big gallery. We have a big gallery. It's an auction dinner concert. And to be able to reach more people around the country, it's going to be huge. And our ability to fundraise on the platform. I mean, that's going to be massive for us because all of our events are free to the public. And it's about raising money and awareness and funds and all that stuff. So. The capability of actually fundraising and people donating on this platform. It is huge. I mean, I think it's going to be huge. The capability of actually fundraising and people donating on this platform. It is huge. And also this has allowed us to come back together. To bring our community. Into, you know, safe place on, on zoom. And we're starting a new show. It's called wave high. And it's all about inspirational. We're going to bring motivational moments and stories and we're going to bring high profile people that can inspire community. I mean, we got people like Chris Martin, Dave Matthews. Bob Hurley, Kelly Slater, Rob Machado. Yeah. We're just really excited to Shane Dorian. And this platform, I think might take life rolls onto the next level where we. We're going to be able to bring in people that are not necessarily going to be in the area. But we're going to be able to bring in people that are going to be able to take advantage of the new features, but especially the fundraising and also the. The ability to create. More awareness around the country and, and to actually reach people that couldn't come to the beach that couldn't come to the skate park. That don't even live in the area. Now they can come to. Online and we can meet them, meet their families. And, you know, we're going to be able to bring in people that are not necessarily going to be able to come to the beach that couldn't come to the skate park. And we're going to be able to bring in friends and. It might inspire them and change their life.

[00:22:50] Speaker 4: I love that. I think you got it correctly. We were. Working so hard to build a safe space. For organizations like yours and for businesses to reach your audience. And really grow. That effect that you have on your community, which is a beautiful Brad. You have a huge audience. And we're going to be able to do that. And we're going to be able to do that. What are you most excited about?

[00:23:18] Speaker 5: It's pretty simple, but just to have all of our content in one location in the on zoom platform marketplace that we can have really nice looking landing pages. And as Jesse said, the integration for fundraising is really important for us. And we want to make sure that we're able to get our content out to the audience. So to, to drive that fundraising, it's a big deal for us. But looking forward, even, you know, We, we also offer fee-based programs in state parks like tours at Hearst castle or a big one that's coming up. This season is elephant seal walks at onion, which is a big deal for us. And we want to make sure that we're able to get our content out to the audience. And we want to make sure that when you walk down and see, you know, we can provide an excellent virtual experience. With our content experts. And like Mitch said, some, some more produced content. Which is kind of where we're at. We want to be like 2.0. So to be able to bring in this, like, You know, We're going to be able to get our content out to the audience. And we want to make sure that we're able to get our content out to the audience. And we want to make sure that we're able to get our content out to the audience.

[00:24:36] Speaker 4: That's so cool. I saw those seals once they were smelly. So it's kind of nice to avoid the smell, but still get the experience.

[00:24:43] Speaker 5: I think last year, Eric promised something about smell a vision or something like that. And it's opening keynote at zoom topia. So we'll see if he delivers on his promise in a couple of years, but they are kind of stinky.

[00:24:55] Speaker 4: A little bit stinky. It's all good. They're they're sweet. They're sweet, sweet, but stinky. We, we have a little bit of time. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Brad. John asks. How long has the parks program been doing field trips and how many students have you reached?

[00:25:14] Speaker 5: It's a cool question. We have been doing distance learning for K 12. We call this our 17th year. So we've seen the gamut for. We've been doing it for a long time. thank you guys for the hard work. It's crazy. I also want to tell you more about our fights and also how teachers have embraced it. They didn't skip a beat either. The pandemic started and we did these in-home things but we were inundated by teachers who had already scheduled a zoom call with us and said hey I am at home. My kids are calling into my Zoom room. Can you just meet me there. house or whatever. But so yeah we've been doing a lot of kids every year for almost two decades. Thanks John for the question.

[00:27:04] Speaker 4: I love that. It's just so fun to reach these folks and where they're most comfortable, right? Well that's awesome. Tom, a fun one for you. What's your favorite cocktail to make at home during a virtual happy hour?

[00:27:19] Speaker 3: Good one. I would say that you can't stay too far away from the classics. And one thing that we're we're trying to push is you don't need to be a pro bartender to make simple but great drinks at home. So I would always go for a classic gin and tonic. Best way to do it is just, you know, a couple of a little shot of Bombay Sapphire but then mix it with a premium tonic. Pick a good tonic. You know, I recommend Fever Tree if you can find that in your market. And then just garnish with a fresh lime. So just you can't go wrong for that uplifting gin and tea for the end of the day. The other one I would say is if you want to get into a bit more complex territory but with a simple recipe, a Negroni. Very popular in a lot of cities in the US. So just split it in two for, you know, for a more mindful, responsible drinking one and then share a Negroni with a loved one. So those are a couple of good options.

[00:28:15] Speaker 4: Fever Tree is a good one. We've had that one at the house for sure.

[00:28:19] Speaker 3: Yeah, once you have that, you can't go back.

[00:28:22] Speaker 4: Start at the top. Why not?

[00:28:24] Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely.

[00:28:26] Speaker 4: So a couple of questions just around what your lives have been like before on Zoom. Maybe Mitch, you can take this one. What other platforms have you tried and what were some of the things that you saw with WCNY content across them?

