Tech Review: Zoom

Since many of us started working from home in 2020, Zoom has – quite simply – boomed. Best known for its video conferencing feature, the tool can also include a host of other features, from instant messaging to online whiteboards to email and calendars to notes, cloud storage, and even an artificial intelligence companion.

At Charity Digital, our main use of Zoom is to help us host our sector-leading workshops, webinars, and Q&A Sessions. In this review, our Event Planning and Marketing Coordinator Chiara Simmons Wood considers how well the product works for hosting these diverse online events, how it has supported in our delivery of in-person events, and more.

In one word

Practical. I find Zoom easy to use and self-explanatory.

Uses

I have been using Zoom daily since the start of the pandemic – from one-to-one calls with my dissertation supervisor at university, to now producing and hosting webinars with over 200 people attending.

At Charity Digital we use Zoom both for internal meetings and external-facing activities – whether this be our own Q&A sessions, or workshops and webinars sponsored by our tech partners. It allows us to apply filters as and when we require them – for instance, when creating attendee reports, Zoom allows you to decide to what extent someone needs to build out their account, for you to collect the correct data.

We also, albeit less frequently, use Zoom’s “Whiteboard” feature to create visually representative ideas or concepts, which everyone can contribute to during an internal meeting. Another way we have used this feature was during our #BeMoreDigital Conference 2023, in which conference attendees were invited to answer questions related to the conference on a Zoom Whiteboard, set up on Meta portals placed around the venue. This setup allowed us to maintain complete anonymity of the answers – and thus encourage creative and daring answers – whilst also not requiring use of pens and paper, strongly aligning with our Climate Action Campaign.

Features

For one-off webinars, I think that Zoom has created the best usability from both a production point of view, and a user’s point of view. The polls, Q&A, and chat features work seamlessly – and we very infrequently experience issues here. I have seen that certain virtual event platforms have Zoom integrated into them in order to run good quality webinars.

The learning curve

I have always found Zoom simple to use, as you can access calls without needing to create an account. I think it was the easiest way to be onboarded to courses when I was first accessing it during my degree!

A small thing to mention, but one thing I really enjoy about Zoom is the ability to preview your image before joining a meeting or turning your camera on once in the meeting room. Adding backgrounds or blurring your background is also easily done – and not guaranteed when using other video communications platforms.

Value for money

Each member of Charity Digital has their own “Basic” free account for personal meetings. To deliver external-facing activities, we currently have the Zoom Pro plan which allows us to increase the length of meetings and has higher storage capacity for recordings. Recently, Zoom has also introduced an “AI companion” feature to this plan, however I am yet to explore this.

From what I know, the pricing seems fair. Zoom is not a platform we have ever considered disregarding due to cost. Moreover, on our Charity Digital Exchange platform we also provide a Zoom offer for charities – providing access to a 50% discount on a one-year subscription for a Zoom Meetings Pro or Business plan and certain add-ons.

Pros and cons of Zoom

Pro: Environmental impact

People are increasingly talking about the environmental impact of the internet and data centres, whereas at the start of the pandemic there was a higher focus on the benefits of less commuting and less air travel.

For a layperson like me, the environmental impact of a lot of new technology is hard to gauge; for example, the fact that one minute spent on TikTok reportedly emits three times more carbon than one minute spent on Facebook is staggering. 

Luckily, there are simple ways to reduce the environmental impact of Zoom – for instance, through turning off your camera during meetings you can reduce your environmental footprint in that meeting by 96% (although I recognise the impact that this may have on the natural flow of a conversation!).

Con: Customer support

Although I have not experienced this myself, Zoom does not have a stellar reputation for customer support – with this, in fact, being its biggest downfall in its Trustpilot reviews, paired with difficulty cancelling subscriptions. I hope that this is something that Zoom can work towards fixing with utmost urgency.

Final score

Chiara has been at Charity Digital since September 2022, and works towards coordinating, marketing, and delivering a substantial part of Charity Digital’s events – including the in-person conference, virtual summit, and frequent webinars and workshops. Due to the nature of her role, Chiara works closely with all the organisation’s teams to ensure that every section of the company is well represented at events, including in the monthly Events newsletter.