Custom
V-Suite Premier
A fully custom event site, designed around the client’s brand, agenda and sponsors.
Welcome, VES Live visitors. veslive.com has retired, and everything it did now lives here at Future View.
VES Live · 2020 to 2022
When the stages went dark,
we built new ones.
In the spring of 2020, every event on our calendar disappeared. Within weeks our team had turned its stage, studio and engineering experience into VES Live, a virtual and hybrid event platform. Over the next two years we produced hundreds of events online and kept more than 150 people working.
VES Live and veslive.com are now part of Future View Productions.
By the numbers
Two years, told in four numbers.
- People kept working
- 150+Staff, freelance crew and partners
- Virtual & hybrid events
- HundredsFor clients across the country
- Audience per event
- 500 to 150,000+Live attendees supported
- First custom event site
- April 2020Weeks after the shutdown began
The story
From a blank calendar to a new way of producing events.
- March 2020
The calendar went blank.
Conferences, galas, summits and board meetings were postponed or cancelled in the same few weeks. A live event company with a warehouse full of gear and a crew of specialists had nothing on the schedule.
- April 2020
We launched the first custom event site.
Future View and a circle of DC-area production partners formed VES Live. We approached virtual events as producers, not software vendors: the stream was the show and the website was the venue.
- 2020
A platform took shape.
Client by client, we built the V-Suite family of event sites, a permanent remote production studio, a virtual backstage for speakers, a 3D expo hall for sponsors and Virtual Tables for networking.
- 2021
The hybrids arrived.
Audiences started coming back in part. We mixed virtual keynotes with live panels, mirrored agendas for the room and the stream, and built the U.S. Department of Education’s Live Virtual Conference Center.
- 2022
Back in the room, but changed.
Associations and conferences, including Devex World, returned to in-person events and kept the remote speakers, captioning, interpretation and online audiences that virtual had made possible.
- Today
It is part of every show.
VES Live has retired as a brand. The people, the tools and the habits it taught us are now simply how Future View produces webcasts and hybrid events.
What we built
V-Suite: event sites built by producers.
Every V-Suite site was designed to do one thing well: keep attendees looking at the program and connected to each other. Four versions covered everything from a one-day webinar to a multi-week global conference.
Rapid build
V-Suite Lite
Branded templates our web team could launch in days, with room for custom design and integrations.
Client managed
V-Suite Solo
A web app the client could run themselves, with session management, registration and attendee administration built in.
Connected
V-Suite Integrations
Hooks into the tools clients already used, including Cvent, Aventri, Marketo, Google Analytics and custom APIs.
Remote Event Hub
A full broadcast studio, permanently set up.
Instead of rebuilding a control room on site for every show, we kept one running. Remote and on-site feeds came in, and a finished program went out.
- Up to six simultaneous panelist windows
- A dedicated ASL window and optional open captions
- Branded backgrounds, still and animated graphics, lower thirds
- Remote slide control for presenters anywhere
3D Expo Hall
A trade show floor sponsors could actually walk.
A visually rich 3D environment with custom booths, so exhibitors kept their presence and attendees had a reason to visit.
- Branded booth walls and signage
- Video chat, badge scans and downloads at each booth
- Could be added to any V-Suite site
Virtual Tables
Sitting at a table together, from home.
A small-group video call ran side by side with the program, so guests could watch a gala or keynote with their tablemates, the way they would in a ballroom.
- Find a table, join a table, move between tables
- Polls, Q&A and chat in the same panel
AutoPilot
A website that knows what time it is.
With AutoPilot, the event page rearranged itself around the program at the right moment: the live stream came forward when a session started, and the next session took its place when it ended. No clicking, no hunting for links.
Best-in-class features
Live
Keynotes
Panels
Breakouts
Registration
Custom email
Resources
Badge scan
Galas
Fundraisers
Analytics
Security
Support
Integrated Q&ALive pollingAudience chatTiered ticketingConcurrent sessionsVirtual green roomOn-demand archiveLive social clip sharingPair-bonded cellular and satellite uplinks
Selected work
Federal stages, global conferences, the boardroom.
U.S. Department of Education
A Live Virtual Conference Center for the Department’s public events, with upcoming and archived sessions in one place and login where an event required it. We also produced the 2021 International Summit on the Teaching Profession, combining a live head table, remote ministers and speakers, and an ASL interpreter on every feed.
