Top 8: Webinar and Live Event Platforms for Eastern Europe

Webinars are one of the most effective ways to generate qualified leads. Email marketing is the key to converting these leads into customers. Traditionally, marketers have to manually export a CSV file after each event, insert contacts into mailing lists, and track duplicates. The integration of the Polish webinar platform ClickMeeting and Lithuanian email service MailerLite automatically solves this problem. The integration works both ways - you can also import MailerLite contacts as invited participants into ClickMeeting. Participant categories are automatically created: registered users, those who joined the event, and those who attended until the end. Each group allows for different marketing strategies for follow-up engagement. Setting up the integration takes just a few minutes—you generate an API token in MailerLite and insert it into the ClickMeeting integration settings.

YouTube is one of the most popular webinar services, simply because it's free. The streaming feature is called YouTube Live, and it now features a new tool called Go Live Together, which allows two users to co-stream. A creator with 50 or more subscribers can invite anyone to a co-stream. A maximum of two people can participate at a time, but guests can be changed throughout the broadcast. Co-streaming is currently not available on the web version of YouTube. Users can schedule a broadcast on the service's website but must join through the mobile app.

Microsoft has acquired Peer5, a company developing a WebRTC-based eCDN video content delivery solution that runs in the browser and optimizes bandwidth usage on corporate LANs. The solution adaptively increases bandwidth as the number of viewers increases. The technology requires no additional software installation on user endpoints or changes to the physical network infrastructure. Peer5's solution will allow Microsoft to integrate video streaming into its flagship Teams collaboration system, including for corporate television, intranet video galleries, and video broadcasts of corporate events.

Microsoft Teams users can now host interactive webinars for up to 1,000 participants. Presenters can manage webinar registration and track webinar reports. A new online presentation mode, PowerPoint Live, has also been added. Presenters can access notes, slides, chat, and a participant list in a single window, while viewers can adjust viewing speed and contrast. Presenter mode allows you to customize the display of video and other content for your audience. Microsoft also promises to add end-to-end encryption for one-on-one calls in Teams for business customers in the first half of 2021.

Facebook has launched Events feature that will allow businesses to monetize their online events on Facebook Pages. While the feature was initially designed for in-person events, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated social distancing measures, the company "very quickly pivoted" to supporting online events. Businesses will be able to host larger events through Facebook Live, as well as smaller, more interactive meetings in Messenger Rooms. The goal is to give business owners the ability to create an event, set a price, promote the event, collect payments (via Facebook Pay), and host the event—all in one place. Facebook will not charge any fees on paid online events for at least the next year. However, on iOS, 30% of ticket prices will go to Apple due to App Store policies.