CGS Manages Full-service Virtual Events for Top Clients—On an Open Source Platform

Computer Generated Solutions, Inc. offers full-service virtual events management to its corporate and association clients. They are one of only a few virtual events producers that has an almost 100 percent open source software platform. “That really leaves the door open for a lot of integration, expansion, and scalability,” says Tom Wieser, vice president of the Virtual Solutions division.
Wieser says the majority of CGS clients do not have previous experience dealing with virtual events. “They need that element very particularly that holds their hand and walks them through the process.”

CGS focuses on producing virtual summit conferences with several thousand attendees. These types of events have different objectives and more complex requirements than (for example) trade shows, where the focus is to generate leads that are followed up after the event.

“It is entirely different when you say ‘I will try to bring 4,000 people into the environment for deep collaboration for two or three or four days,’ ” says Wieser. “You need a much more sophisticated set of tools and elements within the environment in order to accommodate that level of interaction.” Professional networking (such as the ability to interface with Wingateweb an enterprise registration company) and interactive communications within the virtual event (voice chat, moderated chat rooms, and topic forums) are supported.

“CGS probably was one of the very first to offer voice chat and we currently offer voice chat at a booth level,” says Wieser.

However, it is still the case that few corporate desktop computers have the sophisticated video and audio capabilities found on video gamers’ PCs. Clients only need a PC enabled with Java to participate in a CGS virtual event. To accommodate clients who might not have microphones available on their computers, CGS employs half-duplex voice communications, which means only the virtual booth representative has the option of audio response to an attendee’s texted question or comment.

Wieser says the sometimes the biggest challenge is that clients don’t believe virtual events are ready for prime time. But Wieser believes this works to their advantage. “CGS is positioned extremely well because people tend to see that our legacy of being a strong technology company for 25 years suddenly plays a major role to mitigate risk in producing virtual events for clients.”
Computer Generated Solutions, Inc. is a New York-based information technology company that provides services ranging from call centers in India to online training facilities in Canada. The company has a Virtual Solutions division that offers the Virtual Events 365 application. CGS was formed in 1984 by CEO Philip Friedman. It currently has around 3000 employees.