The coronavirus pandemic has impacted countless industries, and 生活 events have been hit particularly hard. However, some production companies are succeeding by shifting to virtual events, and 显示生产 毕业生博·柯蒂斯的公司， 事件系统，也不例外。. The company's proprietary Production Plugin software, coupled with a serendipitous move to a new campus and a commitment to thinking on their feet, is helping them survive and thrive during the COVID-19 crisis.

总部设在奥斯汀, 事件系统 was preparing for South by Southwest 当 COVID-19 hit the United States. The international conference was one of the first large events to cancel in the wake of the pandemic, but 事件系统 was determined to make the best of the situation. They took all of the people they'd hired to work during SXSW and set about converting their warehouse into a virtual events studio.

"The day after SXSW canceled, we were 生活-streaming from our warehouse and coming up with our own content, informing people that rather than letting their SXSW events cancel, they could come to our studio and 生活stream from the studio,博说.

事件系统 didn't get much traction from their customers at the time, so they turned the camera on themselves and started releasing their own prerecorded and 生活 content. 他们拍摄朋友的乐队, hosted fireside chats about event industry topics, conducted a 生活 trivia event, and had a virtual happy hour every Friday afternoon. After five months, 事件系统 had created enough material to host their own conference.

"We launched Virtual Palooza, which was a 100 percent virtual conference. There were about 40 different sessions that we ended up going 生活 with, and it was all consolidated into about a two-hour conference,博解释道.

While 事件系统 was filming their content for Virtual Palooza, they were also moving onto a new campus. They wound up converting half of their space into a fully equipped virtual event space, complete with a video wall, 阶段, 照明网格, 音响系统, 流媒体设备, 和更多的.

At the same time, the company put the finishing touches on Production Plugin. The program uses a concept visualizer to get 事件系统 and their clients on the same page regarding an event's general look and feel. Then the client moves on to the Roadmap to Success (RTS), their proprietary project management software. Inspired by the Domino's Pizza Tracker, RTS向客户显示谁, 什么, 当, 在哪里, and why of each step of the event production process.

有了新校园, 专有软件, and a successful virtual conference under their belt, Beau's company has everything they need to show clients that virtual events can be just as successful as 生活 events. They're currently putting on events for old clients, gaining new clients who need guidance in the virtual event landscape, and keeping an eye on the future of virtual, 生活, 以及混合项目.

"Hybrid events or other events with the virtual component are here to stay," says Beau. "Now every client out there has seen how a virtual strategy will open the attendance funnel, rather than having a limitation of a hundred people who can come to your event. [Components] that require some proximity to your venue have now been busted… you can reach the entire world."