Day: May 19, 2021

Posted on

Zoom Announces Zoom Events Platform for Virtual Experiences

An All-in-One Platform for Producing and Monetizing Interactive Virtual Events and Conferences

SAN JOSE, Calif., May 19, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Zoom Video Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZM) today announced Zoom Events, an all-in-one platform with the power to produce interactive and engaging virtual experiences, available this summer. Zoom Events combines the reliability and scalability of Zoom Meetings, Chat, and Video Webinars in one comprehensive solution for event organizers, with the ability to produce ticketed, live events for internal or external audiences of any size.

Zoom Events offers something for a variety of use cases – from enabling large businesses to seamlessly manage and host internal events like all-hands and sales summits and external events like user conferences, to smaller businesses and entrepreneurs who have been using OnZoom to create, host, and monetize events including fitness and cooking classes, theatrical presentations, and more. As part of the launch of Zoom Events, OnZoom, currently in Beta, will be rebranded and folded into Zoom Events, and can be either private, or searched and explored publicly.

Zoom’s recent global study, How Virtual Do We Want Our Future to Be?, surveyed people worldwide on the role of video communications in our daily lives as we look beyond the pandemic. In the US, 80 percent of respondents agreed that everything will continue to have a virtual element post-pandemic, with 52 percent of US respondents planning to enjoy events both in-person and virtually, reinforcing the need for an all-in-one solution that will create seamless hybrid/virtual event experiences.

Zoom Events Platform Benefits:

  • Build an event hub to easily manage and share events
  • Customizable ticketing and registration
  • Control access and billing from one portal
  • Host a variety of events – free or paid, one-time or series
  • Bring attendees together with integrated networking
  • Track event statistics like attendance, registration, revenue, and more
  • Events can be kept private or posted to our public directory for others to discover
  • Zoom Events can be used with an existing paid Zoom Meetings or Video Webinar license

“It’s an exciting time to be at Zoom where the pace of innovation continues to accelerate,” said Oded Gal, chief product officer at Zoom. “We know that people are looking for flexibility in how they attend events in the future. The hybrid model is here to stay, and Zoom Events is a perfect solution for our customers who are looking to produce and host customer, company, and public events with an easy, yet powerful solution. This is another way we’re helping customers scale to meet consumer demands and the evolving virtual and hybrid landscape.”

To learn more about Zoom Events, please visit Zoom Events website and read our recent blog.

About Zoom
Zoom is for you. We help you express ideas, connect to others, and build toward a future limited only by your imagination. Our frictionless communications platform is the only one that started with video as its foundation, and we have set the standard for innovation ever since. That is why we are an intuitive, scalable, and secure choice for individuals, small businesses, and large enterprises alike. Founded in 2011, Zoom is publicly traded (NASDAQ:ZM) and headquartered in San Jose, California. Visit zoom.com and follow @zoom.

Zoom Public Relations
Farshad Hashmatulla
Product PR Manager
press@zoom.us

Posted on

MEDIA ALERT: Ethiopian novelist and Booker Prize finalist, Maaza Mengiste to deliver 8th Annual Pluralism Lecture

TORONTO, May 19, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) —

WHAT: Maaza Mengiste, award-winning author of The Shadow King, will deliver the 8th Annual Pluralism Lecture via livestream on May 19, 2021, about approaching difficult history in ways that can promote belonging over division.
Co-presented by the Global Centre for Pluralism and the University of British Columbia, this year’s lecture features an introduction by Princess Zahra Aga Khan, Global Centre for Pluralism Board Member, reflecting on how the pandemic has created an urgency for building respect, empathy, and a more equitable, just and prosperous future for all.
WHERE: Livestream can be viewed at: https://www.pluralism.ca/event/maaza-mengiste-8thannual-pluralism-lecture
   
WHEN: Wednesday, May 19, 2021
12:00 p.m. EDT
   
WHO: Ethiopian novelist and 2020 Booker Prize finalist, Maaza Mengiste
   
CONTACT: Calina Ellwand, Manager
Communications and Public Affairs
Global Centre for Pluralism
media@pluralism.ca
+1-613-688-0137
   
