Hybrid events combine elements from different worlds into an extraordinary event experience. Why limit participation to just one location when planning large gatherings like parties and conferences? Hybrid events provide extra special moments by staging part of it at physical locations with face-to-face interactions and part of it taking place online where everyone can participate from anywhere via computers or phones.
Hybrid events can be likened to hosting an online party: inviting some friends via video conferencing so everyone can participate at once, no matter where you reside. Their purpose is to include everyone, regardless of location - making everyone feel included regardless of living next door or halfway around the world. Hybrid events act like bridges between physical reality and the digital realm, allowing attendees to experience something together.
During the COVID-19 Pandemic, event planners and marketers were relieved by the differences between attending or hosting in-person and virtual events, especially those hosted through hybrid technology platforms like the COVID-19 Pandemic. Attendance demonstrated hybrid events will become the dominant form in future years.
To bridge the divide between live and virtual events, event planners need to craft hybrid events that allow both sets of attendees equal opportunities to interact. For this to occur, event planning must undergo significant transformation.
Please repeat after me: for an engaging hybrid experience to work properly, you need more than simply mixing live with online elements. Instead, either plan your event so that all aspects can coexist harmoniously or create a high-quality event with multiple components you can rotate around seamlessly.
To effectively plan a hybrid event that offers high-quality experiences, we must explore and compare differences between online and live events. Each event format serves its unique function; virtual events have wide reach while in-person events remain more impactful; hybrid events provide the best of both worlds, providing online attendees access and face-to-face connections at events in person.
Successful organizations that successfully utilize hybrid events can realize enormous advantages. This guide is intended to introduce hybrid events, from how to organize one successfully to adapting your event strategies for this form of programming.
Online Versus In-Person Attention Spans
Live events often attract an engaged, fully-engaging audience since people attending are present physically in one space and can stay out of distraction at work or home; on the downside, however, urgent matters that need immediate resolution may require them to leave and may never return.
Virtual attendees face more distractions at home and work, which may cause them to drift from an event at any point during its duration. Although virtual attendance presents challenges, one major advantage lies within its flexibility; attendees are free to leave an event at any time to attend to external needs that arise during its run.
The Best Of Both Worlds: Hybrid Events
Attendees deserve a seamless event experience that allows for easy arrival/departure as desired. We aim to keep them engaged with the programming while making it convenient to return or depart when desired.
Keep your audience engaged through social media using different strategies, from building an online community through virtual lobby spaces or shared areas to using virtual lobby spaces during sessions and creating momentary distractions into total disengagement. Social media offers many possibilities when it comes to keeping an audience engrossed.
Virtual Vs. Live Networking
Virtual events present unique networking challenges: they must offer enjoyable yet seamless opportunities. Attendees of live events have more chances to meet each other during hallway meetings and social/networking hours, which makes networking much simpler in a virtual setting.
Virtual attendees need an event platform that makes networking simple and integrates virtual with live networking seamlessly. According to one survey, 39% of respondents felt left out after attending hybrid events; to address this challenge effectively, you must bridge networking gaps - this will keep virtual attendees engaged and connected.
What To Do When You Want A Hybrid Networking Experience
Your hybrid event will thrive by employing several networking techniques that enhance networking. Furthermore, effective use of social media helps foster an online community before, during, and after an event has concluded.
Live and virtual participants should wear badges that provide quick details, along with links enabling virtual attendees to access information provided by live participants easily. All attendees, for instance, should create an online profile before attending events; live attendees could include QR Codes that direct others directly to their profiles in their badge (which can then be scanned using event apps); virtual attendees could include similar details with prominent links leading to them from within their avatar avatars.
As previously discussed, creating and curating dedicated hybrid networking areas is vital. Live attendees should easily be able to meet other attendees, while online participants need chance encounters of their own too. Create tables or spaces to encourage conversations using questions designed to elicit conversation; common interests; or casual games so virtual attendees are engaged and included as much as possible in conversations across tables or spaces. Virtual attendees will become more invested when they see each person present and find conversations easily.
Differentiating Between Live And Virtual Agenda Management
One of the primary challenges of an event is keeping to its schedule and informing attendees when and where to be. Signage and audio announcements inform guests where to go during live events.
