My Zoomtopia 2022 Experience

[DeniseLahat]

I was super excited to have been invited by Zoom to the Zoomtopia International Reception the evening before Zoomtopia which gave me the opportunity to network and mingle with Zoom partners and enterprise customers.  During the reception I took a selfie and posted it on LinkedIn with #Zoomtopia. The next morning when I entered the main hall for the Vision and Product Keynote I was delighted to see my selfie on the main stage social wall!!!  I was also lucky enough to get a tour behind the scenes of the main stage to see the incredible production work going on behind the scenes, combining live Zoom participants on the main stage, graphics, emojis, pre-recorded presentations and remote live speakers.  Overall an incredible production, especially from a technical production p.o.v, the Zoom Professional Services Team definitely set the bar high! I attended all the sessions relating to virtual and hybrid events, and was excited to meet the many of the talented Zoom Events & Webinars team in person!

The overall atmosphere at the event was amazing!  The expo was super interesting and a lot of fun with great swag including a Yeti water bottle, Zoomtopia T-Shirt, backpack, coffee bar and most importantly the professional headshots booth which was super popular.   The opening Zoomtopia keynote was great with the hysterically funny Alex Bornstein, and ofcourse it was very interesting to hear first hand from Eric, Oded, Mei and the rest of the Zoom Team. My favourite session by far was "Take a Journey Behind the Scenes of Zoomtopia" with the incredibly talented Sam Kokojko and Tony Allen.  At the end of day 1 all participants were redirected to Pixel Park for live music and drinks.  

Overall it was a really INCREDIBLE experience to have attended Zoomtopia in person.  I made great connections and learned a lot. However I have to be honest and say that a good argument for hybrid events online is the option to avoid Jetlag!  I flew 14 hours to attend Zoomtopia in person in San Jose, but unfortunately I arrived back home after a very long flight sick (not corona) and jetlagged.  It took me close to 2 weeks to recover!  It definitely affected my ability to return to a regular work schedule quickly and it will be a serious consideration for future conferences that require such long travel.  Offering a hybrid event via Zoom Events is definitely the future!

[Bri]

I'm so glad you had an amazing experience at Zoomtopia @DeniseLahat !

Thank you so much for telling us all about your experience and sharing these cool photos 😍

Hybrid events are definitely the future 😎

[ZoomtopiaCrew]

Thank you for sharing and thank you for joining us! Excited to see you next year, whether that's virtually or onsite again 🐋

[MayneStay]

Thank you Denise for that summary!  I used to travel a lot and finally my body rebelled and I got very sick on a transatlantic trip.  My family made me promise to stop travelling like this so now I depend on hybrid sessions for my continued staying up to date.  I am sadly going to miss Enterprise Connect again and some of the other in house conferences (SCTC for instance) that would be worthwhile.  Unless they offer a virtual presence I am going to continue to be the outlier.  Add my name to your petition please.  JohnG

[Aldinopradipta]

thank you denise you really inspired us