6. Zoom
We were using Zoom before it became a verb, and it’s still up there as the best online meeting tool and best space for workshops. I still remember participating in a hybrid event back in, erm, 2016?, and one of the organisers saying, “Oh look, here’s Eric, you know he founded this meeting tool we’re using, Eric, man, we love your app!” .
How would we manage at Virtual Not Distant, without Zoom? Well, we’d use another video meeting tool, there are many out there, but we love Zoom for some of its useful features:
Firstly, breakout rooms really help mirror the face-to-face experience when delivering workshops – it’s great to be able to put people together in groups and switch up the energy.
The ‘hide yourself’ feature is also cool – we don’t usually sit in meetings with colleagues in front of a large mirror! So the ability to hide your own camera feed whilst talking to others, is a nice touch.
Overall, it’s just a nice easy user experience, with great camera work. Zoom also offers the sharpest image, an interface that’s pleasing to the eye where everything simply works, smoothly and intuitively. A typical freemium model, but, you get all the features right out of the box for shorter meetings – and you only pay when you want to use it for longer.
No, we aren’t sponsored by Zoom either! We just know what we like.
Check out timestamp 38.44 where Maya and I sing the praises of Zoom (little did we know just two years later how popular it would become!):