Manually creating events in a calendar can make online participants' experience worse, leading to errors with key information and timing that frustrate participants, leading to messages such as This session has yet to start when it has already ended. Participant experience may improve with virtual events that allow faster navigation -- participants can move locations more rapidly by simply clicking buttons than live ones could.
The One Digital Master Agenda That Rules Them All
An effective experience begins by giving attendees the power to create digital agendas that integrate smoothly into their calendars easily. Add push notification features using customized apps, as it will benefit all attendees attending large conference centers.
Suppose an attendee cannot make their desired session. In that case, the agenda can provide replays, resources, and vital information to make their experience even more satisfying and pleasant. This will increase enjoyment.
The Virtual Audience Is Largely An Afterthought At Live Events
How you interact between speakers/panelists and virtual audiences will enormously affect the degree of integration experienced by virtual attendees. If done poorly, virtual attendees could feel isolated behind screens; speakers are often unable to acknowledge questions from participants online and respond promptly, leading to an unpleasant experience for all parties involved.
Assign a moderator to moderate online comments and questions. This will ensure both virtual and live attendees of breakout sessions have an engaging experience. Consider designing a system where virtual attendees could submit questions through an interface that both speakers and audiences could access; both audiences should set aside sufficient time for question-and-answer periods as both groups want to interact throughout their respective sessions.
A Trade Show Floor Is More Than Just A Collateral Library
Hybrid events pose special difficulties when they feature showrooms or exhibit halls; creating virtual experiences with similar enjoyment as walking the show floor requires creativity. Experience the excitement of live events by walking the floor, viewing exhibits, and meeting people. Showrooms provide the ideal platform to network and make connections.
Utilize networking tools for your event for an engaging virtual trade show experience.
Virtual trade shows can often consist of static logos leading to documents, calendar events, or links leading directly into 1:1 meetings. But more is required than listing vendors or providing a static web interface for an authentic virtual experience of attending live trade shows.
Innovative ideas will enable both attendees and exhibitors to achieve their respective goals, like using an interactive 3-D floor model with popup company information, product videos, questions/messaging system with booth staff as well as being able to track who visits your booth - not forgetting group or table discussions hosted by exhibitors to foster casual networking opportunities.
There Are Many Types Of Hybrid Events.
We will explore the difference between internal and external events, along with examples for both.
Intern Hybrid Events
Internal events in your business refer to events that contribute directly to its stakeholders - this may include employees, management, staff, and any external parties such as customers and investors. It can often be challenging for many businesses to bring all internal stakeholders together in one room simultaneously.
Hybrid events offer an effective solution. Pick an event location - such as your headquarters - and live to stream it throughout your company. Here are a few instances of internal hybrid events.
- Kickoff Meetings for Sales
- Global Town Halls
- Meetings With Large Teams
- Spirit of the Company Weeks
Extern Hybrid Events
Events are designed to reach your organization's clients, customers, and prospects. Switching an external live event into a hybrid format can attract more participants while decreasing your carbon footprint. Here are examples of external events which could be hybridized:
- Trade shows and conferences
- Customers Conferences
- Product demonstrations
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The Core Elements, Goals, And Advantages Of Hybrid Events
Allow yourself the time and space to establish goals for your hybrid event and ensure you have everything necessary to attain them. Below we outline common elements, goals, and benefits of hybrid events.
The Key Element Of Hybrid Events
An unfortunate industry misconception is that hybrid events require only virtual streaming service providers for success. All features and elements necessary for an onsite event must be implemented successfully; pairing these elements with an exceptional virtual streaming provider will create a successful hybrid event experience.
Engagement Content
Content will likely play an even larger part in a hybrid conference since virtual participants should feel included as physical attendees. By carefully managing your agenda and all speakers, you can ensure they arrive fully prepared.
Marketers
Hybrid events bring together virtual and in-person participants, giving your organization access to multiple individuals or even multiple organizations simultaneously. Marketing these hybrid events becomes even more critical; emailing prospective attendees about attending your program while creating an attractive event website with all its details can help draw in an impressive turnout of people attending your program. This way, you will achieve record numbers.
Register Now
Hybrid registration must be as straightforward and efficient as onsite registration, creating an event registration page featuring your organization's colors and event details that allows potential attendees to locate all pertinent details about your program quickly.
Create custom registration paths so your attendees, in person and virtual, can gain access to their desired sessions, keeping track of those who have abandoned their registration and reminding them via email if needed.
