Corporate Blog
Best Cloud Service 2011
11/23/2011. Jointly with SAP AG, the Institute for Cloud Computing held a competition for the best ideas and solutions in the area of cloud computing. Winners of this competition were awarded with the Pro Cloud Award 2011 in the two categories "Best Cloud Idea" and "Best Cloud Service". Our solution for virtual events was selected as "Best Cloud Service 2011". The organizers of the competition were delighted about the high quality of candidates and emphasized that especially agile companies, such as ubivent, match perfectly with cloud computing. Therefore, SAP sponsored this prize to create a platform that promotes innovative ideas and solutions based on cloud technology. This is another great achievement for us and we are very glad about this honor.
- Michael
Virtual Event in Greece
10/26/2011. Recently, our virtual event platform was the place to be for job seekers in Greece! Kariera, the leading on-line recruitment site in Greece and member of the CareerBuilder network, was the host of a virtual career fair on our ubivent platform. The project was a cooperation between the UK based event specialist EventisWorld, the Greek job portal kariera.gr and ubivent as platform provider. This was not only our first project in Greece, it was also a huge success for all parties: more than 5,000 visitors from all across Greece have participated in this virtual career fair, and exhibiting companies have been well known global leaders like Kraft Foods, Vodafone, L’Oréal, Ernst & Young, Microsoft, or Ericsson. The event agenda consisted of various video presentations: kariera gave practical career hints, e.g. how to apply for a job using social media or how to prepare for a job interview, and the exhibitors presented videos about their company in general, and specifically about career opportunities. All these video presentations have been followed by group chats in which all participants could ask questions to company representatives. There were also two virtual show-floors in which participants could visit the exhibitors’ booths. Here, they could get additional information about the respective company and its current job offers. Furthermore, they could ask questions in private chats and directly apply for open positions. All participants have been very happy about such an innovative career fair, especially during the current economic crisis in Greece. We are proud that we have been an important part of this huge success!
- Clara
BASF Virtual Career Day
08/26/2011. BASF, the world’s leading chemical company, organized a virtual career fair on our platform. More than 900 participants from all over the world (e.g. from Germany, USA, Brazil, China and Southeast Asia) have participated in this virtual career day. BASF received throughout positive feedback. Dr. Jörg Leuninger, chief of BASF’s European Recruiting, comments on this success: "With our virtual career day we gave people from all over the world the possibility to inform themselves about the company and our business culture. This is supported by personal interaction with our employees which works brilliantly on the ubivent platform. A convenient side effect is that we could save expenses." The virtual career day also created a lot of buzz in both regional and nation-wide newspapers. Furthermore, the ubivent solution for virtual recruiting days was awarded at CeBIT as one of the three most innovative products of the year 2011 in the HR category (see our blog post from March to read more about this award). Due to this huge success we have published a case study jointly with BASF. You can read it here: Virtuelle Karrieremesse der BASF (in German).
- Clara
Success Story with GCB
07/05/2011. The German Convention Bureau (GCB) and the European Association of Event Centres have jointly organized the greenmeetings and events conference. The event featured top speakers from business, politics and science. Attendees from all segments of the industry discussed the importance of sustainability for the German meeting and convention business for three days: during two days in a physical convention center and during a one-day virtual event on ubivent's platform. Keynote speakers have been Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker and Jürgen Trittin, parliamentary group leader of the German Green party and former environment minister. Matthias Schultze, GCB's Managing Director, confirms that the idea of combining a physical with a virtual conference has been very successful: "We have not only been able to broaden the reach of the event. Also attendees of the physical conference could get additional value by visiting the virtual event." Have a look at this success story to get more information about this project and its achievements: Virtuelle “greenmeetings und events” Konferenz mit Top-Speakern aus Praxis, Politik und Wissenschaft (in German).
- Michael
Success Story with Polarion Software
05/04/2011. Polarion Software has hundreds of Fortune 1000 customers and over 750,000 users world-wide who rely daily on Polarion’s ALM, Requirements, and Track & Wiki software products. To reach and interact with these customers and users, Polarion uses the ubivent platform for online customer workshops. Frank Schroeder, CEO of Polarion Software, is happy to reach his customers world-wide and to generate leads in a very effective way: "With ubivent we can complement our physical events to reach a good deal more of interesting participants." Read the complete success story to get further insights and statements by Polarion: Online Workshops der Polarion Software GmbH (in German).
- Michael
Success Story with BASF
03/24/2011. BASF has decided to augment its global IS Summit with a virtual component. The physical event brought together IT professionals from all over the world in Frankenthal, near the BASF headquarters. Shortly after the event keynotes, workshop results, street interviews, and other materials were available on the ubivent virtual event platform. This virtual event lasted for three months and has been open for the entire BASF IT community. So especially people whose tough schedule did not allow them to participate in person were able to catch up with their collegues at their own time and pace. Read the complete success story here: Virtueller BASF IS Summit (in German).
