September 2022
Last updated
Last updated
In this release we present something we have been working on for many months that will bring you health, money and love.
You will understand why I say that when you finish this reading.
If your platform is in a separated server, these updates may not be rolled out yet. In case you are interested in having them as soon as possible, please contact your Project Manager.
Previously, the Digital Venue looked like this:
Now, it looks like this:
Maybe you're thinking: "but you've only moved things around".
Well, yes, but no.
Software development is like icebergs: only 10% is visible, the other 90% is under the water.
The changes within that visible 10% will greatly improve your attendees' experience and yours.
Why?
To understand it, I have to explain quickly how the Digital Venue will be structured from now on. There are 4 main areas:
A topbar, where you can put a logo and the Website product links.
A left navigation bar to access the event information pages (Home, Agenda and Exhibitors). Previously, all this information was on a single page, which was sometimes too long.
A right navigation bar, where you have sections related to your user account as well as areas to interact with other attendees (such as direct messages, meetings, etc.) that can be opened and closed instead of always being expanded. This way, we have gained more space for the information of the "main" pages of the event.
A central section, where you can see the information of the relevant page.
With this new structure, information is grouped more coherently and is more easily accessible from computers and mobile phones.
Yes, these changes also greatly improve the mobile experience.
And the other 90%?
As you can imagine, this is what people don't usually see. The code, the internal architecture and things like that.
If I go into details here, your eyelids will suddenly feel too heavy to keep open. You will eventually fall asleep and you will wake up after 4 hours without knowing where you are and what your name is.
So I'll spare you the boring explanations and tell you the benefits.
We have made a lot of changes and improvements to this 90% because it was getting harder (and slower) to add features to the Digital Venue.
When a software grows, these things happen. It's what we nerds call 'technical debt'.
It happens to us, but also to Apple, YouTube, Spotify or any company in the world. It's inevitable.
You can compare it to the tyre wear of your car.
You drive for miles, the tyres lose their tread and they don't grip the car to the road as well as they did at the beginning.
If your tyres are getting flat, would it matter if instead of changing them tomorrow, you waited a month to change them?
Probably not.
And if you then wait for another 15 days?
Maybe not either.
But if you let it go, one day it will rain, the car will skid and you will have an accident. And when you're in hospital with a scarred face and a leg broken into 9 pieces, you'll think "I wish I had changed the tyres when I had the chance".
So, we have done a pit stop to reduce technical debt and thanks to these 'unseen' things, now we will be able to develop faster and better.
And this is wonderful news for you.
Oh, and we've also increased the colour configuration options 👀
Many software similar to ours claim that they adapt to the brand image of their clients, but they only let you put a logo and change the colour of some insignificant stuff.
It is definitely easier to develop. Good for them.
But we prefer a colour configuration that allows you to truly represent your brand.
Some examples here:
You may think these examples are awful, but that's not the point. The important thing is that you have more possibilities to configure colours.
Whether people puke or fall in love when seeing your Digital Venue is up to your colour configuration skills and the personal tastes of your audience.
And what colours can you edit?
Go to the Digital Venue's configuration options and you'll see.
There aren't many options, so it's easy to configure. But they are a game changer.
Spoiler alert:
You can change the colour of the links of the navigation bars. Before, they were always white.
You can change the background colour or even add a photo. Before, it was always grey.
If you haven't understood why these developments will bring you health, money and love, I'll explain it to you.
We've done a tremendous amount of refactoring, code cleanup and design scalability work that has led to a Digital Venue that has a much healthier code and better prepared to continue growing in a healthy way.
That's good for us, because now it's easier to develop; but most importantly it's good for you because you'll get better features, features that will be better built and in less time than it would have taken if we hadn't done all this work.
If you have hired us, you are a company.
And all companies, without any exception, have a brand image.
Good or bad, but they have one.
And a strong brand image is essential to make money. It makes it much easier that, at some point, people (attendees, sponsors, exhibitors, etc) will be willing to give their money to you.
With the new colour configuration, you can represent your brand image much better at your events.
I'm not saying that attendees or sponsors will throw money at your face when they enter the Digital Venue, but they will see a very professional event and they will think that your company cares about doing things well. And this, directly or indirectly, ends up attracting money.
The vast majority of feedback we receive are complaints, unmet needs or things you don't like. But that is a kind of love.
If you say it, it's because you care and you want to help us improve. It would be much worse to think something can be improved and say nothing.
We have processed all the feedback and put all the love in the world to improve the Digital Venue.
We hope you like the result.
P.S: We know that we have many other things to improve. We're sure that there are some important features for you are still missing, that you may think something was better before, that you will find some bug and that you will have new ideas. Remember that you can send us your comments through this link. Believe it or not, we read absolutely everything and take it into account. And if you want to contact us just to tell that you like the changes, you are more than welcome.
