The Best Virtual Event Platforms that Integrate with YouTube

YouTube has become the world’s most visited website as of 2023, with over 4.5 billion global visitors. 

Being the world’s most popular website, it makes sense that YouTube easily integrates with all the best virtual event platforms out there. Embedding live streams into your event with YouTube  is an easy way to broadcast HD video (up to 4K) for an unlimited number of viewers. 

If you’re looking to host a virtual event and need a reliable, intuitive, and popular live streaming option, YouTube Live is an excellent place to start. 

But which virtual event platform works best? 

There are more than 120 virtual event software providers, so choosing between them becomes challenging because whether it’s YouTube, Zoom, or GoToMeeting, they all integrate with the major live streamers.  

The real question becomes what kinds of features do you need from your virtual event platform?  

Since we can’t know exactly what you need, we’ve narrowed down the list to include only virtual event platforms that integrate with YouTube and offer the most effective features. 

Online Event Software Platforms That Feature Easy Integration With Youtube

1. SpotMe

We’re not shy about it. We’re excited about the kind of virtual event platform we’re building at SpotMe. 

SpotMe takes teams beyond the virtual venue to help create a digital space where marketing and sales teams can build an ongoing virtual experience designed to generate demand, capture leads, and start sales conversations. 

With all the core features you need to run a digital conference to a consistent, webinar driven demand generation program, SpotMe’s virtual event platform is intuitive and flexible. 

SpotMe’s YouTube integration makes it simple to stream live sessions and publish directly to your YouTube channel, or queue up pre-recorded videos. 

We highly recommend you ask about SpotMe’s event templates for quick and effective event setup. The platform is feature rich and focused on creating a wide variety of opportunities for your team, attendees, speakers, and sponsors to interact on and off the platform. 

SpotMe adopts a web-page based design similar to social networking sites like Facebook or LinkedIn, where users create profile pages, navigate the conference or community space easily, visit product and/or sponsor landing pages, submit leads, engage content, interact with everyone in social style news feed,, message attendees directly, join breakout sessions, and more. 

Integrating YouTube Live with SpotMe

Once you create a YouTube Live event, copy and paste the URL into SpotMe’s Backstage. The stream will then be accessible on the SpotMe desktop and mobile app for attendees to watch alongside with other content, such as pre-recorded videos.

1. Go to YouTube studio > Create > Go Live > Manage.
2. Click on the ⋮ icon next to the stream you want to embed.
3. Click Get sharable link. This will place a link similar this one into your clipboard:
   https://youtu.be/XL2v0FfSUgc
4. When adding the URL to the stream in Backstage, change the link so it looks like this:
   https://youtube.com/embed/XL2v0FfSUgc
5. As the final step, you would add a link to the stream in a session, feed post, or as a menu item.

2. Whova

Whova is a virtual event platform specializing in creating event apps to allow users to easily attend events from their smartphone. Whova is popular for hosting trade shows, conferences, conventions, expos, etc. 

What sets Whova apart from other virtual event platforms is that it’s primarily mobile-oriented. However, Whova can also be used from a desktop.

Whova offers many features commonly found in virtual event platforms, such as session streaming, live replay, virtual booths, networking capabilities, and attendee engagement. 

To integrate YouTube Live with Whova, go to the dashboard, go to “Add Live Stream” and copy and paste the live stream URL in the box.

Once added, the stream will be shown on both desktop and mobile apps along with other event info, speaker bios, presentation slides, and other live interaction features.

3. Hopin

Hopin is an all-in-one virtual events platform perfect for hosting full-scale digital conferences, trade shows, conventions, gatherings, and corporate events. Hopin excels at creating massive virtual events, with capabilities of hosting up to 100,000 guests at one time.

Integrating YouTube Live with Hopin

• Go to YouTube’s Studio and press Go Live.
• Embed the URL into Hopin’s Expo Booth.

Note: If you wish to embed a YouTube live stream onto Hopin’s “Stage” area, you will need to stream the video using RTMP streaming.

For additional information, visit Hopin’s tutorial for embedding videos into their platform.

4. Eventzilla

Eventzilla is an event registration and ticketing tool used for various types of events. They also created their own virtual event platform, so you can use Eventzilla as an all-in-one platform. You can send registration pages, sell tickets, and host virtual events on mobile and desktop.

