"We know exactly what the pain points are in the marketplace"

Werbewoche.ch: Torsten Schiefen, you spoke on Tuesday at the Marcom Suisse event about the future of hybrid events. What does this look like in your eyes as a Swiss provider of livestreaming solutions?

Torsten Schiefen: Hybrid events will continue to be important and will not lose their relevance. Many organizers and also the audience benefit from hybrid event formats. Participants who otherwise have no opportunity to travel to events can still take part, and organizers who do not have large locations at their disposal can exploit the potential of the range to the maximum. Hybrid events are also forward-looking from an economic point of view. Travel costs are saved and resources are not blocked by event participation. Online or hybrid events are more sustainable than purely in-person events. Of course, sustainability has to be seen in relation, because it is not possible without using resources.

Did you experience a boost with Vinivia from the Corona pandemic?

Vinivia's strategy is built around the live streaming platform. During the pandemic, we received many requests if we could also support them with an event platform. As a result, we decided to spin off the Event Manager from the live streaming platform and offer it to the unsaturated market. Of course, the Vinivia Event Manager was not only intended for existing customers. To this day, we work with large companies that organize and implement event series, individual webinars or international summits with the Event Manager.

What are the big challenges in livestreaming?

The Vinivia team is diverse and brings know-how from various professional fields within the event and entertainment industry. So we knew exactly what the pain points in the market are and what our customers deal with on a daily basis: How do I keep the viewer in my livestream longer? How can I design a livestream so that it doesn't become boring? The solution is quite simple - interaction directly in the livestream! The focus is on user-generated content. Viewers can get in touch LIVE with the content creators, brands or companies and thus participate in the event instead of just watching. Thus, the dwell time of each viewer is many times higher.

Is it possible to create a live atmosphere hybrid?

I'd like to start with an example right away. In 2021, we produced and hosted a livestream for Swisscom. Thanks to minimal latency, we were able to broadcast Swisscom's CEO live from our Live Studio 1 to Swisscom stores nationwide with a delay of less than two seconds. Cool tools allowed employees to cheer on their boss with applause or even ask questions directly, which were answered live.

Is the event future hybrid?

As I explained at the beginning, the future of events will maintain or even expand the hybrid format. Companies and brands have noticed that they can achieve a much higher reach, connect people worldwide or even achieve higher sales figures by means of livestreaming. Online or hybrid doesn't mean "just" listening. Rather the opposite, the future of event livestreaming is already showing its first offshoots in the directions of VR and AI. For my part, I suspect that online or hybrid event attendees will soon be getting more value from this technology than on-site attendees are. This is just the beginning of something big.

Do you remember a job that particularly challenged you as a company?

I have fond memories of the first shopping livestream with Tommy Hilfiger. The whole world was on lockdown, including TH's employees, such as designers. Apart from the models, no one was allowed to be on site with us in Live Studio 1. The designers and the models quickly turned the Vinivia meeting room into a fitting room and remotely tried on the garments and adjusted them if necessary.

Were there any other challenging assignments?

One that wasn't a location challenge, but a quantitative challenge: We were asked to support Johnson&Johnson at the "EMEA Inclusion Week". We trained around 350 speakers remotely on our Event Manager and coordinated more than 50,000 participants on the day of the event. The biggest challenge was that different skill levels came together. Among the participants, you have from born programmers to non-computer-savvy people, now get them all under one hat.

What makes Vinivia particularly good?

We are more than just the typical software startup. We are creative masterminds who pass on their ideas to the customer, eliminating the pain points without the customer even being confronted with them. We offer everything from one source Consulting, Event Manager Tool and our Live Studios. Why work with X different partners - because it is known: Too many cooks spoil the broth.

Marcom Suisse aims to bring together people interested in marketing and communications, regardless of industry, function or activity. Important are the knowledge transfer, the interactive exchange and the view over the edge of the plate.