How we Zoomed our Way to 2020 Events

We are now in mid-November and it is practically just a month to go before 2020 officially ends! During this time of the year, we would have completed already a handful of events from family members celebrating their birthdays, to workmates wedding, friends throwing engagement parties and gender reveals happening left and right! But as we know, this year has been very different because of Covid19.

With the complexities brought about by the pandemic, for most of us, the much anticipated gatherings with friends, workmates or family have not pushed through as planned. Despite that, it did not necessarily mean that the fun and the connection with our loved ones have been cancelledt too! Thanks to technology, we were still able to zoom our way to whatever celebrations we had lined up this year!

What is Zoom and how did it become so popular?

Zoom is a video conferencing application that became popular especially during this pandemic period, because of its functionality that allows big number of people to join in the call and participate in the discussion. Though there were instances when its security and confidentiality were questioned, most companies were and are still using it for official business meetings and conferences after they have improved their security measures. Aside from Zoom, there are numerous video conferencing apps that can be used with computers or smart phones. As more office workers were forced to stay at home, applications like these became more useful than ever before.

How did the idea of using video conferencing app as alternative to physical interactions become a household norm?

Everyone needed to adjust and cope up with the situation. One way of enduring the need to generally stay at home was the availability of media for everyone to stay connected to one another. With messaging apps replacing the face to face communication, people soon discovered or somehow learned to make do of video conferencing as an alternative to physical interactions. As we see how they are successfully being used for business, we have now extended its use to more personal interactions and this gave birth to virtual parties.

What makes it as close to the actual parties we are used to attend?

For a virtual party to be successful and equally fun as the face-to-face party, the host usually has to prepare a program that will allow people in the call to interact in an organized manner. The mute, video on or video off buttons are very helpful in achieving this. Though in actual scenarios, everyone tend to speak all at the same time and we know just how close that is to meeting them in person. For more fun, there are also several games designed to liven up virtual gatherings. (Sample games to play on Zoom from Good Housekeeping: https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/entertainment/g32098665/best-games-to-play-on-zoom/)

Another nice feature is the virtual background. While we are still somehow restricted to make travel plans, video conferencing apps like Zoom enables us to choose or upload a background image to our video calls so we can somehow get the vibe of the theme in the backdrop we chose. This is very practical for it enables the attendees to have a common backdrop as they join the call from their respective homes. Aside from that, it will also look good on the group pictures a.k.a. snapshots—instant photobooth folks!

What kind of celebrations fits best for a virtual party?

Almost any kind of celebrations can now be done virtually! In fact, it has widened the reach of everyone and anyone as even relatives and friends from across the globe can now gather together and share the joy of someone’s milestones. We have seen how awarding events, 18th birthday parties, religious or cultural ceremonies, graduation, special announcements, drinking sessions and many more celebrations were done via Zoom. For the first time in its history, even The ABIA Wedding Awards where One Click Events participated, was held online last month.

Here at One Click Events, we had to park most of our photobooth units, except for the drop-off ones. But as people learned to do their celebrations at home while connected virtually to their “guests”, we slowly adapted to the “new normal” and managed to make the best out of what we had. Through our sister company One Prints (oneprints.com.au), we were also able to provide to our clients their much needed customized props, printed tees, themed giveaways and even personalized facemasks, to make their online parties equally memorable and meaningful.

Now that we see some restrictions slowly being lifted, gathering limit has been increased and the events industry is gradually getting active again, let us always remember that we were able to zoom our way through the past months and still got the best experience despite the situation. Kuddos to all of us for hanging in there and for still choosing to remain positive by maximizing what can work for the time being.

Now that we are all gearing up to finally attend get-togethers and catch up with everyone we have not seen for so long, remember to still exercise some precautions and be responsible when attending public gatherings. From time to time, we can still Zoom our way to parties as we have had earlier this year especially if you double booked by mistake, LOL! Only this time, you can now have actual photobooth set-up (though no props yet) and not just the snapshots from your zoom calls! Don’t forget to tag us on your photos!

To learn more about us or any of our services, please visit our website www.oneclickevents.com.au or follow us at Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/one.click.events/ or Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/oneclickevents/

Leave a Comment