Cisco announces intent to acquire virtual event platform Socio

Technology conglomerate Cisco has announced its intent to acquire Socio, an event platform for virtual, hybrid and in-person events. Socio was founded in 2016 and is based in the US, with an office in Istanbul. It started as an in-person event management solution, and at the onset of the pandemic, the company built a virtual event suite to complement this. The platform’s capabilities for virtual and hybrid events will be rolled into Cisco’s own WebEx platform. Cisco also recently acquired event technology company Slido, adding its live polling and interactive functionality to the WebEx platform. A blog post on the Cisco website, explaining the reasoning behind the intent to purchase, said: “Hybrid events require a fundamentally different product. Event organisers need a solution that enables pre-event capabilities like ticketing, registration, and agenda builders, coupled with in-event features like high-quality webcast, chat and audience participation, and networking. “And once the event is over, event planners want to make sure they stay in touch with attendees, nurture relationships and get insights about event participation. Socio CEO Yarkin Sakucoglu commented: Socio shares Cisco’s sentiment that the future of events, like the future of work, will be hybrid and with that comes increased complexity for event managers to create inclusive, meaningful, and measurable interactions for both virtual and in-person attendees. “Socio offers Webex powerful technology to provide customers with an unparalleled hybrid event management solution to engage participants whether they join in person or virtually.”