Hybrid board meetings for a national foundation
A robotic camera system that let executives around a real table meet, present and talk with remote members as if everyone were in the room. In-person attendees always saw the remote gallery, and everyone got the same switched program.
Devex World 2022 at Arena Stage
Two main auditoriums, a content studio and two Flash Talk stages, all with remote presenters, webcasting, live closed captioning and French and Spanish interpretation. It is still one of our featured case studies.
Who we served
Every kind of event moved online with us.
Agencies, associations, foundations, theaters and companies across the country trusted us with the meetings that could not be cancelled.
Medical & scientific societies
Annual meetings, global symposia, abstract sessions and health policy summits.
Associations & professional bodies
Conventions, conferences with virtual expos, awards programs and leadership institutes.
Government & education
Federal public events, international summits, and state education and school leadership conferences.
Foundations & nonprofits
Galas, fundraisers, luncheons, policy forums and hybrid board meetings.
Arts & culture
Theater galas, performing arts benefits and festival weekends, staged for audiences at home.
Corporate
Leadership conferences, national sales meetings, product launches and client forums.
What we learned
Six lessons from the shutdown that we still use on every show.
Virtual events were a crash course in what audiences actually pay attention to. When people came back to the room, we kept what worked.
The stream is its own show.
Online viewers need more than a wide shot of the stage. They need their own camera plan, graphics, audio mix and someone talking to them.
Today: every hybrid event gets a dedicated program for remote viewers.The best speaker may not be in the room.
Clients discovered they could book keynotes and panelists who would never travel. That stayed true after the doors reopened.
Today: remote keynotes and mixed live and remote panels are standard tools.Accessibility belongs in the run of show.
ASL windows, captions and live interpretation were built into our virtual stages from the start, not added at the end.
Today: we plan them with the agenda, for the room and the stream.A website is a venue.
AutoPilot taught us that attendees go where you point them. Give them one clear place to look and one clear next step.
Today: event sites and screens are designed like rooms, not brochures.Rehearse the people, not just the gear.
Remote presenters needed coaching, a camera check and a calm stage manager on the call. That is what made the shows feel easy.
Today: a virtual stage manager and green room run alongside the live one.Measure everything.
Session analytics within 24 hours showed clients exactly what held attention and what did not, and shaped the next event.
Today: live, stream and replay numbers are part of the wrap report.The people
150+people kept working through the shutdown, when most of our industry could not.
The real product of VES Live was the team. Live event specialists learned to produce for a camera and a browser, and the crew stayed together for the day the doors reopened.
- Producers & stage managersRunning shows from the studio and from home
- Broadcast engineersSwitching, streaming and remote feeds
- Camera, audio & lighting crewsOn site and in the Remote Event Hub
- Web developers & designersBuilding a new event site every week
- Graphics & motion designersBranded stages, lower thirds and openers
- Freelancers & partner companiesAcross DC and around the country
With thanks to every crew member, freelancer and partner who worked a show with us.
One chapter of fifty years
Reinventing the show is a habit here.
The people who started this company were among the first to bring big screens and multiple cameras into live events, when projectors were heavy, expensive and not very bright. Some of our early technicians built the first interfaces that put computer images on those screens. Later we helped set up private satellite networks for corporate video, then moved into webcasting and custom event websites.
VES Live was the same instinct, under pressure. Since 1976, the job has been to find a way for the show to go on.
FAQ
Questions about VES Live.
What happened to VES Live and veslive.com?
VES Live was the virtual and hybrid event division of Future View Productions, built when live events shut down in 2020. As in-person events returned, its team, tools and clients moved back under the Future View name. veslive.com now points to this page.
Does Future View still produce virtual and hybrid events?
Yes. Webcasting, hybrid events, remote presenters, virtual green rooms, captioning and ASL support are part of our everyday production work, for audiences in the room and online. See our technology section.
What was V-Suite?
V-Suite was the VES Live family of virtual event sites: V-Suite Premier for fully custom builds, V-Suite Lite for rapid template builds, V-Suite Solo as a client-managed web app with session and registration management, and V-Suite Integrations for connecting tools such as Cvent, Aventri, Marketo and Google Analytics.
I worked with VES Live on a past event. Who do I contact now?
Call Future View at 202-882-7400 or use the contact form. Many of the same producers and engineers are still on the team.
Planning an event with an online audience?
Webcast, hybrid or fully remote, we bring the same team and the same playbook that carried hundreds of events through 2020 and 2021.