After the uncertainty and upheaval of 2020, it’s been a joy to see events return to some form of normality in the second half of 2021.
Although we are entering 2022 cautious and concerned about a new COVID-19 variant, one thing the pandemic has shown us is that the resourcefulness, flexibility and creativity of the incredible professionals who make live events happen will always prevail.
As Olivia Robinson, Chief Revenue Officer at zkipster, says, “We’ve stayed in close contact with our clients throughout the pandemic, working hard behind the scenes to ensure we gave them the tools they needed to pivot to virtual and hybrid events during lockdown. We’ve been delighted to see the return of live events and a huge positive surge in event activity around the world over the past few months, and are proud that zkipster remains the software of choice for so many special events.”
With that in mind, we thought we’d look back at what’s been a landmark year for events, sharing some of our key learnings, product upgrades, industry insights and event trends, as well as a sneak peek at what’s in the pipeline for 2022. Read on for 10 highlights from 2021…
1. Case Study: Serpentine Galleries
zkipster’s clients span the worlds of sport, entertainment, philanthropy, media, politics, luxury, and art - including London’s renowned Serpentine Galleries. Back in February we collaborated with Serpentine Galleries’ events team on a Case Study that detailed how zkipster enabled them to seamlessly incorporate social distancing and precise capacity management into their Preview days. Read how our tech ensures the art experience is just as transporting for their special guests.
2. Up, up, upgrade away
A raft of upgrades and updates were implemented in 2021, from helpful troubleshooting tools for zkipster’s Zoom integration, to Account Level Templates that allow users to create and save custom email and form templates, to the significant improvements we made to our Salesforce integration for Enterprise customers. However some of these software stars deserve a solo moment in the spotlight, including…
3. Sessions 2.0
zkipster’s Sessions feature is tailor-made for socially-distanced, controlled-capacity events, allowing hosts to stagger guests’ arrival times through the allocation of specific time slots. Version 2 was released in June and upgraded the user experience by factoring in guests’ plus ones, linking Sessions to main events, allowing RSVP invitations to be sent to Session guests, and more.
4. New and improved Android app
In August we turned our attention to Android, completely rebuilding the app, overhauling the user experience, upgrading overall performance and making our Seating feature available for the first time.
5. The return of live events
These behind-the-scenes updates and upgrades helped zkipster users to hit the ground running when live events burst back onto the scene in the second half of 2021. Live events are in our DNA, and we celebrated their return and shared some key insights and learnings with an in-depth long read in October.
6. The new currency for events?
Our next long read, published in November, uncovered the new currency for our industry - flexibility - and showed how we can harness it to turn event uncertainty into opportunity.
7. zkipster is Climate Neutral Certified
zkipster is a people-focused organization with a global footprint, so it’s crucial that we do what we can to protect our planet and conserve resources. In November we were proud to announce that we have achieved carbon neutrality with Climate Neutral. Visit our Sustainability hub to see the steps we’re taking to become an event industry bellwether on the environment.
8. Case Study: Barbican Art Gallery
In December we collaborated with another prestigious art-world client to create a Case Study. This time the team at the iconic Barbican Art Gallery in London shared their experience of adapting private views to be as immersive and memorable as ever, as well as fit for 2021.
9. COVID-safe events
Ensuring zkipster clients were able to deliver COVID-compliant live events was our top priority this year, and we worked tirelessly to both develop new features and build high-level new integrations into the software. In September zkipster officially integrated with the EU Digital COVID Certificate (which is now also compatible with the UK’s NHS certification system), and in October event organizers in the US were able to check guests’ CLEAR Digital Vaccine Passes via zkipster.
And, as of late December 2021, hosts are now able to check and verify guests COVID statuses (and much more) wherever they are in the world thanks to our eagerly-anticipated Form Attachments feature. With this, guests will be able to provide proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test result in advance of an event, as well as any other file or document requested by the event organizer.
This means that guests can not only add attachments in (pdf, jpeg and png formats) to RSVPs and Consent Forms (another new, COVID-friendly feature this year) but also upload profile pictures - a much-requested upgrade that will also assist with security and accreditation.
10. Planning ahead for 2022 - and beyond…
Besides all of the improvements detailed above, CTO Decío Sousa and his expert tech team also have some game-changing additions planned for 2022. The upcoming Relationships feature is being designed to help zkipster deliver on its mission to empower our clients to build, nurture and master relationships with their guests. It will help hosts unlock powerful new guest insights, reinforced by the same level of discretion, privacy and security that’s synonymous with zkipster.
The same value of trust and security is a driving force behind the Teams + Permissions release, which will enable enterprise-grade provisioning with advanced, granular user permission sets. Also in the pipeline, and also delivering enhanced trust and security for our clients, is zkipster’s ISO 27001 certification, a gold standard for information security management systems which is due imminently. Watch this space…
Daniel Dessauges, CEO at zkipster, concludes: “Though we’re sadly not rounding out 2021 on quite the high we were all hoping for, there is still so much to feel optimistic about. As always, zkipster stands in solidarity with our resilient, adaptable partners and friends in the event industry around the world, and stands ready to power events and bring people together in 2022 - and beyond.”
Hear, hear, and here’s wishing you all a happy, healthy and successful New Year.
Header image: Valentin Balan via Unsplash