- Jens
Innovation award at CeBIT 2011 for ubivent
03/04/2011. At CeBIT 2011 the ubivent solution "virtual career day" has been selected by the German "Inititiave Mittelstand" as one of the three most innovative products of the year 2011 in the category "HR". Furthermore, our solution was also awarded as one of the three most innovative IT services of the federal state Baden-Württemberg. We are very happy and proud that we have been successful in this prestegious competition with more than 2.000 other IT services and products. The main criterias for this award are both a high degree of innovation and a clear business value especially for small- and mid-sized companies.
- Michael
Success Story with Social Media Akademie
02/18/2011. The Social Media Akademie (SMA) is the biggest online academy for social media professionals in German speaking countries. Its curriculum consists of a large variety of different social media lectures: beginners' courses, but also advanced training courses and individual corporate programs. The SMA completely relies on ubivent technology since mid 2010 and primarily uses our online lecture module with integrated chat possibility. This fosters the interaction among participants and lecturers. Here is a report with some project insights of SMA representatives: Online-Schulungen der Social Media Akademie (in German).
- Michael
komma fachmesse
01/11/2011. We will participate in this year's komma, the fair for communication and marketing which takes place on January 26 and 27 in Munich. On the second conference day, we will give a talk about "Wie real sind virtuelle Events?" ("How real are virtual events?"). Feel free to visit our talk and our booth at the komma. Here is the link to the website: Fachmesse für Kommunikation und Marketing and to our talk: Wie real sind virtuelle Events?. Feel free to come to our booth in Munich and to visit our talk.
- Michael
MEETINGS:review Interview
01/03/2011. MEETINGS:review is the leading global network of the meetings industry. Pete Roythorne, joint editor in chief, spoke with a panel of industry experts about the development of the virtual events market. Our managing director operations, Jens Arndt, was among these experts and talked about how the virtual events industry is maturing: "While in the past the label ‘virtual event’ has been pinned to almost any type of modern online communication, more and more event specialists are gaining a clearer understanding of what exactly a virtual event is – and, equally importantly, what it is not." Jens also gives an outlook for 2011: "The headline for the next 12 months has to be ‘hybrid gaining traction’. Especially in a corporate context where it is an increasingly common approach to set up physical events for a core group of participants [...] Keynote speakers are filmed and will then discuss their opinion in a global chat only hours after the live presentation." You can read the full interview and the opinions of other virtual events experts here: COMING OF AGE: How virtual events have established themselves in 2010.
- Michael
Android Support
10/26/2010. We are proud to officially announce that we are supporting Android devices for our virtual event platform. From now on our innovative features can be accessed directly on any Android device. So participants of virtual events will be able to watch videos, to visit information booths and to interact with other participants with their Android smartphone or tablet PC. We are industry's first virtual event provider to offer this feature. This proves one more time that we are not only offering a reliable and scalable virtual event platform with a stunning design, but that we are also the industry's top innovator.
- Michael
Silicon Valley JavaFX User Group relies on ubivent
07/26/2010. The Silicion Valley JavaFX User Group (SVJUGFX) is a community forum for developers in the San Francisco Bay Area to learn, discuss, and extend the JavaFX platform. The community members meet monthly in person with presentations on JavaFX tutorials, topics, and bleeding edge news. The meetings are always free to attend, and now also available online on the ubivent platform. Here, not only participants from the Bay Area, but from all over the world have the opportunity to watch all the sessions, to comment on them, or just to chat with each other in the platform's lounge. Here is a link to the SVJUGFX home page with all information about the virtual community meetings on the ubivent platform.
- Jens
Mittelstandsprogramm 2010 Award
07/08/2010. We are one of the top prize winners of the the "Mittelstandsprogramm 2010" initiative! Jury of this award is the Council of Innovation with its well-known chairmen Prof. Dr. Peter C. Lockemann (University Professor and holder of the German Federal Cross of Merit), Mr. Michael Louis (Germany's Entrepreneur of the Year 2004) and Mr. Kurt Sibold (Board member of BITKOM - the Federal Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media). Prizes are awarded to innovative products and services which are deemed to strengthen the competitive edge of small and midsized companies. We are very proud to be one the top prize winners of this initiative!
- Michael
Success Story with the German Chambers of Industry and Commerce
04/12/2010. The Chambers of Industry and Commerce (IHK) of Baden-Württemberg have selected ubivent as platform for virtual training. Gunther Quidde, who is responsible for E-Government at the IHK Rhein-Neckar, states that the step towards a new and complementing training concept was successfully achieved thanks to ubivent. They could not only reduce travel cost but also enhance the reach of their training sessions. Here is a detailed project report which gives you more information about this concept and its achievements: Virtuelle Schulungen der IHK Rhein-Neckar (in German).
- Michael
ubivent virtual event platform is among the 3 most innovative Internet Services 2010
03/19/2010. The ubivent virtual event platform has been selected by the German "Inititiave Mittelstand" as one of the three most innovative products of 2010 in the category "Internet Services". More than 2.000 products have been evaluated by a jury of well known IT industry veterans and university professors. Main criterias have been a high degree of innovation and a clear value for the customer, especially for small- and mid-sized companies.
