Otter.ai launches virtual events collaboration service

Otter.ai announced today the launch of Otter for Events - a new collaboration service that completely changes the virtual and offline events experience for organisers and audiences alike. With Otter Live Notes’ AI technology fully capturing event conversations and turning them into highly accurate interactive, collaborative transcripts in real-time, this offering provides a wealth of previously untapped benefits and value. It is targeted at any organisation hosting a virtual, live, or in-person event - no matter the audience size.

A new experience benefitting organizers and attendees

Organisers and hosts can now create a new hub of rich, shareable content, from every type of event including Zoom Video Webinars, as well as simultaneous sessions in multi-track virtual or in-person events. 

Using the public and private groups feature of Otter for Events, organizers can share highlighted summaries and full speaker transcripts with their audiences, extending the overall reach and longevity of an event. Critically, this feature also boosts audience engagement to include those unable to attend - an attractive selling point for event sponsors. Overall, event organizers gain a distinctive technology proposition to differentiate their events, at a time when there has never been as many.

Meanwhile, time-pressed audiences, especially those juggling their everyday distractions while working from home, no longer need to worry about missing an important part of any event or feeling left out. Attendees can engage with events, on their terms, thanks to the ability to highlight and comment in real-time, as well as “rewind” or keyword search. With these functions, attendees can easily find the sections of conversations and information that interests them the most. 

Zoom Video Webinars

  • Otter.ai understands this rapid need for organizations to host their own webinars which is why Otter for Events is now included as a feature for Otter for Teams customers, at no additional cost. 
  • Otter for Events is a simple self-service, turnkey offering, which does not require any deep technical knowhow to set up or use. 

Live or in-person events

  • A premium version of Otter for Events is available for much larger enterprise-level virtual or in-person events. 
  • This white glove service was recently used for the transatlantic New York-New Belfast Conference 2020 hosted by Aisling Events. 
  • Otter for Events will also be used for an upcoming event at The Big Irish American Campfire, where the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins will speak.

“Otter for Events was a key part of the success of this event as it really gave us a distinctive proposition and a professional edge,” said Mairtin O'Muilleoir, founder of Aisling Events. “The benefits are clear to us as we were able to boost engagement with attendees, extend the reach of our sponsors and we also have access to really rich, valuable content in the form of Otter.ai’s accurate transcriptions during and after the conference. Otter.ai adds a new dimension to events that will transcend when we can all gather again face-to-face.”

Otter for Events - features: 

  • Public and private group: With this feature, organizers can create a branded one-stop-shop hub of recordings and content for their event that can be shared both during or after the event.
  • Zoom Webinars: Otter for Teams subscribers will be able to launch Otter Live Notes directly from the Zoom webinar.
  • Live transcription: Event hosts can transcribe multiple sessions at once, enabling attendees to access Otter Live Notes from all sessions.
  • Live collaboration: Attendees can view a live interactive transcript and can raise questions during an ongoing virtual event or webinar - boosting audience engagement.
  • Embedded Otter.ai player: Otter.ai’s embedded player means virtual event organizers can share a live stream of a transcript as it is captured in real-time, increasing  accessibility.

Otter.ai has also partnered with large organizations for live in-person events, including TechCrunch who previously used Otter Live Notes for their global conferences.

“The relationship with Otter.ai evolved from the success of using it at our in-person Disrupt events to now using the new Otter for Events for all of our virtual events,” said Travis Bernard, Senior Director, Membership, of TechCrunch. “We’ve found this new offering to be extremely valuable for two reasons. Firstly, our journalists can use Otter.ai to capture accurate notes from our events, enabling them to produce really high-quality content, without the worry of missing a key comment. Secondly, our attendees can easily search Otter.ai’s transcripts for what they’re most interested in post-event - that is a really powerful engagement tool.”

“More and more organizations are shifting their attention to webinars or online events in response to COVID-19, creating a significant challenge in capturing accurate transcripts of huge amounts of audio and video content,” said Sam Liang, CEO, and founder of Otter.ai. “Yet such events are also centrally built around providing learnings. Otter.ai’s collaboration service enables organizations to generate transcripts, highlight critical insights that can be shared easily and quickly with event attendees, and boost sponsor revenue with posted transcripts that expand reach through sharing and SEO as Google crawls the web.”