Insights

Since first being labeled a global pandemic by the World Health Organization in March of 2020, COVID-19 has continued to affect peoples’ daily lives around the world. Social distancing, quarantines, and lockdown measures have forced businesses to reimagine the ways in which they can serve their customers while also ensuring a safe work environment for their own employees.

One of the biggest challenges that the pandemic has posed is the hindered ability to connect with loved ones, close friends, and colleagues, especially in a time when communication is critical for retaining some sense of normalcy and assurance.

When the pandemic hit, our team at Webfitters felt an overwhelming need to extend a helping hand and create an innovative solution that could benefit as many businesses and people as possible. We created the ‘Your Event Stream’ to allow continued service despite the physical restrictions a mandated lockdown imposed.

Now, we are being recognized for our creative response to the pandemic’s many challenges and look forward to the new opportunities this award will bring us.

About the award
To recognize Wisconsin companies for their contributions and creative responses in finding ways to help people in the midst of a pandemic, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) created the ‘We’re All Innovating Contest’. Their goal was to:

“recognize and promote the creative ways startups and small business are adapting to the challenges of the pandemic”

WEDC’s contest consisted of three major categories: (1) Technology innovation to address COVID-19 impacts on health. (2) Technology innovation to address COVID-19 impacts on businesses. (3) Service and business operation innovations to respond to COVID-19 disruption.

The judges panel consisted of 182 volunteer judges who worked to evaluate more than 1,220 businesses. A total of $3 million was available in funding and after the judges made their final decisions, 231 Wisconsin businesses were chosen to receive a share of that prize.

Webfitters is proud to be one of the recipients in the ‘service and business operation innovations to respond to COVID-19 disruption’ category. Our team is grateful to be recognized alongside other companies doing amazing work to confront the adversities we face.

About the Your Event Stream (YES)
Webfitter’s Your Event Stream (YES) allows users to stream live events in lieu of a physical presence. This has created opportunities for small businesses to remain operational and still connect with their audiences when it matters most.

Take for example Jones Funeral Service- when Wisconsin went into lockdown, they were still able to host live stream services so friends and family could say good-bye to a loved one. With features like downloadable and shareable recorded videos, comments via text, and passworded-protected events, YES allows businesses to create a secure, yet intimate way of engaging with their audience.

Our streaming service provides the foundation for virtual interactions and without it, many small businesses would struggle to engage with their consumers and stay afloat in times of such uncertainty.

The funding we received will help our team optimize existing features and develop new technologies within the platform. Our prize money will also be utilized in efforts to strengthen our marketing of Your Event Stream so we can help more small businesses learn about the benefits that the platform provides.

We are very honored and humbled to be a recipient of the WEDC’s award and look forward to further advancing the connectivity capabilities and communication solutions that Your Event Stream offers.

To read more about the contest check out We Are Green Bay’s press release or to see a full list of winners, visit WEDC’s contest winners.