Schedule An Appointment
Planning meetings when some attendees will participate both virtually and physically can be tricky, which is why an appointment scheduler comes in handy: it allows attendees to reserve times for networking on each of their calendars directly while communicating among themselves to set meetings at convenient times and dates directly; virtual and physical attendees alike will quickly see one another's availability for effective networking opportunities.
Hybrid Event Goals
Hybrid events share one goal in common: they seek to engage as many participants as possible. Participants can choose between in-person engagement with others or virtual participation if that suits them better. Experiences must be equally captivating to both audiences. Hybrid events reduce barriers to entry and allow more people to engage with your content.
Attendance Increased
Events or conferences held directly are often more engaging. Unfortunately, not everyone has time or funds for travel expenses; these costly conferences may prove inaccessible or burdensome.
These factors could dissuade attendees from signing up for your event. In contrast, if registering is more cost-effective and can be done from their couches, hybrid events might entice more to sign up than in-person-only events.
Increased Content Engagement
Hybrid events allow you to live-stream sessions and speakers to virtual participants. Record these sessions, then send them off post-event, as virtual attendees can still tune in via virtual attendees. Even days or weeks after an event has concluded, attendees who missed certain sessions can still engage with its content - keeping your event and organization fresh in their memories even long after your event has finished.
Reduce Carbon Footprint
Reduce attendance for an event to reduce its carbon footprint. Attendees will travel less, food waste will decrease, and vendors and attendees won't need to travel as far - creating an eye-catching spectacle and an organization that cares for its environment due to reduced car travel time and distance between venues. Not only will your organization gain recognition as being a powerhouse yet eco-aware.
Sponsorship Value Increases
Sponsors now have access to your event's physical and virtual participants, which provides them with twice as much exposure. Plus, using digital capabilities at events is also an effective way of creating leads and increasing brand recognition. Your event can attract even more sponsors by providing additional value to them, which in turn helps cover some of the associated costs of running hybrid events.
How To Create A Successful Hybrid Event
Planning can begin once you've determined the goals and components needed for your event. Here we will go over some common obstacles, solutions, and how you can keep attendees interested and engaged with what is happening at their event.
Common Pitfalls And Challenges
Planners who implement hybrid programs often encounter several challenges when trying to implement these plans successfully, below we list these obstacles along with tips to avoid potential pitfalls.
Do Not Combine Two Events Into One
An effective hybrid event requires striking the appropriate balance. It would be best to have both in-person and virtual attendees; to maintain this equilibrium, you will present content differently to both groups; ensure your streaming video service works smoothly and presenters know how to present in front of a camera.
Don't design your hybrid event as two distinct occasions; make it feel more like one big celebration. Be certain that event content will resonate with virtual and in-person attendees; avoid joint activities that prohibit certain groups from joining in on activities planned during your hybrid event.
Stay Engaged With Content
Content will likely play an even more crucial role during hybrid events than regular ones, given how hard virtual attendees may find it to engage. Video works best as it keeps attendees' attention. Live polling and Q&A can further engage virtual attendees. Furthermore, sessions must remain digestible in length - no one wants to listen through an extended keynote address.
Navigating Time Zones
Hosting a hybrid event allows participants to attend virtually, making attendance easier due to different time zones; however, this presents challenges due to participants living across continents (for instance, attendees from California will find it challenging to listen live at 8:45 am ET).
Make sure your virtual participants can access your sessions anytime they please. Offering repeatable live sessions allows participants to find an appropriate time slot while benefiting from an engaging live experience.
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Four Elements For A Successful Hybrid Event
Community, Content, Sponsorship, and Analytics (CCSA). This section describes how these elements should be utilized when hosting hybrid events.
You Can Also Find Out More About The Content On This Page
Your hybrid event's content is everything; both in-person attendees and virtual interaction participants need to feel fully immersed and equally included in its proceedings. That is when "one event, multiple experiences" comes into play - you cannot simultaneously serve up identical material to both groups; virtual attendees might require different considerations than in-person attendees. Your virtual attendees can have their representative at your conference site.
Onsite attendees often feel welcomed by someone speaking directly to them from the stage or podium throughout the day. Still, virtual attendees might feel excluded and distant. A solution might be having your event coordinators reach out directly to virtual attendees to address issues related to virtual participation, such as discussing networking or session options or offering virtual networking support services. Virtual participants require separate content.
