Cisco announced the acquisition of U.S.-based Socio Labs, a modern event technology platform for event organizers.
Together with Socio Labs, Cisco will enrich Webex Events beyond meetings, webinars and webcasts to also include large-scale, multi-session hybrid events and conferences. The solution will enable live streaming, sponsorship, networking and advanced analytics – as well as Webex features like polling, Q&A, chat and real-time translation.
“The future of events, like the future of work, will be hybrid,” said Jeetu Patel, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco Security and Collaboration. “Socio Labs offers Webex powerful technology to provide customers with an unparalleled hybrid event management solution to engage participants whether they join in person or virtually.”
The acquisition of Socio Labs complements Cisco’s acquisition of Slido, an industry-leading audience engagement tool, which together will create a cost-effective event management solution.
Yarkin Sakucoglu, Socio Labs co-founder and CEO, said: “Teaming up with Cisco gives us an amazing opportunity to apply our technology and expertise at an outstanding scale. We look forward to finding new ways to support the recovery and transition of the events industry.”
The acquisition is expected to close in Cisco’s Q4 fiscal year 2021.
Socio Labs team will join the Webex Customer Experience team led by Omar Tawakol, vice president and general manager, reporting into the Security & Collaboration Group led by Jeetu Patel, senior vice president and general manager.