Pivot and Persist: Events discovery startup 10times lets businesses take the virtual FLOOR amid coronavirus
After coronavirus put the brakes on the events industry, Noida-based business events discovery startup 10times speeded up the launch of FLOOR, a virtual platform that helps organisers host large-scale events online with up to one million participants.
The coronavirus pandemic triggered worldwide lockdowns, leading to business shutdowns and battering economies. Even as the world and India begin to unlock and face the new normal, it’s clear that meetings, conferences, and events will never be the same again.
Noida-based business event discovery startup 10times in April launched FLOOR, a virtual event platform to help people host large-scale events online.
Founded in 2014 by Atul Todi and Mayank Chaudhary, 10times allows users to browse through business events and connect with fellow attendees. With FLOOR, 10times competes with online conferencing applications such as Zoom, Skype, Google Meet, and among others.
Atul Todi and Mayank Chaudhary, Co-founders, 10times
Speaking to YourStory, Atul explains that FLOOR has an edge over other existing solutions as it is “designed to give users the experience of being at large-scale events or gatherings such as meetups, trade events, buyer-seller meets, conferences, and summits etc”.
“After having worked with event managing partners for over five years, our partners said there was a need for a platform that would not only help them monetise but also allow them to be flexible and host large-scale events for longer durations. We developed FLOOR, which allows large gatherings with up to a million participants who can be engaged for up to 10 hours continuously,” he says.
Interestingly, the founders had conceptualised FLOOR earlier but accelerated the launch amid the coronavirus-led lockdown as hosting physical events became impossible .
Hosting events at FLOOR
FLOOR allows event organisers to manage, market, and monetise virtual events from one single platform. It works on browsers, eliminating the need for downloads or plug-ins. The platform is also scalable and can host multiple sessions simultaneously, with up to 1 million participants.
Event organisers can create customised floor plans for their audience. They can also add a stage, networking tables in the lounge, VIP rooms, expo booths, and more.
Atul explains that FLOOR offers three formats. Firstly, the ‘stage’, which allows one speaker to engage with an audience group. The speaker stays in charge of who is allowed to participate in the event or session, lets them share documents and presentations, and communicate with the audience via polls and Q&A.
FLOOR also offers a ‘booth’ platform, which allows users to host one-to-one private or closed-door meetings between two parties. The ‘lounge’ platform is a virtual replica of coffee tables at an event and meant for group discussions. Users can book their seats at the table with fellow attendees and participate in group conversations.
Apart from this, FLOOR’s ‘lobby’ feature allows users to take note of who all are participating in the particular event or session and reach out to them for networking over video call.
Business and more
According to the official website, the 10times event search platform is currently used by people in more than 10,000 cities from over 150 countries.
“Since the launch of FLOOR in April, 50 event organisers have already used the virtual event platform. An additional 50 clients have signed up but are yet to use it,” Atul says.
When asked about the business model for FLOOR, the co-founder explains event organisers are charged, depending on the number of attendees or participants. The pricing starts with Rs 100 per attendee for small-scale events.
Speaking about their plans for the future, Atul says the team is currently planning to come up with FLOOR Lite, a free version of the virtual event platform that will allow organisers to host events with around 100 participants every month. Apart from this, 10times also aims to host at least 10 events per day.
“In the long run, the company plans to position FLOOR as the one-stop solution for all event needs,” Atul says.
YourStory’s Pivot and Persist series spotlights Indian startups that are pivoting to seize new business opportunities, transforming their business models and offerings to navigate the current COVID-19 crisis.
(Edited by Teja Lele Desai)