Virtual and onsite attendees will be able to view some of your larger sessions - for instance, keynote speeches - make sure to avoid making virtual attendees sit through an interactive networking event that requires participation by them to see it.
Give virtual participants exclusive experiences such as panel discussions or interviews with industry professionals through your personalized registration path, effectively distinguishing onsite from virtual sessions so no one registers for the wrong session. Your content is available when desired.
Concentrating a virtual attendee's attention can be more challenging than keeping physical attendees engaged; virtual attendees might need to stop more frequently during the day or only join for certain hours of your event. Therefore, make sure most of the content is available anytime so virtual attendees have easy access to it when necessary. Be certain that everyone knows and is enthusiastic about what you have planned.
Communication with attendees about what sessions and topics will follow short breaks is often important; virtual participants must receive the same experience. Your virtual onsite representative should remind virtual attendees about their schedule so they attend all scheduled sessions; using an app such as Gamify can entertain during breaks to build excitement for the next session and ensure attendance at future ones.
The Community
Attendees at live events offer attendees an experience of their local community that cannot be replicated online. It allows people to establish relationships, network effectively quickly, and have natural conversations - not forgetting virtual possibilities for connecting your community in virtual spaces. Add polls, Q&A's, and other interactive elements into your session for maximum engagement and participation.
Live polling, live Q&A, and other tools can be powerful tools in connecting virtual and onsite audiences. By encouraging both to ask questions or respond to polls during presentations, both virtual and onsite audiences will remain engaged and provide opportunities for interaction - you might find out that one virtual participant asks something which didn't occur to an onsite attendant, thus expanding knowledge exponentially while receiving twice as much feedback.
Collaborative virtual sessions can be created. Give virtual participants equal treatment as your in-person attendees. Virtual streaming services can create breakout rooms in meetings. Encourage virtual attendees to form smaller groups within your meeting to develop stronger bonds with each other and form community connections.
Sponsorship
Sponsorship dollars are essential in making any event a success, and your hybrid event should offer your sponsors as much, or more, than what would have been available at a traditional onsite event. Create value by placing sponsors before in-person and virtual attendees - here are a few suggestions to get you going.
- Mobile app banner ads
- Push Notifications
- Sponsored Sessions
- Page of sponsors for the event website
- Sponsor booths, both physical and virtual
- Advertisements before accessing On-Demand content
Some Of The Most Successful Ways To Lower Your Risk Include The Following.
What you do after an event is just as critical to its success. Failing to gain insights from it would render hosting futile - send out a survey post-event to gather insight about which content was the most sought after or whether attendees preferred virtual over onsite experiences.
Look at your participants' data during an event to identify those attendees who attended multiple sessions or made many inquiries. Follow-up on those participants who showed the most enthusiasm by asking many questions or attending multiple sessions.
You Can Include Hybrid Events In Your Event Program
Virtual and hybrid events should become integral to your event strategy in the coming years. While in-person events remain relevant, being prepared with virtual/hybrid events helps ensure they reach as wide an audience as possible.
Are You Planning an Event but Need Advice? The hybrid Event Strategy for Dummies eBook is packed full of tips to assist with planning an event successfully.
- Develop a multi-functional event support team
- Two experiences in one hybrid event
- What does "hybrid capable venue" actually mean?
Build Better Hybrid Events
Creating successful hybrid events requires creativity as well as modern event management technologies. At our hybrid events approach, we rethink what it takes to combine and fuse these experiences into an exceptional event experience. Thanks to technology and careful planning, your hybrid events may become more engaging with increased attendance.
Conclusion
Hybrid events effectively connect people regardless of where they may reside, no matter how far apart. Hybrid events combine the best aspects of both worlds: being present at one event while connecting remotely from any place; this provides exciting new possibilities for engagement and connection that break down any physical boundaries that might otherwise stand between us all - be that handshake or virtual waving on screens. We must embrace technology fully to continue creating unforgettable moments together as technology develops.
Hybrid events offer the best of both worlds: real life and digital. By breaking down walls and connecting people across continents and cities with our digital worlds onsite and off, hybrid events demonstrate there's no end to unity. Whether through sharing smiles in person or virtual hugs, hybrid events show us there are no bounds to unity.
