COVID-19 quarantines have spawned unprecedented demand since March 2020 for hosted solutions that enable conference organizers and other event planners to develop online venues – commonly called “virtual events” – in which large audiences can gather to see presentations and engage with individuals who have shared interests.

Unfortunately, the market lexicon of “virtual events” falls short of describing the swirl of activity taking place in this emerging segment. In fact, we are witnessing the birth to a whole new class of technology solutions – labelled collectively by Wainhouse as “Cloud Engagement Platforms” – that merge state-of-the-art collaboration capabilities with digital marketing features and technologies that foster socialization and networking among event attendees.

It is important to recognize that “cloud engagement” – as defined by Wainhouse – stands as a distinct market category of its own. It is not video conferencing. It is not web collaboration. It is not unified communications. Rather, “cloud engagement” incorporates all the interactive elements from these technologies used in workplace communications and blends them with other features that facilitate interaction in the digital public square.