Community Brands Announces New Toolkit to Help Organizations Virtually Engage with Members and Donors

March 18, 2020 —ST. PETERSBURG, FL.— Community Brands, the leading provider of business management, commerce and payment solutions for member-based organizations, today announces new toolkit of virtual engagement capabilities to help organizations disrupted by Coronavirus/COVID-19. In addition, the company is also offering its Mobile 365 solution free for the first year to help organizations overcome the near-term challenge of staying engaged and connected with members.

The new toolkit combines virtual learning and event solutions that are in use today by millions of learners with new capabilities just released to further enhance the virtual event experience. Many Community Brands customers already manage hybrid events that combine an in-person experience with a virtual one. For those organizations moving entirely virtual as a result of Coronavirus/COVID-19, event organizers can offer attendees a rich experience that combines live interactive content, one-to-one live chat, virtual expo halls, and the ability to offer on-demand presentations.

“Many clients have already been impacted by COVID-19 with many being forced to postpone or even cancel events,” stated Erin Shy, Managing Director of Association and Nonprofit Solutions at Community Brands. “These events are often critical for member engagement and generate a substantial portion of an organization’s annual revenue or fundraising. There is no substitute for the rich experiences in-person events can deliver, but in these challenging times we are excited to offer some new capabilities to help organizations transition to virtual events.”

The toolkit includes solutions to support:

• Webinars & Webcasts – Interactive, live online events or rebroadcasted recordings.
• Onsite Event Capture – Live streaming or on-demand delivery of live event content.
• Virtual Conferences – Rich and engaging events featuring streaming presentations, attendee networking via live-chat, and virtual expo booths with lead retrieval.
• Digital Vendor Guide – Digital guidebooks featuring solution providers that serve members.
• Mobile 365 App – Full-featured app for organizations looking to engage members with community forums, chat rooms, publication delivery, and member communications.
• Virtual Poster Session – Online experience specifically designed for scientific poster sessions including recorded presentations by poster authors and searchable database.

Mobile 365 would be available to organizations for free for the first year of a two-year agreement to help foster virtual engagement with members. It is used today by customers to drive year-round discussions in virtual community forums and chat rooms, and provides organizations with a tailored mobile experience for members.

Also included as a part of the toolkit is a brand-new Virtual Conference solution. It enables organizations to quickly create flexible, rich and engaging online events. Attendees can join live streaming keynote and breakout sessions, chat with exhibiting sponsors and vendors in an online expo, and network with thought leaders and peers through interactive online chats.

Event organizers can track session attendance to support continuing education certifications, and can use the virtual conference as a way to bring in new sources of revenue or help minimize revenue losses from in-person events that have been cancelled. Virtual conference sponsors and vendors can interact with attendees through a virtual booth experience that includes demo videos as well as private, timed one-on-one chats. Chat transcripts and notes are all organized and provided to exhibitors following the event.

Each year Community Brands solutions help manage over 100,000 events annually with capabilities from attendee registration, speaker and session management, exhibitor management, badge printing, content capture and streaming, lead retrieval, and attendee mobile solutions. Solutions in the new virtual engagement toolkit can be used in-conjunction with other Community Brands solutions for hybrid events, or independently for events that have transitioned entirely online.

Organizations that are interested in learning more, can visit a special COVID-19 resource center, or can register for an informative virtual events webinar taking place on March 19.