OPPORTUNITIES: Audience Q&A with Maaza Mengiste, hosted by Nahlah Ayed (CBC Ideas)
Media may submit questions in advance to media@pluralism.ca
Lecture videos, transcript, and images available upon request

Maaza Mengiste
Maaza Mengiste, a critically acclaimed novelist and essayist, examines the individual lives at stake during migration, war, and exile. She was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and lived in Nigeria and Kenya before moving to the United States. Mengiste’s debut novel, Beneath the Lion’s Gaze (2010), was named one of The Guardian’s 10 Best Contemporary African Books. Her latest novel, The Shadow King (2019), was called “one of the most beautiful novels of the year” by National Public Radio and was a 2020 Booker Prize finalist. Winner of the 2020 Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Mengiste’s honours include the Creative Capital Award, a Fulbright Scholarship, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and Puterbaugh Festival of International Literature & Culture.

Global Centre for Pluralism
The Global Centre for Pluralism, founded by His Highness the Aga Khan and the Government of Canada, works with policy leaders, educators and community builders around the world to amplify and implement the transformative power of pluralism.

University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia is a global centre for research and teaching, consistently ranked among the top 20 public universities in the world. Since 1915, UBC’s entrepreneurial spirit has embraced innovation and challenged the status quo. UBC encourages its students, staff and faculty to challenge convention, lead discovery and explore new ways of learning.

Posted on

Misinformation Clouds Uganda’s Effort to Vaccinate Refugees

YUMBE, NORTHERN UGANDA – Uganda, which hosts nearly 1.5 million refugees and asylum-seekers, began coronavirus vaccinations this week in the camps and settlements. But vaccine hesitancy among refugees poses a challenge.

Ugandan authorities have received 964,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine and inoculated 453,000 people as of May 16.

Now, the government is extending COVID-19 vaccinations to refugees, most of whom are from South Sudan.

In Bidibidi settlement, the vaccination team is first targeting older people, age 50 or higher.

To get them to the clinic, the health team is going to door to door. Moses Lomoro, a village health team member, says face to face interactions helped erase a lot of fears among the elderly.

“After getting a vaccine, some people have a reaction,” he said. “Someone can have a fever and vomiting. So, these rumors have scared some of the community members. And also, other people, they have access to social media and give false information.”

Before the vaccination, health workers carry out a counselling session in which each recipient reads and signs a consent form.

The consent form reads, in part: “As with any vaccine, there is no certainty that I will become immune or that I will not experience any adverse events from the vaccine. I voluntarily assume full responsibility for any events that may result due to vaccination.”

Mary Nyoka, 65, has concerns over the form.

She says, I have pressure, ulcers and malaria. We are already old enough, are they giving us a vaccine to kill us? She says, so, I’m scared, they are making us sign a consent form.

Dr. Charles Onek, a medical officer with the International Rescue Committee says the community has had many fears that have affected the vaccination process.

“People have been wondering, if I get a severe form of reaction and maybe, I succumb to it, or I die. Will I be compensated? So, that answer has never been very clear,” he said. “People are talking that if you receive a COVID vaccine, especially for men, you become impotent. No, this has been a myth and we have always been talking about it.”

In the settlements, the different health centers use what they call, “boda boda talk talk” to pass on messages about coronavirus, which causes the COVID-19 disease.

Balizina Emmy, a clinical officer at Swinga Health Centre III, says they are making progress through these messages.

“It is kind of challenging, because, it has not been happening with other vaccines. This is somehow special. This is a new thing in the vaccination system. We try to talk to them and explain to them the reason as to why they should consent. More so, because of these side effects,” he said.

Ugandan doctors say they will have to reset their messages to show and convince not just refugees, but even locals that any risks associated with the vaccine are minimal compared to getting COVID-19, which carries the risk of death.

Source: Voice of America

Proudly powered by WordPress