What are the Key Advantages of Hybrid Events?
Why should YOU produce a hybrid event?
Hybrid events are a great way to increase attendance and expand your talent pool while keeping audiences engaged.
“Hybrid events offer an alternative, a new way forward, but they do come with complexity. They come with risk and they come with benefits. They can be hard to navigate but at the same time they offer endless possibilities.” Eventforce.com
Let’s say you’d like to host a live event in San Francisco and you want to reach as many people as possible. What’s the solution? A hybrid event! Hybrid events are the perfect way to keep everyone happy. Lets say you have someone who wants to come to the event but can’t afford the plane tickets and hotel in SF, we can provide the option to stream your event to the destination of your choice that way you can still sell virtual tickets to this attendee while also charging in person! That’s a win / win!
Some say that attending virtually does’t live up to IRL? This article even shows how attendees to virtual events can be as engaged as person attendees:
Forbes: How Hybrid Events Capture The Benefits Of Virtual And In-Person Events
As the article above mentions there are a number of reasons to consider hosting a hybrid event including but not limited to: Analytics, Flexibility, Increased Marketability, Eco-Friendliness, Reducing Travel Costs and Archiving.
Hybrid Event Case Study
As an example we recently hosted a 2 day marketing event (#mtpcon). The first day was planned as an online only event. We hosted the talent in our San Francisco studio while streaming directly to the clients website, we also had guest speakers zoom call into our studio to virtually present to the audience. The second day of the event was held in person in SF and streamed online, this time all the speakers were live on stage.
This was a fun challenge for the team to produce one consistent show for the client from two different locations.
We had to split our in house team, one dedicated to the studio stream and one to the onsite. This way we could make sure set up and reahurusals were completed and test in time for the show.
Here’s how it looked on the client’s backend (check out that engagement on the right!!):
But are Hybrid events the way for the future?
Harvard Business Review says ”Almost 50% of corporate event attendees consider hybrid events the ideal format for the future, compared to exclusively in-person or virtual-only events, according to Metrigy Research. Businesses are embracing this new reality. In 2021, 64% of businesses say they’re increasing their virtual events, and 58% say they’re planning for a mix of virtual and in-person events.”
So back to the “Why?”….. Why do a hybrid event?
In our clients case it was the best way to engage with their customer both directly and virtually. It more than doubled their event registration. They also had the chance to host guest speakers who would have otherwise been unavailable to speak.
Our client had an interactive chat function built into their backend to help drive virtual engagement. As a service we also offered to our client closed captioning, both vital and real time in venue. And as a special request we event added a sponsor logo to fit into the CC monitor.
We truly believe that hybrid events are the way to reach and engage with as many people as possible and allow everyone equal opportunity to attend.
Contact us today to get started on your next hybrid event!!
