This week, as we celebrate our 8th birthday, we’ve reached a milestone of one million participants using Slido in a single week. We’d like to say thanks to all of you – one million times.
This milestone comes to us in a time of great transformation, and even greater challenges.
Millions of people have had to switch to remote work overnight. Online meetings have practically become the new normal.
We have turned to video conferencing platforms such as Zoom and Google Meet, which have literally saved our lives and kept the world and our companies running.
During our virtual encounters, engagement and interaction are absolutely critical for creating meaningful conversations and staying connected in and across teams.
This very goal has been Slido’s mission from day one.
We started Slido to help people get the most out of their meetings by enabling a true dialogue between the presenter and the participants.
In this radical shift to a (largely) virtual world, Slido has become the go-to platform to create meaningful engagement during remote meetings for many companies around the world.
“We love Slido at Zapier. We’re a 100% remote company and we use Slido during our weekly all-hands meetings to make sure that every team member gets a voice, no matter where they are or what they want to discuss.”
Wade Foster
Co-founder & CEO at Zapier
This surging demand for better interaction during remote meetings has resulted in our growth to one million weekly participants.
Here are some interesting facts from the past couple of weeks:
1. Growth driven mainly by smaller team meetings
Our overall growth was accelerated by the increase in the number of smaller team meetings. When compared year over year, we saw small team meetings go up by a whopping 440% YoY surge (April 2019 vs April 2020).
2. Live polls are on the rise
Lacking physical feedback, business leaders, and presenters use live polls to engage their team members on a more personal level, run quick pulse checks, and get instant feedback from their colleagues.
All to break down virtual barriers, bring people closer together and enable a better dialogue when joining the meeting remotely.
As a result, live polls and quizzes have witnessed an unprecedented spike in popularity.
Our newest feature, Quizzes, skyrocketed by about 700% since the beginning of the year, helping teams bring a friendly competitive element to their meetings.
“At Transport for London, we use Slido to virtually bring together and engage with our employees across London, enabling them to give real-time feedback or take part in polls during meetings and events.”
James Mountford
Digital Communications Manager at TfL
3. Embracing more transparency with open AMA
Following a similar upward trajectory, the Audience Q&A, Slido’s most used feature, has grown significantly since the Coronavirus outbreak started.
All-hands meetings and Q&A sessions have grown by 200% and 300% YoY respectively, as business leaders and public institutions have embraced more transparent communication.
More than ever before, Slido’s Audience Q&A is used to give everyone on the team a voice, and to let them submit any questions or worries that they have on their minds.
As I mentioned in a recent blog post, leaders are now opening to dialogue, even though it means answering tough questions. This is important because otherwise, people will go looking for answers elsewhere. This could result in fear and uncertainty exactly at a time when the whole team needs to row in the same direction.
So instead of avoiding addressing the tougher questions, it’s essential that leaders face the situation head-on, providing clarity in a time of uncertainty.
To wrap things up
Indeed, these are times of uncertainty. At the same time, there’s a major movement happening; an evolution hurried on by the outbreak in the way that people work and engage with one another.
Our vision, as part of this evolution, is a world where (virtual) meetings enable greater connections, facilitate learning and empower people to keep on doing what they are best at now – and also when we come out of this.