[00:28:44] Speaker 6: That's a great question, Alex, and we tested a number of platforms. We tested platforms in our control room, we tested platforms for our virtual distribution, and we have tested platforms for engaging guests and bringing everybody together. And to be perfectly honest, you know, seeing Zoom as the most ubiquitous and widespread, our initial interpretation is that Zoom was a mass-market solution. But in fact, not only did we learn that Zoom is a mass-market solution, Zoom is also the highest quality and the most reliable platform. So we use Zoom now instead of the specific provider that we had used previously that was a specialist in video conference calls, because Zoom is better quality and consistency and accessibility for conference calls. We now use Zoom instead of the subscription service that we had used for on-demand distribution because Zoom is higher quality and has greater accessibility. And in bringing guests into the studio for live on-air production or other events, rather than the other competitors who we tried that were more niche or specialized in that, we turned to Zoom because the quality of Zoom, the consistency of Zoom, the reliability and the stability of Zoom, as well as the incredible customer service and support from the Zoom technology and marketing team, only enriches the idea that what everybody knows is Zoom is the most accessible and simplest platform to use, but it also does everything else as well, if not better than its competitive side.

[00:30:30] Speaker 4: Nice. Yeah, we're really excited about the quality and just helping to create both a stable and wonderful experience. Jesse, one more question for you. How do you see Zoom helping people from an inclusion perspective? Do you have any real-life stories you can share?

[00:30:49] Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, just like a lot of other, you know, maybe companies or foundations, this was all new to us this year. So this whole Zoom platform was really new. We were just really all about engaging in person at the beach, at the skate parks, and now to be able to reach out to people. And the thing is, is a lot of people in our position, meaning like have a disability in a wheelchair or whatnot, spend a lot of time at home, and they're kind of pulled away from their friends and a lot of events, sometimes maybe if they're not feeling well or something's going on in their own life, this is a way for them to actually connect and to get some inspiration. Because a lot of them, you know, unfortunately get depressed and are sad, and these platforms are gonna be able to to go in there and say, hey, hi, how you doing? And for them to see a familiar face. And let's just say they weren't able to go to the surf event, which sometimes may only happen once a year in their location, they can go in and say hi to their team leaders and their friends and really just engage. And I think that's really uplifted a lot of their spirit and inspired them to to get on with their day, with their month, with their year. And we've seen a lot of stories where people were depressed and just one little phone call put a little pep in their step and another smile. Imagine with all the face masks, you can't see people smile. So, you know, when you wave hi to somebody, that's gonna put a big smile on their face. We love positivity and this is what we're all about, sharing that with everyone.

[00:32:37] Speaker 4: That's really great. I think that that's fantastic and you guys are gonna make an impact on so many more lives. I'm so excited for you and to be along the ride with you as part of the On Zoom team. Folks, if there are no more burning questions from the panel, let's kind of wrap up this part and we will go through the final couple of slides and answer a couple more questions about the On Zoom platform. So, thank you Jesse, Brad, Mitch, and Tom. We are so excited to help support and empower your success on Zoom. Hopefully everyone will jump on in there and check out your events.

[00:33:20] Speaker 6: Thanks everybody. Thank you. Thanks Alex.

[00:33:25] Speaker 3: Thank you.

[00:33:25] Speaker 4: Thank you.

[00:33:26] Speaker 3: Thanks very much. Thank you.

[00:33:29] Speaker 4: And folks, we will be able to, we will be sharing a couple of the links for the On Zoom events from these panelists in the chat, so keep an eye out there. Also, go ahead and, you know, take a look at all the other amazing events we have. These were just a few of the hosts you can find there. There's so many more for you to discover. And remember, you can go to OnZoom.com, get to know these hosts, get to know all the wonderful creators powering these online events, and remember that while On Zoom is in beta, we will be opening host spots a little at a time. So, don't delay. Apply to become a host as soon as you want, as soon as you can. And I want to thank everyone for coming. Just a reminder that all registered Zoomtopia attendees can log back into the Zootopia event site for 30 days post the event to view a recording of this session and other sessions. Let's go to some On Zoom questions. All right. Very excited here. Annie, can you tell me the first question I will be answering?

[00:34:39] Speaker 7: Thanks, Alex. We have a question about will On Zoom work with the new SDK that we announced yesterday?

[00:34:47] Speaker 4: So, the SDK that was announced yesterday is really more toward helping developers add the beautiful crystal clear audio and video you guys are used to in your business meetings into an application of their own. So, it's not quite the right use case for On Zoom, but our SDKs are just fantastic. I highly recommend you take a look at them at this time. We don't have an open API for On Zoom, but we will be looking at what we'll be opening up in the next, let's say, year.

[00:35:20] Speaker 7: Thanks, Alex. We have a lot of questions around who can be a host On Zoom, and do you want to tell us a little bit of that?

[00:35:29] Speaker 4: Absolutely. So, today, any admin or owner of an account can apply to become a host. While that doesn't mean that a member on the account cannot become a host, it does mean that a member has to get permission from their admin, and admins will have the ability to designate which members on the account can have access to hosts.