Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2021. Read them in this 13th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
High Demand Industries Will Continue to Mature in 2021
By
Todd Greene, CEO, PubNub
When people made their 2020 resolutions, no
one could have predicted the way that the world would drastically shift. Fueled
by the surge of critical industries such as eLearning, telemedicine, and
streaming events from concerts to church services, this new virtual requirement
kept the nation as we knew it churning forward. As a real-time communication
platform used by these types of services, PubNub has seen significant growth as
a result of COVID and the resulting quarantine orders world-wide. As companies
have increasingly had to shift to operating virtually, our customers have seen
an increased demand for services like virtual live events, telemedicine,
gaming, and eLearning industries.
Looking at the initial usage surges for
various industries in early 2020, these tools and services will continue to
grow and evolve in features next year:
eLearning - Educators proved they can successfully educate students remotely and
that the quality of learning doesn't suffer by moving from in-person
instruction to a virtual classroom. 2021 will see more tools that facilitate
learning, in and out of the classroom, including virtual whiteboards, live webcasts,
slideshows, live quizzes and instant feedback/grading. We'll start seeing more
schools with a "remote-first" mindset, teaching students around the world
through an at-home internet connection. ELearning will continue to play a
critical role as part of a normal curriculum, as online chat, real-time quizzes
and feedback, and interactive whiteboards for student projects continue to be
beneficial.
Telemedicine - With both patients and staff not wanting to risk in-person office
visits, virtual provider appointments became crucial for consultations,
checkups, and prescriptions- not just for large facilities and hospitals, but
also for family care providers. Using the new tools available, doctors and
healthcare providers can go beyond just video calls and offer HIPAA secure
real-time chat, document and medical record sharing, and simple scheduling for
patients. With the many telehealth focused apps emerging and establishing, we
foresee that telehealth will remain at the frontlines of healthcare as the
first touch point for routine checkups as well as acute symptom checking.
Telemedicine offers the utmost convenience, so patients are no longer forced to
take time out of their day to travel to and from in-person appointments for
simple check-ups, such as prescription refills or mild cold and flu symptoms.
Live
Events - While events are all about the experience of
meeting and seeing other people, the world is finding that corporate events can
still be valuable as virtual events, and even concerts can maintain their
allure with interactive features such as live chat with other fans. When
possible, demand for virtual sporting events and musical concerts and festivals
will decrease when in-person events are possible again, however the corporate
world will continue to explore the time and money saving route of virtual
conferences going forward. For large venues, virtual events will also continue
as part of the ticket sales process, where attendees can get access to keynotes
and sessions either live or on-demand for a discount. As more live events seek
to develop immersive, virtual experiences for audiences in this new remote era,
platforms must provide a wealth of interactive capabilities such as live
chat, adding reactions, polls,
leaderboards, and other social features that allow audiences to participate in
real time, and scale y to support millions of concurrent users.
Technologies that power remote-first
experiences and communication will remain an ingrained part of our everyday
lives in 2021.While the exponential growth will likely not continue, usage for
these valuable services as we continue to see that virtual experiences and
interactions can often be just as rewarding and impactful as in-person ones.
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About the Author
Todd is the CEO and co-founder of PubNub, a
real-time communication platform. As an entrepreneur who has founded and
successfully sold companies across the software spectrum, Todd helps shape the
PubNub vision of revolutionizing the way people interact online.