What sets Eventzilla apart from other platforms is it’s 100% free to use if you’re hosting a free event where attendees don’t have to pay. This is a great option for people looking to host small, free events.

Embedding YouTube live streams into Eventzilla’s dashboard is a relatively quick process:

1. Go to your Dashboard. Find Live Stream (Web Casting) and click to turn On.
2. Select your dates.
3. Select “YouTube” from the Live Stream Provider drop down menu.
4. Copy and paste the stream or video ID in the Live Stream ID box.
5. Enter live stream video details such as title and description and additional comments. (This information will be sent out to guests’ emails.)
6. Turn on “Notify attendees about the live stream as soon as they register for the event.”
7. Optional: select additional reminders to be sent out 1 day and/or 1 hour before the start of your stream.

5. Accelevents

Accelevents is an affordable all-in-one virtual event platform known for its ease of use as well as 24/7 customer support. It offers a full-service ticketing platform, live chats and polling, virtual vendor booths, breakout sessions, live streaming, and more.

Accelevents allows users to easily copy and paste the YouTube Live URL into their dashboard:

• In the Accelevents admin console, go to Sessions & Speakers.
• Create a session.
• Select “YouTube” from the Stream Provider drop down menu.
• Copy and paste YouTube Live URL in session details.
  • Note: Only copy and paste the extension of the URL. For example, with the following URL: https://www.youtube.com/IDj4JDInDN, only paste IDj4JDInDN

Integrating YouTube Live for Virtual Events

YouTube Live is a great solution for hosts looking for a reliable and free option for embedding live streaming videos into their event platform.

In addition to the HD streaming quality, YouTube Live offers real-time analytics and post-stream analytics so that you can see exactly how many people watched your video, how long they watched, the number of likes, and the number of playbacks.

YouTube Live also automatically archives and uploads your stream once it’s completed, which means your event can gain even more exposure through YouTube search results.

Because YouTube is the world’s second most used search engine, this makes it attractive for those wishing to make their content easily accessible to a wider audience. 

How Do I Host a Virtual Event on Youtube?

YouTube’s live streaming feature has been years in the making. Starting in 2013, live streaming was once only available for verified YouTube channels with 1,000 or more subscribers. Luckily, YouTube changed this requirement. Now any verified account can host a live stream video, with no minimum subscriber requirement.

Note: If you intend to use YouTube’s mobile app for live streaming, you will still need 100 or more subscribers. There is no requirement for live streaming on desktops.

Steps to Verify Your YouTube Account to Start Live Streaming

YouTube Live is free, but your account must be verified and have had no restrictions in the past 90 days.

To verify your account:

1. Create a Google account. You can easily do this by setting up a Gmail account.
2. Create a YouTube account using your Google account.
3. Create a new channel.
4. Verify your channel. You will be asked to provide a phone number for authentication. Once authenticated, your account will be able to upload videos longer than 15 minutes, add custom thumbnails, appeal content ID claims, and most importantly live stream.

How to Start Streaming on Your Verified YouTube Account

Once you’ve verified your YouTube channel, you will need to enable Live Stream for your account. You’ll need 24 hours for this to take effect before you can start live streaming. 

1. Go to YouTube, and click on the Create button in the top right corner. Note: This is the camcorder-shaped icon near your user profile.
2. Click Go Live.
3. After clicking Go Live you will need to wait 24 hours.
4. After 24 hours, you can begin live streaming instantly.

For more information on hosting a successful YouTube live stream, refer to YouTube’s guide here.

 

Use SpotMe and YouTube to Host All Your Virtual and Hybrid Events!

Learn More About Our Top Rated Event Software Platform.

 

View Our Other Lists of Helpful Integrations that Pair with SpotMe and Other Event Platforms

• Event platforms that integrate with Vimeo
• Online event platforms that integrate with Webex
• Online event platforms that integrate with Cvent

Looking for the best event platforms and apps to succeed in 2024?

We suggest reading our article about the 13 corporate event trends that will make your events stand out in 2024 and then checking out the following guides to help you succeed in the upcoming year:

• 13 corporate event trends that will make your events stand out in 2024
• The 25 best conference + mobile event apps for 2024
• The 15 best hybrid event platforms in 2024
• The virtual events platform comparison chart
• The best free event management RFP template for 2024
• The 9 best event platforms for HCP events in 2024
• SpotMe event platform demo