After a year and a half of virtual conferences, meetings, webinars, and webcasts becoming the norm, event attendees and organizers alike are looking for experiences that are engaging and foster connections. Now, with hybrid events, some of the in-person magic is being rekindled but event planners still need to prioritize these humanizing elements.
- Get Started Before the Start
Event registration is your first touchpoint with attendees — so use it! While it might seem like the time to be organizing and focusing solely on the event’s logistics, it’s also a great time to start building connections. Instead of just following up with confirmation emails and event itineraries, you could introduce some personalization by allowing attendees to get sneak peeks at content, participate in polls for panel topics or usher them towards a social media group that has been set up. This way, people will begin interacting with the event and each other before it’s even begun!
Leading up to the event, encourage attendees to participate in contests or other interactive content on social media and begin cultivating an online community for your virtual or hybrid event. Doing so not only helps create a more engaging event experience but also doubles as promotion since people who may not have been aware of the event might become hip to it if they see their colleagues, friends, and connections talking about it. Let’s not forget swag boxes either, be sure to encourage people to share pictures and comments online when they receive their gear.
- Provide Networking Opportunities
In-person conferences are as much about networking as they are the conference content. This fact cannot be understated or forgotten when planning your virtual or hybrid event. Watching hours of presentation and panel content in an isolated manner just isn’t the same on its own. As a result, organizers need to leverage real-time networking and socialization — the more the better! Be it breakout rooms, matchmaking activities between participants and vendors / sponsors, or happy hours, the idea here is to give people ample opportunity to connect with others.
These types of efforts pay dividends when it comes to humanizing your event and can help with other forms of desired engagement like:
- Help sponsors and sales teams meet new prospects
- Bring like-minded attendees together creating new connections
- Supplement and support live portions of hybrid events with online social forums
- Incorporate the Audience
Pre-recorded content is obviously a must, especially if you want that top-tier production value, but don’t just force your attendees to sit and watch something that was put together weeks ago. You need to make sure there are participatory aspects even when showing something that is pre-recorded as opposed to live. Think chat rooms, polls, interactive Q&As — since you’re basically hitting play on a video, make sure to dedicate some resources to handling a simultaneous interactive component.
It’s also important to provide a healthy mix of content and presentation types:
- Presentations that are live streamed
- Interactive panels
- Pre-recorded videos
- Online forums for discussion and feedback
- Fun activities where people can connect (e.g. icebreaker or coffee room)
The more virtual and hybrid event organizers think outside the box, the better. Try adding (and promoting) a surprise guest or speaker that could have a contest surrounding it by encouraging people to guess who it might be. You could even have a prize associated with this type of gamified element but the point would ultimately be getting people to engage in discussion and commenting on other participants’ guesses.
The most engaging virtual environment allows organizers to balance high-value content with more fun and laid back interactive experiences for attendees. With their improved accessibility and endless flexibility, virtual and hybrid events can actually foster more connection so long as the overall experience is engaging, humanized, and enticing.
The events industry may seem more complex nowadays with all the options out there and that’s where we come in! Whether your budget is small or large and the audience is internal or external, there’s an effective event type and delivery to meet your needs. Contact Baldwin Audio/Visual Solutions today to learn about our event solutions.