As the coronavirus hits big parts of the world outside China, at the China Speakers Bureau we are looking at alternatives in video conferencing. In the past we worked with Google Hangouts, but our mostly conservative event organizers preferred to stick to real life meetings, and we abolished this tool.
But times are changing, and the internal debate at the CSB on exploring video conferences as an alternative for real-life meetings has popped up again. Currently we are looking at two tools: Zoom and Tencent Meetings. Zoom has become fast the preferred choice for many outside China, and we have already good experiences with them. But Tencent Meetings (VooV) is also emerging, and even helping the United Nations in setting up public conferences.
We prefer to use conference meetings that are not fire-walled, like Whatsapp, Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook. Also, it makes sense to adopt systems that have a larger following. That is not the case with Google Hangouts and other (free) services. The stories on Zoom being blocked in China are different, but most people who matter to us will have a VPN. We might also use both services, depending on the audiences.
We have not yet been able to sign up for Tencent’s Voov, but their interface is at least in proper English and we expect their sales force to send us a valid verification tool soon :-).
We are interested in hearing your experiences with both services, and do not mind to explore also other alternatives. If you went us to sign you up for either service with our account, do send us and email, as we prefer not to open public stream yet.
PS: And we are on Voov Meetings too. Main difference with Zoom is the lack of an opportunity to record broadcasts. That could be a reason to focus on Zoom, but will check further on possibly hidden buttons.
