Best Video-Conferencing for Online Meetups
Organise an online meetup in a virtual space on flat.social today. Get started in minutes!
What is a meet-up?
Meet-ups are social get togethers where participants with similar interests gather to discuss suggested topics. Meet-ups range from completely unstructured gatherings to events with talks, presentations and an agenda. They are often cyclic - some meet-ups might for example happen every month or week.
What is an online meet-up?
Online meet-ups are social get-togethers that happen online. Just like with a meet-up that happens in a physical space, participants with similar goals and interests gather to network and discuss topics that they are interested in.
Nevertheless, an online meet-up is ruled by different dynamics. Organizers of an online meet-up need to select the platform where they are going to promote it as well as the video-conferencing tools that will be used to host it.
If you’re using a tool like ZOOM for your online meet-ups, impromptu connections between guests happen very rarely. It’s hard to meet someone new when you’re both embedded into a meeting that has 20 participants and someone is giving a presentation. Networking was so much easier in a physical meet-up space because… it was physical. You could simply walk up to someone to start a conversation. With modern video-conferencing solutions, that simple experience becomes a challenge.
flat.social: Best Tool For Online Meet-ups
How to create the perfect environment online for an online meet-up that will allow event guests to create connections between each other?
The answer is simple - create a virtual office on flat.social where your online event guests will be able to hang out and chat like they would be in a physical location together.
flat.social allows your remote team to brainstorm, connect and collaborate in a fun virtual workspace that replicates the communicational dynamics of a physical event venue. At the core, every participant can move around and talk with others in proximity.
Creating your first virtual workspace is really simple - you only need to create a permanent space (takes less than minute) and add the link to your event.
1. Sign up for free & create a virtual space on flat.social
2. Customise the space and brand it with your team’s logo
3. Add the link to the calendar invites. The link to a flat is permanent and never changes which makes it easier to join in.
4. If you wish, connect the virtual space with your Slack workspace and set up recurring reminders that will notify your team about any events and meetings that you would like to organise in the space.
What are the benefits of online meet-ups?
Networking with people from around the world
Physical meet-ups are limited by physical location. If you’re attending an event in London for example, all of the other participants will be only the ones who happen to be in London at the same time too! How limiting.
Online meet-ups don’t have this problem. You might meet new people who are currently located on the other side of the world. It becomes even more crucial when your meet-up is domain specific and you would like increase the search radius for speakers and guests.
More guests
Yet again, your online guests are not limited by physical location and your meet-up goes global. This means that people from all over the world can join up given that they have a good internet connection and communication is not an issue. It’s a simple heuristic - there is much more people in the entire world than ones living within an easily commutable distance from your event location.
No need to travel
Travelling takes time, money and is most often unnecessary. Guests of an online event, organisers and presenters don’t need to waste time on travel.
Reduced costs and expenses
Renting a physical venue and travel costs can pile up quickly when organising a meet-up that happens in a physical location. Moving your meet-up into the virtual will not only reduce the costs but also open it to people who wouldn’t be able to travel.
Movement and Interaction
With flat.social participants are not chained to a grid of tiny squares like they would in a classic videoconference. Instead, they can move around the rooms like they would in any multiplayer game.
Learn more about movement & interaction
Rooms & Activities
Your new virtual spaces can consist of multiple different types of rooms. Each room can be different - a mini-game, activity or something special for your team.
Dependently on the type of room, you will be able to host from 10 to 100 simultaneous guests.
See rooms & activities available
Spatial Media
By default each guest can only hear & see others around. Spatial audio and video allows for more natural and spontaneous conversations that are based on proximity, not on the loudest guests.
Want to speak with someone? Simply fly up!
Learn more about spatial audio & video
Collaborative, real-time whiteboard
Add colorful drawings, images, stickers, sticky notes and much more. Whichever room or activity type you choose, you can use it as a real-time collaborative whiteboard.
Build your own space
Build your own virtual space for your team or event by selecting from many of the available rooms and activities.
Each room is special and can be placed in whichever position you want. Fancy a quick retreat on the beach? Simply add the beach elements into your space :)
Physics 💫
Expression
It's so much more than just a plain video-chat. Guests in a flat.social meeting can express themselves through a variety of virtual gestures and customizations on how they present themselves.
From becoming a godzilla to doing a frog dance, it's all built to be playful and interactive.
Presentations and Screensharing
Engage your guests with interactive presentations and talks by using the spatial screen sharing and broadcasting features! Whether you're giving a talk or want to present something with a real-time video stream, sharing the live screenshare will be an experience that seamlessly integrates into the virtual space.
Frequently asked questions
What are the fun features of flat.social?
From flying around to playing football and doing a frog dance, there is plenty! We built those features to make flat.social the most fun place to organise an event online. Read more features that we built.
Is there a need to install anything?
No need to install anything new. It all runs in the web browser both on desktop and mobile. Safari and Chrome are doing great, Firefox is catching up!
Do you support simultaneous screensharing?
Yep, a number of participants can screenshare at the same time. Those can be positioned next to each other or distributed in various locations around the virtual space.
How much does it cost?
Check out thepricing page to see free and pro plans available.
Can I use it as an alternative to ZOOM or Microsoft Teams?
Sure, if all you do is fun and creative meetings! (we sincerly hope so:)
Over the past 3 years we learned that while ZOOM and Microsoft teams are amazing tools to keep you productive, they're not optimized to to keep a group of people connected, engaged and happy.
Hence, flat.social was created. It does not aim to be a complete replacement - it's an addition for when the priorities switch from productivity to human interaction. It's here to bring smile and show that spontanous creative moments and connections can happen without having to travel to an office or an event venue.
How do participants move in a flat.social meeting?
Meeting attendees can use WASD keys like in multi-player games or drag themselves around with a mouse.
How do I speak to all of the guests at once?
The experience is spatial by default - only ones around will hear you. You can however use the loudspeaker feature to speak to everyone at once. It's useful if you want to make an announcement or managing a larger workshop where attendees are distributed around the room.
