At the beginning of the pandemic, everyone had to make a drastic and necessary shift from in-person to virtual events. Now that we’re able to combine these two event types into a hybrid approach means there are almost endless possibilities as to what your event can deliver. Virtual events will continue to remain popular due to their overwhelming convenience and ability to execute on accessibility needs but here are some tips on how to incorporate the best of both worlds into your hybrid event!
Event Goals and Budget
Planning a hybrid event can feel intimidating because you have to account for what are essentially separate audiences while still maintaining a cohesive experience. Rather than trying to live stream everything, look at what you’re trying to accomplish with your event and how that can best be achieved in each of the respective audience channels. Try breaking your event content up into three categories:
- Content that must be delivered live
- Content that could be pre-recorded but with a live chat or Q&A session
- Content that could be pre-recorded for on-demand viewing
For each type, you need to plan around the timing, address and attend to any potential risks and have a backup plan. Engage marketing team members who can help you market the event to the different possible attendees in personalized ways. Engage tech and production experts (like us!) who can manage virtual event production and help with all the virtual platforms, equipment, and setups.
Maximum Engagement
One of your main event goals should be to create an engaging agenda and experience. A virtual attendee doesn’t want to just sit and watch a PowerPoint presentation. They likely don’t want to watch an in-person presentation from the perspective of a camera that’s been placed at the back of the room either. In these cases, try to be more dynamic with clips, on-screen production aspects, or even emulate engaging formats like a late-night talk show or sports panel.
This same idea can be applied to your marketing and promotion. In-person attendees may be looking to network as their main priority in order to establish or deepen relationships. As a result, they are more likely to participate in longer-form content — market this! A virtual attendee, on the other hand, maybe doing so from a convenience-driven perspective and should be accommodated with programming that is dynamic, interactive, and time-saving. Market the right program and experience to the right audience and then bridge the gap during the live event.
The Right Tech
Networking at an event is always a key attendance driver. Finding ways to connect in-person and virtual attendees with each another is a great way to create networking opportunities and therefore increase attendee satisfaction. Today’s platforms allow you to incorporate live polling, Q&As, group chats, and breakout rooms. Create the digital space to encourage these types of interactions with event technology designed to stimulate quality conversations.
You can also leverage technology to gain insight into attendee interests and feedback. Technology is the foundation of a sound hybrid event experience and is crucial for delivering a cohesive event experience, maximizing your return on investment, and building a better event the next time around. Technology can help you collect and analyze attendance, engagement, feedback, and more. The results will help with post-event follow-ups and provide actionable insight on creating more personalized experiences in the future.
Hybrid formats may be more complex and require more planning but good preparation combined with an empathy-driven approach to the attendee experience are major keys to success! Contact Baldwin Audio/Visual Solutions today to learn more about our event solutions.