How Onemotion Used Whereby to Host Over 350 Events Through vVenues

By now, we’ve all experienced the pain of attending a poorly-run “digital event.” The technical difficulties, the limited capabilities, and the lack of engaging content are usually a far cry from the immersive in-person events we all took for granted pre-pandemic. 

Producing a lackluster alternative to the real thing was not an option for communication and events agency Onemotion. The Stockholm-based agency has always been well-known for its events with clients like Nike, Microsoft, and Samsung, and they were not about to tarnish that reputation.

When the pandemic hit in March 2020, CEO Mats Mileblad and his team realized early on that they would have to find a solution that would allow them to get as close as possible to the physical events they had been so well-known for pre-pandemic. 

Today, Mats can confidently say that Onemotion pulled it off. In fact, their virtual events have been so successful that they’ve turned the service into its own separate company, called vVenues – a virtual events platform that offers branded, interactive experiences for event attendees. 

vVenues uses Whereby Embedded to offer the world-class event experience that has helped them grow their company substantially since March 2020. Here’s how they did it.

An urgent problem 

Mats and his team wasted no time springing into action in March 2020. “Lockdown was announced March 7, 2020, and on March 10, we had a crisis meeting to talk about how we could continue to offer events virtually,” he says. “We shortlisted the parts of physical events that we felt really contribute to the overall experience for attendees, and built out our requirements for a virtual service we could offer our clients.” 

Mats quickly landed on Whereby. “We needed something that was completely integrated,” he says. “ We knew we couldn’t export people out of the platform when it came to offering video functionality, because that would take them out of the experience.”

He also knew that his team needed a solution that would operate within the framework of the GDPR legislation – which was something that Whereby (and any other EU-based companies) had been navigating for years. “Support from the Whereby team was critical,” says Mats. “They helped us see that there were a number of creative solutions for how we could implement video into our platform seamlessly.”

Virtual events with a real-life feel

After finding Whereby, Mats and his team got to work building out their virtual events platform. To date, they have successfully run 350 virtual events for their clients, including Women in Tech, Dell Technologies, and Oriflame. “We’ve done everything from recruitment events to product launches to virtual management meetings and traditional conferences,” says Mats. 

As a platform, vVenues is impressive. It mimics the experience of going to a physical event, from the moment an attendee enters and gets their “lanyard”, to the “speed-dating” function that allows attendees to talk to one another one on one, to the hybrid event booths where attendees can speak in person or digitally to vendors. In fact, 82% of survey respondents who had attended vVenues events reported that they felt no different than going to an event in-person.

As for the effort required from the vVenues team, Whereby allows them to keep it minimal. “The best thing is that it’s all automated,” says Mats. “We set everything up in Whereby so that attendees can jump into a number of video conferences while navigating an event, without having to re-enter their information or navigate out of the platform.”

From offshoot to operation

While the pandemic was the catalyst for bringing immersive virtual events to attendees, the demand for such a service isn’t showing signs of slowing down anytime soon. “The pandemic forced us to open a door,” says Mats, “But now our customers are realizing that their events do not have to be constrained by geographic limitations.” In March, vVenues successfully ran an event for 42,500 attendees in 130 countries. Offering this solution has allowed customers running events to completely rethink what’s possible.

According to Mats, now that vVenues is its own company with its own growth trajectory, there are a number of goals his team will be looking to achieve in the near future. “We’re ramping up access to 65 markets in the next 18 months,” he says, “And by the end of next year, we should be holding thousands of events per month.”

As Mats sees it, the success vVenues has seen so far is just the tip of the iceberg. “Companies in all countries need virtual platforms,” he says. “Distance, time and travel used to be a factor for large events but with this technology, we can help reduce the environmental impact of the events industry. This will be a key driver for virtual events moving forward and we can contribute to this thanks to vVenus and Whereby Embedded.” 

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