- Michael
Success Story with Microsoft
01/11/2010. Microsoft Germany takes new paths with a virtual customer event and has chosen ubivent as virtual event service provider. Microsoft was very satisfied with both the ubivent platform as well as the event itself, as the following statement by Arno Schnelle (Technology Strategist at Microsoft) confirms: „We were able to reach that many customers with minimal effort from our side. We can only recommend both the idea of a virtual event, and ubivent as partner for successfully realizing it.“ Jointly with Microsoft, we have published a success story which gives you further information about this project. You will find it here: Microsoft Germany takes new paths with virtual customer event.
- Michael
Success Story with SAP
12/18/2009. SAP has chosen the ubivent virtual event platform for the first virtual software event at SAP. The project was a huge success, as Reiner Schmitt (Head of SAP’s Global License and Asset Management team) states: “The ubivent guys were of great help for the event. The platform was running really stable in all parts of our global network. For the first time we were able to inform so many employees about software licensing.” We have published a success story together with SAP which gives you further insights into this project. You can download and read it here: The first virtual software event at SAP.
- Michael
Blog Review
12/10/2009. Recently two well-known blogs have reported about our company. Both blog articles base on an interview we gave Dennis Shiao, a virtual event strategist who worked on numerous virtual trade show campaigns for several B2B technology advertisers and other corporate clients. The main topics of this interview have been a short analysis of the focus market for virtual events, the technology platform we are offering, and a comparison of virtual events with immersive virtual worlds. You can access both blog articles via our in the press page.
- Michael
Reviews Interactive Interview
12/02/2009. Yesterday we've been interviewed by Chhandomay Mandal, Senior Marketing Manager at Sun Microsystems, for "Reviews Interactive". On this platform, development experts blog about their experiences with newest Sun technologies. They share their insight and examples, and thus help other developers better understand these new technologies. Our talk is focusing on how we use JavaFX for the development of our platform. Among others, it covers how we increase our flexibility through JavaFX, how it integrates into the development toolset we use, and how we're planning to leverage it in the future. If you're interested in the talk, you can find it here: JavaFX enables ubivent to develop customized virtual event platform.
- Jens
Most promising young company 2010
11/20/2009. Yesterday the ubivent team has been awarded the prize for the most promising young company in Mannheim. In a tight competition of more than 20 companies which have been carefully pre-selected by different institutions in the Rhein-Neckar area, ubivent has emerged as winner. Especially the innovative ideas and concepts, their professional realization, paired with structured planning and, last but not least, the highly successful launch of the first ubivent product have convinced the professional jury to award ubivent with this prize. Read more here or in our press coverage...
- Jens
Assisting visually impaired people
11/04/2009. Accessibility is a prime concern for software nowadays. Various countries and organizations have passed accessibility laws (section 508) or guidelines that regulate how accessibility for computer software should be achieved. We're also making our platform accessible - mainly by assisting visually impaired people in using our software through a Screen Reader. You can find more details here. We have also published the code as open source. You can access it here.
- Jens
JavaFX Partner
10/12/2009. We are now partnering with JavaFX and are listed in the application and content developers section of the JavaFX Partner page. JavaFX is an innovative software development framework. Through its technical features our virtual event platform is way ahead of the products of our competitors. The flexibility we have in developing on JavaFX guarantees that we keep this competitive advantage.
- Michael
BizSpark Program
08/18/2009. We have joined the Mircosoft BizSpark program. In this program Microsoft provides software, support and visibility to innovative start-up companies. This means we get access to an ecosystem of peers, partners and support resources around the globe.
- Michael
Featured at JFXStudio
07/24/2009. Today we got featured in the JFXStudio blog. JFXStudio is a site specifically for sharing JavaFX creations and to get feedback from the JavaFX community. Our blog entry describes the architecture of the text chat we use in our platform. So if you are intersted in this topic click here and read the full blog entry.
- Michael
Virtual Information Day at the University of Mannheim
07/08/2009. For the last two days we have hosted the virtual information day for the University of Mannheim. We had over 100 concurrent users and the virtual nature of the event brought one huge advantage compared with past information days, which were always physical: People from across the world (Europe, Asia, and America) attended the event - which was obviously not possible in the past. Armin Heinzl, professor and chair holder at the University of Mannheim, concluded "This was the first time we could directly interact with prospective students across Europe and beyond without the need for intense traveling. It helped us to propagate the strengths of our University and especially of our bachelor and master programs in business informatics."
- Jens
EU Sponsorship
06/19/2009. Today, we have received good news! We are one of the selected start-up companies which get support from EXIST, a program of the European Union and the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. This program is designated to support the realization of innovative services. Our idea (click here for more information on virtual events) in combination with our strong scientific background has convinced the jury to grant us funding for the next 12 months!
- Michael