Dryfta vs. Zoom Events & Webinars

I can't provide a scenario where Dryfta could be well suited. I guess it's a matter of delivering what has been promised on time, and without having to invest thousands of hours in extra work, as it was in our case. If it worked properly it could be a good tool for any conference.

Zoom is well-suited for all companies. The functionality can range from basic to supercharged with all the bells and whistles; it is just a matter of what package level works best for you and your company. Having used multiple iterations of Zoom, it really relies on you and your company’s use case.

Incentivized

• It has a lot of functionalities (website and administration) all included in the same platform. If it worked properly, it allows you to organise a conference paper-free.
• Help desk responds quite quickly
• They consider making improvements when asked for.
• It’s not too expensive.

• Zoom calendar integration is a great way to see what calls are upcoming
• Ease of use for screen sharing and video call settings
• Zoom Workplace is reliable at blocking out external noise that should be muted from actual conversation taking place in calls

Incentivized

• Multilingual issues. Although it is advertised as multilingual, it didn’t really work as such. The many issues that popped up throughout the conference preparation were fixed little by little at a cost in time, from help desk emails and to struggles with the unfriendly UX.
• Admin pages reloaded every time you clicked on a button (their developers seem to ignore Ajax technologies). It was time-consuming and required constant page searches.
• Inflexibility in many of the supposed functionalities it offers.
• Certificates were not modifiable nor custom when we had to send them (it was solved months after the conference finished when we were surprisingly contacted by the help desk).
• Problems with the size of images to be displayed on the site, very small fonts and limited options to display content. We had to hire a professional developer in order to get a graphically consistent and presentable website.
• Very poor mobile version. Too big margins, unreadable text, endless text blocks and lists, distorted pictures, etc.
• Issues with the ordering of the authors’ names for different proposals (authorship being so important in research).
• Fixed, inflexible fields in the contact sheets, speakers info, and so on.
• Special character issues (due to Latin characters and other types used in linguistic research).
• Not being able to include links in the HTML editor due to Dryfta's inadvertent decisions to block them.
• Only one Superadmin user allowed to access the full functionalities of the platform, so we had to share it (consequently not knowing who did each action).
• Problems with the generation of reports and the high complexity of their interface.
• Some issues on the mandatory anonymity. The double-blind review process not fully respected due to unclear user info and options, with other issues coming up on the go such as unwanted info in automated notifications and messages in the Welcome dashboard.
• Not being able to use the other payment methods on the platform because they were incompatible with the conference country.
• Missing information and time wasted when creating events for sessions with info that already existed in the server that randomly failed to be selected. These issues were reported even with video proofs (help desk didn’t believe us), and were never solved. We had to repeat the same processes again and again, never knowing what was going on

• I wish there were more polling options available in Zoom in general, and this extends to both webinar polling and post-webinar surveys. Could certainly do with a more robust polling feature set.
• Setting up Registration for Zoom webinars can be very tricky, and I usually advise against webinar registration. The fact that users have to manually download an .ics to add it to their O365 calendars after registering means lots of issues with users attempting to join after registering early.
• I would have complained about lack of breakout rooms for webinars, or the fact that the practice room can't be turned back on after it was turned off, but Zoom recently implemented webinar breakout rooms plus the Backstage feature, so both of these common complaints are now fully addressed!

Incentivized

We will be renewing with Zoom as long as it continues to meet our needs for client and lead outreach needs in a robust manner. With little error and an easy to use interface, Zoom has met our needs and exceeded our expectations. The cost is right and with a short learning curve, Zoom has been an easy decision to make and maintain.

Incentivized

Zoom Events is complex, but gets "almost easy" with experience and good guidance. I tell people, "Hosting a meeting is like driving a car; hosting a webinar is like driving an 18-wheeler; and hosting a Zoom Event is like flying a commercial airliner." You need experience, training, and ongoing guidance to be good at Zoom Events. Zoom has staff that knows everything there is to know about Zoom Events, but finding them and reaching them isn't easy. There aren't many consultants out there that are affordable and experienced.

Incentivized

It was quick, that's all we can say. Quite a few times they sorted out the problems and issues. But, sadly, sometimes their answers were useless and irritating (not addressing the problem or simply ignoring it, "passing the buck"). In some cases, they pretended the problem didn't exist and we had to send them videos as proof. No response to that.

Zoom [Video Webinar] has online web portal where user can take control of the meetings and their settings. It provides details of all the meeting happened and also provides participants list. It has support for webinars and recording also. Zoom [Video Webinar] gave special cloud permissions for paid users also from web portal and that can help in saving disk space.

Implementation was very feasible during our initial usage of the Zoom after COVID-19.

Incentivized

Zoom Workplace stacks up better than Microsoft Teams in terms of general meeting capabilities, webinar and live event capabilities, user experience, and how slick it is generally - it's a nicer environment where things feel more intuitive and professional. Teams is laggy and slow, feels outdated. Google Meet doesn't have as many filtering options and nuanced capabilities. Zoom integrates well with a wider tech stack.

Incentivized

• The overall performance was okay in the end, but it was due to our team's commitment and effort. Without that extra work, the results would have been awful.

• Being able to quickly set up and run webinars for our teammates using the templates saves us time which equals money.
• Using our saved Webinar templates ensures we are keeping on brand and adding the items requested by our legal and branding teams which saves time and frustration for all involved.
• Webinars allow us to upskill our teammates faster without having to create a stand alone training. We can invite them to a hot topic webinar where they can learn, ask questions, and immediately take action on the topic.

Incentivized