New Black-Owned Video Conferencing Platform AONMeetings is ‘Positioned for Growth’
Sponsored Content: Iowa-based start-up's video conferencing platform gains popularity.
AONMeetings.com is bringing an affordable video conferencing platform to the masses.
With eight layers of security and encryption and bells and whistles available on its standard plan, AONMeetings provides large corporations, small businesses and consumers with a sleek video conferencing solution and online meeting software.
“I think there is a value proposition for the features we have as opposed to our competitors who charge extra for features that come standard with AONMeetings,” said CEO Dwight Reed.
The Des Moines, Iowa-based start-up launched its video conferencing platform in May and has about 400 monthly subscribers. Reed has big plans to grow the Black-owned firm situated on Des Moines’ east side to five million subscribers in five years.
“It’s attainable,” Reed said. “That would be the ultimate goal for me.”
AONMeeting’s Features
A powerful user-friendly web-based platform.
No apps to download — no updates to worry about.
Eight layers of security and encryption to keep meetings safe from unwanted disruptions.
Reach a bigger audience by live streaming meetings and webinars to Vimeo and Facebook.
Get paid for webinars and collect payments.
Add an unlimited number of meeting hosts without added fees.
Get tech support by chat, email or phone.
Pay $8.99 for the standard plan or pay $12.99 for the business plan, which includes the RTMP live streaming option to Facebook, YouTube and more.
Try a free 7-day trial.
“The nice thing is we’re much cheaper than some of the other platforms out there — and we offer more,” said Joanna Smith, the director of AON Studios LLC, the platform’s parent company.
Vance Hawthorne, the company’s media spokesperson, said corporate customers have praised AONMeetings.
“We have some of the best people in the business working on it,” he said.
They also have some of the best employees working for the company, Reed said. The tight-knit group is more like family, and they all attend Christ Apostolic Temple Inc. together where Reed serves as pastor. His father founded the church in Des Moines in 1969.
Amber Wilson, AON’s assistant director, is proud of the CEO’s vision, leadership and the company’s potential.
“Most people get really excited about it because you’ve never seen anything like it — along with it being Black-owned,” Wilson said.
‘A leg up on the competition’
As video conferencing gained popularity during the coronavirus pandemic, businesses held virtual meetings with remote workers and groups used the meetings to stay in touch with the public. Families, under stay-at-home orders and social distancing guidance, used platforms like Zoom to stay connected. But the trolls who disrupted meetings also made “Zoombombing” just as popular as the platform.
AONMeetings prides itself on the security of its platform. Users enjoy a high level of meeting security and can require attendees to pre-register, which provides organizers with the attendees’ IP addresses, an added layer of protection.
“You don’t have to worry about someone interfering in your meeting that you didn’t want in there,” said Smith, who has worked for the company since 2018.
Reed agreed. “The chance of being AONbombed is highly unlikely,” he said.
Comparisons to Zoom are natural. Zoom has the option to stream audio and video webinars as an add-on, but with AONMeetings, it comes standard.
“You can compare us to Zoom, but I think our security and the ability to do webinars — that piece is big,” Smith said.
“The one thing we have that they don’t have is the ability for paid registrations for webinars and meetings. We can connect to your Stripe account and you’re able to create events that you can take payments for,” Smith added.
Upcoming phases to AONMeetings will include an option that will allow users to sell tickets for their events, she said.
AON Studios’ headquarters is situated in a beautifully renovated 6,000-square-foot building, which had long been an eyesore in the Martin Luther King Jr. neighborhood. The studio contains modern administrative offices, editing suites, a transcription department, a podcast studio with four microphones and a video production studio.
“You come through the door and you see the care and craftsmanship and love that was put into it; it’s just kind of mind-blowing,” Smith said, of the headquarters.
Reed led the renovations — a skill he learned from his father, he said.
Angela “Angie” Andrews works as lead transcriptionist. The concept for AONMeetings blew her away, she said.
“AON Studios is really unique,” she said.
AON Studios has worked with large and small clients locally and nationally. Its goals are aligned with a higher purpose, Reed and his staff agreed.
“We are a Christian-based business so we do a lot of work over in the Philippines. In Africa, we built a well and schools. We built a school in the Philippines. We’re not using the money just to benefit me as the CEO. We’re reaching out across the globe trying to help people,” Reed said.
Accomplishing the company’s goals has an added bonus; Reed said he’ll be able to hire more people of color.
“We can help the whole city. We can uplift our people by again investing in ourselves. That’s the privilege of working in a place like this and working with a church family that has a vision,” Hawthorne said.
Reed is eyeing property near his company’s headquarters for a future expansion. Ultimately, his goal is to grow the company and add 75-100 employees who’ll work on the front side and support side of AONMeetings.
“We’re already starting to look ahead to what we need to do in the future,” Reed said.
AON Studios also recently launched a unique faith-based entertainment app, the AON Studios app, which is available on the Google Play Store, Roku and in the Apple Store.